Resurfaced Clip Shows Meghan Markle Breaking a Royal Protocol That the Queen Insisted On

Meghan Markle was reportedly never a stickler for royal protocol. The Duchess of Sussex has broken numerous protocols— intentionally and otherwise —in front of the Queen. One such breach involved her not wearing nude tights, instead showing off her bare legs.

Royal tradition dictates that women in the family wear tights or nude-colored stockings beneath their dresses. While US-born Markle looked elegant in a chic H&M dress and a £2,000 Armani coat, she refused to wear the tights during a royal visit to the Mayhew Animal Home. She also skipped the same for an appearance at the London headquarters of the Smart Works charity. According to royal expert Victoria Arbiter, this broke one of the Queen’s key rules when it came to dressing for public engagements. She told Business Insider, “You never see a royal without their nude stockings. I would say that's really the only hard, steadfast rule in terms of what the Queen requires.”

Markle’s choice of going bare-legged allegedly did not just upset the Queen; it also didn't sit well with Kate Middleton. As reported by The Mirror, royal author Tom Bower in his book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, revealed, “Since she had just given birth to Louis, Kate was too fatigued to cope with a disagreement about whether the bridesmaids should wear tights.” Bower added, “Following protocol, Kate believed they should. The Californian was uninterested in royal traditions.” Middleton has continued to follow in the Queen’s footsteps and mostly worn nude tights underneath her dresses for public events.

After exiting the royal family, Markle herself has vented her frustration against some of the more bizarre royal protocols. In her Netflix docuseries, Harry and Meghan, she said there was ‘no class’ she could take to learn everything she needed to know. She quipped on the show, “Sit like this, cross your legs like this, use this fork, don’t do this, curtsy then, wear this kind of hat.’ It doesn’t happen. So I needed to learn a lot.” She also shared that she had practiced curtsying for the Queen but ended up doing an exaggerated deep curtsy when she met the monarch for the first time.

Markle has broken other protocols too in the Queen’s presence. A resurfaced clip from the Young Leaders Awards Ceremony at Buckingham Palace showed her sitting cross-legged beside Queen Elizabeth. Royal expert Grant Harrold told Yahoo! Life, “Ladies do on occasion cross their legs and it was a famous pose for Princess Diana, but let’s remember that a royal lady certainly would not cross at the knees.” During her first royal engagement with the late monarch, Markle was also seen walking ahead of the Queen, accepting flowers and interacting with the crowd.