When Meghan Markle ‘playing dumb’ on screen left Prince Harry ‘red’ in the face and ‘angry’

A royal commentator has pointed out a moment when Prince Harry was seemingly left furious at Meghan Markle’s behaviour. Royal expert Kinsey Schofield said that Harry’s “face said it all" when Meghan exaggerated a curtsy while recalling her first meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.

In the Netflix docuseries ‘Harry and Meghan,’ the Duchess of Sussex recounted her "surreal" experience of meeting the queen, Harry’s late grandmother. "It's surreal,” she said. “It wasn't like some big moment of like, 'Now you're going to meet my grandmother. "I didn't know I was going to meet her until moments before. We were in the car driving up, and he's like 'You know how to curtsy right? ' And I thought he was joking."

Meghan was seen exaggerating a curtsy while recalling the event as she sat, saying humorously, "Pleasure to meet you, your Majesty.” Harry was seen looking on.

Royal expert Schofield said that Meghan was "playing dumb" during the episode, noting that Harry appeared unamused by how she dramatised it. "Prince Harry's face says it all,” Schofield said.

‘He is serious and maybe even angry’

Body language expert Jesus Enrique Rosas also spoke out about Harry’s apparent unease during the episode. "The first part of Harry's reaction tells me that he knew what was coming. He is serious even if Meghan is speaking quickly, joyfully but there's no connection, no empathy in him,” Rosas said. "He is serious and maybe even angry, notice what happens with his throat, he is swallowing at that moment." 

Rosas then explained how Harry was left red in the face when Meghan made an overly intentional bow. "He is looking at Meghan and he displays contempt. A split second after that, he looks away and presses his jaw. You can see the patches of red on his face are much redder on the cheeks, the bridge of the nose, the temples it could be that he feels ashamed or angry,” Rosas said.

"I'm going to tell you why this is covert anger and not [Harry being] ashamed. If he was ashamed, he would have smiled a bit more, or [had] a nervous laughter,” Rosas said, trying to interpret Harry’s emotions, adding, "But he knew what was coming and he couldn't stand it - that he had that face at the beginning and had that subtle swallow right before Meghan did the curtsy."