Prince William was ‘freaked out’ by Meghan Markle, Prince Harry reveals

Prince Harry has claimed Prince William ‘recoiled’ from Meghan’s hug during their awkward first meeting.

In his bombshell memoir Spare, which hit shelves today, the Duke of Sussex, 38, described the moment he introduced his brother to his girlfriend as a ‘classic collision of cultures’.

The meeting took place in late 2016 at the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Kensington Palace apartment, shortly before Prince Harry and Prince William went on a shooting trip.

The Duke explains how Meghan had already met Princess Eugenie, her then-boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, the Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and the Queen.

Prince Harry introduced Prince William to Meghan in late 2016. Pictured: The Prince and Princess of Wales and Duke and Duchess of Sussex in December 2017

Describing the short walk from Harry and Meghan’s home Nottingham Cottage to Apartment 1A, the duke admitted that he was more nervous for his girlfriend to meet William than anyone else.

When his brother answered the door, Harry says William was a ‘bit dressed up’ in smart trousers and a shirt.

He wrote: ‘I introduced Meg, who leaned in and gave him a hug, which completely freaked him out. He recoiled.’

Giving some context to the awkward encounter, Prince Harry said his brother wouldn’t usually hug someone he didn’t know. 

Prince Harry says his brother ‘recoiled’ from Meghan’s hug during their first meeting at Kensington Palace. The two couples pictured in July 2018

In contrast, Harry explained how this was just Meghan’s way of greeting strangers. 

He continued: ‘Maybe Willy expected Meg to curtsey? It would have been protocol when meeting a member of the Royal Family for the first time, but she didn’t know and I didn’t tell her.’

Elsewhere in the book, Prince Harry recounts having to remind the then Suits actress that she would need to curtsey for the Queen when they first met at Windsor Castle in 2016.

However, the father-of-two didn’t feel the need for her to do that when meeting William because he ‘loved Suits’. 

Prince Harry’s bombshell memoir Spare was released in the UK today. In the book, he describes his brother and wife’s first meeting as  a ‘classic collision of cultures’

Prince Harry says he didn’t ask his girlfriend to curtsey for his brother as he ‘loved Suits’. Pictured: Meghan posing for a Season One Suits cast photo

After ‘exchanging a few warm words’ in the doorway, the Prince of Wales invited the couple into the flat – prompting Kate and William’s black cocker spaniel Lupo to start barking.  

When the couple asked after Kate, William told them that she was out with their children George and Charlotte. 

Following the brief meeting, Meghan returned to spend her first night alone in Nottingham Cottage while the brothers embarked on their shooting trip. 

During their Netflix special, Meghan admitted that she did not realise that her being a ‘hugger’ was ‘jarring for some Brits’ and described how she was barefoot the first time she met Kate.

Meghan revealed she was barefoot and wearing ripped jeans when she first met William and Kate

Sharing her experience of being in the Royal Family, Meghan said she was ‘surprised’ by how ‘formal’ the family were in private.

She said: ‘Even when Will and Kate came over and I was meeting her for the first time I remember I was in ripped jeans, I was barefoot. Like I was a hugger, I have always been a hugger I didn’t realise that is really jarring for a lot of Brits. 

‘I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside, that there is a forward facing way of being and then you close the door and think “OK we can relax now”. But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.’ 

The Duchess of Sussex also recalled meeting The Queen for the first time in 2016 in the second episode of the docuseries Harry & Meghan, which landed on Netflix last month.

The controversial clip – which unimpressed viewers labelled ‘disrespectful’ to the late Queen – shows the mother-of-two recreating the extremely deep curtsy she performed for Her Majesty at the Royal Lodge in Windsor.

Ahead of the meeting, Meghan said she was surprised to learn that she would need to bow for the Queen and previously said Prince Harry helped her practice an appropriate curtsy for meeting a member of the Royal Family. 

Meghan claimed she didn’t know how to perform a proper curtsy before meeting the Queen in the couple’s Netflix documentary series, which was released this month

Meghan recreated the extremely deep curtsy she performed for the Queen in 2016 on screen as a stony-faced Prince Harry watched on. Viewers labelled it ‘disrespectful’

Meghan compared the ‘surreal’ encounter with the late Queen to a trip to the American themed-dinner institution Medieval Times. She is pictured with the Queen in Chester in 2018

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Ahead of the impromptu lunch at Windsor in 2016, Prince Harry said in the Netflix docuseries that he checked his girlfriend knew how to curtsy for his grandmother. 

Sharing her own experience from that day, Meghan then compared the meal to a trip to the American restaurant franchise Medieval Times and joked she ‘didn’t know what she was doing’ when she performed an extremely deep curtsy for the Queen.

Describing her first meeting with the late monarch, Meghan said: ‘Now I’m starting to realise this is a big deal. I mean, Americans will understand this.

‘We have Medieval Times dinner and tournament. It was like that. Like, I curtsied as though I was like… “Pleasure to meet you, your Majesty.”

‘It was so intense. And then when she left, Eugenie and Jack and Fergie say, “you did great!”. Thanks. I didn’t know what I was doing.’ 

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