Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle were both commoners when they married into the royal family in 2011 and 2018 respectively, so it’s not too surprising to find out that they did break royal protocol a few times before wedding their significant others. However, they have both also broken royal protocol several times since becoming royals too, especially where their sartorial choices are concerned!
The royal family has a strict set of rules to follow, and that includes everything from holding hands in public to the color of nail polish the women are allowed to wear to what colors certain members of the royal family can wear at any given time; and so much more! If you’ll recall, Meghan Markle touched on this in the controversial Harry & Meghan Netflix docuseries, and said that the late Queen Elizabeth II usually wore the brightest outfit, and other members of the royal family had to coordinate their outfits accordingly, with more senior members of the family having the next choice and so on and so forth.
“Most of the time that I was in the U.K., I rarely wore color,” she said on the docuseries. “There was thought in that, to my understanding, you can’t ever wear the same color as her Majesty if there’s a group event. But then you also shouldn’t be wearing the same colour as other senior members of the family. So I was like… well, what’s a color they’ll probably never wear? Camel? Beige? White? So I wore a lot of muted tones but it was also so I could just blend in.”
Interestingly, there are certain rules that Kate Middleton, the future queen, has to follow that Meghan actually doesn’t, such as voting in elections and taking selfies with fans among many other things. Take a look at six times the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex have broken royal protocol below.
1. Engaging In PDA
Both Kate Middleton and Prince William, and Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, have been guilty of engaging in PDA over the years. We don't mean Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker levels of PDA (can you imagine?!) as the royal family regards something as minor as holding hands or hugging as PDA.
As they are not the future king and queen of England, Harry and Meghan's PDA hasn't raised as many eyebrows as William and Kate's, which is why we are always more shocked when the Prince and Princess of Wales hold hands or embrace. One moment we will always remember occurred 11 years ago at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge hugged each other in excitement while watching the men's team sprint cycling event, during which Chris Hoy won his fifth gold medal.
2. Spending Christmas With The Queen Before Marriage
As it's the Christmas season, we thought we would bring this up as it was quite eyebrow-raising at the time! Back in 2017, Meghan Markle broke royal tradition by spending Christmas with the late Queen Elizabeth II and the rest of the royal family in Sandringham. It was a big deal for Meghan to receive the invitation, as fiancées were traditionally not allowed to spend Christmas with the royal family. Kate Middleton didn't receive such an invitation back in 2010, despite her and Prince William announcing their engagement the month before, and spent Christmas with her own family in Berkshire.
Meghan looked beautiful for her first Christmas Day church service with the royal family, wearing a gorgeous Sentaler camel coat, a Philip Treacy beret-style hat, Stuart Weitzman boots, a Chloé crossbody bag, and dark tan M&S Collection leather detail gloves.
3. Pole Dancing
Some people may be shocked to find out that the Princess of Wales once attended pole dancing lessons. And they may be even more shocked to discover that it wasn't during her pre-royal party days (pictured above,) it was actually after she had given birth to Prince George in 2013 to try and get back into her pre-pregnancy shape. According to Star magazine, Kate attended the pole fitness classes in disguise; and it clearly worked wonders.
4. Being A Divorcee
Prior to their 2018 royal wedding, many critics kept referencing that Prince Harry would be marrying an American actress who was also a divorcee – and the fact that Meghan was married before would have actually broken royal protocol once upon a time. If you'll recall, Princess Margaret, the late Queen's sister, was forced to end her relationship with Peter Townsend because he was divorced. However, the royal family seemed to have been a little more chilled about it by the time Harry wanted to marry Meghan.
Meghan married film producer Trevor Engelson at the Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on August 16th, 2011. They separated two years after tying the knot, and were granted a no-fault divorce citing irreconcilable differences in February 2014. Engelson married his second wife, nutritionist Tracey Kurland, in 2019.
5. Wearing Red Nail Polish
Both Kate and Meghan have broken royal protocol with their sartorial choices over the years, such as Meghan exposing her shoulders in an off-the-shoulder dress and Kate wearing dresses with racy slits, among many other things. However, one moment which really stood out among royal fans this year was the Princess of Wales forgoing her usual nude or pale pink colored manicure (she is also said to be a fan of the late Queen's 'Ballet Slippers' shade by Essie) for a bold red one.
Kate wore a stunning royal blue Catherine Walker & Co. coat dress to attend the Easter Mattins Service at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. But the thing that caught fans' attention the most was the rule-breaking red nail polish! Many people took to social media to draw attention to it because they too knew that it broke royal protocol – but most of the internet agreed that she looked gorgeous, and invited naysayers to step into the 21st century. "My goodness, it is about time the royal women reached this century… I see nothing wrong with the nail polish color and it does not hurt anyone," wrote one fan on Twitter at the time, while another said, "Her nails look great," and another added: "She looks amazing as always!"
6. Wearing A Diamond Engagement Ring
Engagement rings are a little different in the royal family, as they seem to favor gem stones over the more traditional diamond. Case in point, Kate's sapphire engagement ring, which of course previously belonged to the late Princess Diana. The Queen Mother and Princess Anne also had sapphire engagement rings, while Princess Margaret and Sarah Ferguson both had rubies.
Meghan, on the other hand, was given a large cushion-cut center diamond sourced from Botswana, and two side stones from the late Princess Diana's jewelry collection. Perhaps another thing that could be breaking protocol is the fact that Meghan changed up her ring after the wedding, as she reportedly replaced the ring's original gold band with a thin micro-pavé band in 2019.
