What Prince Harry and Meghan’s body language revealed today
Yesterday, they announced they’re due to wed next year after getting engaged earlier this month.
And Prince Harry and Meghan Markle looked the picture of happiness as they posed for cameras during their first photo call at Kensington Palace today.
Body language expert Judi James spoke to MailOnline to decipher their behaviour in the couple’s first official appearance together.
The 33-year-old prince walked hand-in-hand with his actress fiancée into the gardens of his the west London residence on Monday, where the couple will set up home in Nottingham Cottage.
But the first thing Judi, author of The Body Language Bible, noticed was that the redhead prince looked “shocked with emotion and affection” while his partner is clearly “the one with all the confidence” during their public photo call today.
“Meghan was the one who rubbed his arm for reassurance twice,” Judi notes. “He looked terribly shy and slightly awkward and gave ‘the sign’ – something a lot of Hollywood couples do when they’re on the red carpet to tell their partner when to turn for the camera.”
“It was interesting that Meghan was using little arm rubs with him and patting him. It was almost as though she was choreographing him to say, ‘Right, we’ll go up the steps and do some more pictures.’”
Here are six other signs the body language expert noticed.
1. Harry's 'paperclip hand'
Royal watchers were quick to point out that Harry was making a 'paperclip' hand gesture at certain moments. Judi says this is a “comfort thing”.
“It’s almost using his hand as a paperclip to hold his jacket together,” she notes. “Both he and William can be incredibly shy; but at the same time, Harry looks completely in love and slightly bewildered by it all.”
2. Working the camera
Although Harry is no stranger to the scrutiny of the press, Meghan is a seasoned expert in front of the camera lens thanks to her career as an actress.
“She’s quite grown up and more experienced in front of the camera than he is,” Judi explains. “Surprisingly, that will probably be quite a good thing for him.
“We’ve seen the [public displays of affection] and we know they love each other because they couldn’t keep their hands off each other at the Invictus Games.
“[Today's photo call] should have been very formal but it was also incredibly tactile.”
3. The ring
While most brides-to-be are keen to show off their engagement rings, Judi notes that Meghan was happy to let her hand hang casually to the side.
“She’s obviously got a more casual attitude, but I think it’s going to be very good for him,” she says. “Harry has always been the one who's allowed to be incredibly informal and this is the first time he’s been formal with a partner.
“It will be Harry's first stab at the Buckingham Palace stuff he has been able to cheerfully avoid for most of his life. He’s not naturally good at the formal stuff, but Meghan is good at it because of her job.”
4. Like father, like son
“Harry has started to mimic his father’s hand rituals, which are self-comfort gestures,” Judi observes. “Charles often pats his pockets and touches his stomach, and now Harry is doing the same.
“It shows a lot of admiration for his father, but also a feeling of being slightly nervous and under attack from the cameras.”
5. Meghan takes charge
As they walked around the garden, Meghan was seen wrapping a protective arm around her fiancé and tenderly patting his back a number of time during the photo call.
“[Meghan] has this trait of putting her hands on top of this. The person who does this is normally the one in control – she’s leading the game,” says Judi.
“The dramatic thing was that she was leading him, just like a professional dancer leading the amateur on Strictly. She was leading the choreography rather than him, which is quite outstanding for a royal couple.
6. The perfect match
“These two are a lot more tactile that your average royal couple,” Judi observed. “I don’t think she’s going to be overwhelmed by royal protocol. She won’t be putting a foot out of line but she'll be a breath of fresh air for the Royal family.”
Judi adds: “They looked incredibly happy. Harry almost looks shocked with emotion and affection. I think we’ll see the two of them very well matched.”