Meghan Markle won't return to UK to avoid one awkward exchange with Princess Kate

A royal biographer thinks "curtsy-gate" could be one of the things stopping Prince Harry and Meghan Markle from returning to the UK.

The British Royal Family have a number of protocols and rules they follow, including how they greet each other. The family’s official website explains that a traditional greeting would be different depending on your sex. It states that for "men this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy".

Within the family, who should bow and curtsy to whom all comes down to rank and style. It’s expected that the reigning monarch is referred to as "Your Majesty" while the other senior members of the family are greeted with "Your Royal Highness" and then later in conversation may be called sir or ma’am.

As Prince William, Princess Kate, Prince Harry and Meghan were all "Your Royal Highness", they would not be required to bow or curtsy to each other.

But when Prince Harry and Meghan stepped down from being senior royals in 2020, Buckingham Palace officially announced, “The Sussexes will not use their HRH titles as they are no longer working members of the royal family.”

This has led some to question whether Meghan Markle would be expected to curtsy to Kate, even more so now that her husband is next in line to the throne. Some have even suggested it could be one of the things keeping Meghan away from the UK.

Whilst appearing on the Sky News show Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, famed royal biographer Andrew Morton was asked if he thought the Sussexes would ever return to the UK full-time, he replied: "What, and have Meghan Markle curtseying to Kate Middleton? I don't think so."

But this is unlikely to be the case as it’s understood that although they will not "use" the HRH titles, they have still retained them, meaning Meghan would actually only be required to curtsy to Kate upon William’s ascension to the throne, when she, in turn, becomes Queen.

King Charles and Queen Camilla, all family members are now expected to bow and curtsy upon greeting the monarchs, which perhaps would not sit so well with Prince Harry given how he described her as "dangerous" in his autobiography, Spare. "In a funny way, I even wanted Camilla to be happy. Maybe she’d be less dangerous if she was happy?" He wrote.

However, since writing the book, Harry has had some kinder words to share about his stepmother. He told Good Morning America that he has a "huge amount of compassion for her" and that he doesn’t see her as "an evil stepmother".

When it comes to the younger members of the family, children are expected to bow to the sovereign from early childhood. Royal expert Marlene Eilers Koenig told Hello magazine that the greetings begin "certainly by age five".

This means Harry’s son Archie, who doesn’t turn five until May 2024, would be exempt from bowing and two-year-old Lilibet wouldn’t be expected to curtsy yet either.

Meanwhile, all of the Cambridge children are now over the age of five and have all been pictured performing the traditional greeting over the years.

However, Koenig also explained that it’s not expected that every time the King and Queen appear everyone must dip their heads, it is only required at the beginning and end of the visit.

"You bow or curtsy the first time you see the sovereign and then again when you leave," she said.