Awkward Moment Meghan Markle Touches Kate Middleton at Queen Elizabeth’s Funeral Goes Viral
Following Queen Elizabeth II’s death, millions of people around the world watched the late monarch’s funeral. It was a time of mourning for not only members of the royal family but also an entire nation for the loss of a queen whose reign lasted more than seven decades.
During that time Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle were in the U.K. and gathered with other members of the family for the first time in months. Those watching the funeral could almost see the tension between the Sussexes and Harry’s relatives. But many of those who analyzed every move the working and non-working royals made missed a moment when the Duchess of Sussex touched the Princess of Wales (formerly known as Kate Middleton). That moment has now gone viral. Here’s more on the video everyone is talking about.
Video of Meghan touching Kate that has gone viral
The blink-and-you-missed-it moment occurred inside St. George’s Chapel during the committal service when the Waleses stepped aside to let the Sussexes go to their seats first. The video of Meghan tapping Kate’s hand before she walked passed was uploaded to YouTube with the caption “Notice Kate’s reaction to Meghan’s little tap on her hand as the Sussesxes came through to their seats.” It has more than 33,000 likes and 2,300 comments since it was shared around the time of the queen’s funeral in 2022.
The reason it’s going viral again is because that same clip was posted on TikTok in October 2023. The eight-second clip to the MC Hammer song “Can’t Touch This” has racked up over 827,000 views along with thousands of likes and comments. The caption reads: “Kate’s reaction to Meghan’s hand tap–don’t touch me.”
It’s unclear if the princess said anything to her sister-in-law after Meghan gave her the quick tap, and several users argued that they didn’t see any type of reaction from Kate. However, other commenters on the platforms praised Kate for how she handled herself.
“She is a lady,” one person wrote. “She stayed poised as a mother waiting with her children. She’s lovely.” Another added: “Princess Kate is a remarkable lady. Not just a woman but lady. She represents the crown with dignity and grace. Long live the future queen.” And a third posted: “Sign of respect not to say anything but kept quiet and cordial, and allowed [Sussexes] to go first to sit in their required seating.”
Tensions were high behind the scenes with Meghan and the other royal ladies
Tensions between the Duchess of Sussex and the other royal women were high the day of and in the days leading up to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, according to reporters who covered the services.
Daily Mail editor Rebecca English spoke on the Palace Confidential podcast about the tensions when the royal family paid tribute to the late queen at Westminster Hall prior to the funeral.
“A lot of what we saw happened off-camera because you weren’t allowed to pick up your cameras until they saw the coffin,” English said per Express. “We had five to 10 minutes of just watching [the royals]. The body language was fascinating. You couldn’t help but notice the body language between the senior royals and Meghan from where we were standing. You could see that Camilla, Kate, and Sophie were together, and the body language was very comfortable between them.
“But then there was Meghan, and you could have almost fitted somebody else in that space. It spoke volumes. Even if you didn’t know what we all know that has happened over the past few years, you’d have turned up and thought, ‘That looks a bit odd; there’s something slightly wrong here.’”
