Prince Harry said he “flinched” in an awkward moment with Meghan Markle and King Charles after the pair started dating.
Harry introduced Meghan to his father, who will celebrate his 76th birthday on Thursday, as well as Queen Camilla during a meeting Clarence House. Writing in his explosive memoir Spare, Harry said conversation between the four flowed “easily” at the time.
Charles reportedly seemed interested in Meghan’s rise to stardom that saw her appearing in TV show Suits. Harry said the pair fell into a “quiet chat” while Camilla appeared “keener on eavesdropping than talking to her stepson”.
But while things seemed to go well between his future wife and father, Harry recounts an unfortunate moment when the now King and Queen were ushered away. Writing in Spare, Harry said: “We talked about acting and the arts in general.
“What a struggle it could be to make your way in such a trade, Pa said. He had a lot of questions about Meg’s career and he looked impressed by the way she answered. Her confidence, her intelligence, I thought, caught him unawares.
“And then our time was up. Pa and Camilla had another engagement. Royal life. Heavily regimented, overscheduled and so forth.
“I made a note to explain all this later to Meg. We all stood. Meg leaned towards Pa. I flinched; like Willy, Pa wasn’t a hugger. Thankfully, she gave him a standard British cheek-to-cheek, which he actually seemed to enjoy.”
While the Royal Family aren’t known as big huggers, the King has occasionally been spotted enjoying an embrace. He recently said a hug with the New Zealand women’s rugby team was something he “really needed”.
Fans said they were left “sobbing” while the King joked he felt “flattened” after Black Ferns winger Ayesha Leti-I’iga and her team embraced the monarch at Buckingham Palace on September 11. Meanwhile Kensington Palace shared a picture of Prince William hugging his father in 2020.
The image was said to have been taken at the Sandringham Estate by the Princess of Wales. It showed William pulling his father in for hug, his arm wrapped tight around his shoulders.
