In 2022, Meghan Markle revealed that her hugs were "jarring" to her new friends and family across the pond. Now, a new royal tell-all reveals just how much they made Prince William cringe.
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00:00It's like I was a hugger. Always been a hugger. I didn't realize that that is really jarring
00:05for a lot of Brits."
00:06That's Meghan Markle in 2022, revealing that her hugs were jarring to her new friends and
00:11family across the pond. And now, a new royal tell-all reveals just how much they made Prince
00:16William cringe.
00:17Tom Quinn's Yes, Ma'am! The Secret Life of Royal Servants is out February 18, but the
00:21Times of London has an excerpt up now, and it's a doozy. Insiders claim that Meghan hugged
00:26her brother-in-law pretty much every chance she got, and that the hugging and cheek-kissing
00:30fueled gossip among the staff that Meghan was flirting with William.
00:33Quinn writes that Meghan obviously wasn't flirting for real, but the constant hugging
00:37reportedly made William uncomfortable and ultimately deepened the rift between William
00:42and Harry, according to former servants. One staffer says Meghan was a breath of fresh
00:46air at first, but her hug-everyone approach quickly gave William, in particular, the ick.
00:51So much so, in fact, that William tended to flinch when Meghan went in for a hug, and
00:55he wasn't alone. The tell-all reveals that King Charles, too, would allegedly withdraw
00:59when his daughter-in-law approached him.
01:01Quinn writes,
01:02"...Meghan was understandably hurt, as everyone apparently hugs everyone in California."
01:06That is so good.
01:07We family now.
01:08One staffer revealed that Meghan even once tried to hug an attendant in charge of the
01:12royal horse stables, but, quote, "...he too flinched, as if she'd tried to poke him in
01:16the eye."
01:17Meg's hugs have made headlines. In one of her final appearances as a working royal,
01:21one lucky student in London got a big hug from the duchess.
01:28And this isn't the first time we've heard about William giving Meghan a frosty reception
01:31when they first met. In Prince Harry's memoir, the Duke wrote,
01:34"...I introduced Meg, who leaned in and gave William a hug, which completely freaked him
01:38out. He recoiled. Maybe Willy expected Meg to curtsy?"
01:41In her Netflix docuseries, Meghan admitted that she thought royal formalities were just
01:45for public events, and things were actually way more relaxed in private.
01:49"...but that formality carries over on both sides, and that was surprising to me."
01:54Meghan's touchy-feelyness with her UK kin isn't the only tea spilled in the tell-all.
01:58The duchess also reportedly earned a few nicknames during her brief stay. One former staffer
02:03claimed that Duchess of Difficult was her moniker among the staff for a time, but she
02:07had several others. The ex-servant told Quinn,
02:09"...she had other, friendlier nicknames, including Mystic Meg, which came about because she was
02:13so new-agey, so woke about so many things. The late, original Mystic Meg, a.k.a. Astrologer
02:19Margaret Lake, was a household name in the UK in the 90s, known for predicting lottery
02:24winners."
02:25"...insurance workers, bin men, and a dentist will be celebrating too."
02:33Elsewhere in the excerpt, it's revealed that Kate Middleton allegedly treats Prince William
02:37like a fourth child, Prince Andrew once dismissed a staffer because he had a mole on his face,
02:42and so much more, including Meghan's so-called Messiah complex. One staffer quotes the duchess
02:47as once saying,
02:48"...what Diana started, I want to finish."
02:50This certainly helps explain Meghan's controversial new Instagram video celebrating her own celebrity
02:55connections, which helped her score some Billie Eilish merch for a teenage superfan who lost
02:59hers in the California wildfires.
03:01"...and so I said, well I don't know Billie Eilish, but I'm gonna figure out how to get
03:03you this shirt."
03:05A good deed, no doubt, but a bit of a PR failure, as royal watchers were quick to pounce, pointing
03:10out that Meghan could've just been charitable, without making a video all about how charitable
03:14she is.
03:15Guys, I don't even know what all of this stuff means, but it's signed for her!