Last year, news erupted that Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, had…shock!…closed the door to the car she arrived in. This was, one commentator said: ‘another silent signal that she is going to be doing things her own way and helping adapt and progress the British monarchy.’
Meghan was just being real, just one of us. She's a princess of the people, who isn’t too lofty to get people to do her bidding. Right? Not quite. Of course it’s likely that her lack of knowledge around royal protocol is because she’s pretty normal and not pre-attuned to the rules of royal engagements, like some sort of nerd who studied Debrett's ahead of her marriage to the sixth in line to the throne. But the real reason royals aren’t meant to close the doors of the cars they’ve arrived in at various events and meetings, is down to security.
There’s been a post-Brexit rise of the far-right, who don’t really take too kindly to a mixed-race woman getting involved with royalty, for no other reason than racism, pure and simple. This has made royal protection officers ‘nervous’, reports Private Eye. Meghan's being sent racist messages ‘on an almost daily basis’ and as a result her and Prince Harry have been advised to not hang out too long with members of the public at events in case one is out to get her.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t necessarily followed that rule, trusting as they are. And when that door slammed, protection officers were left, it is reported, ‘weeping’. Not because Meghan had showed too much independence, or normality. Not because they quiver at the thought of a woman not getting royal etiquette. But because when a royal turns up at an event and gets out of a car, they’re at their most vulnerable to attack. It’s horrible to think of, but if anything goes wrong, or seems to go wrong, the royal is meant to get back in their car as soon as possible. It’s sort of hard to do that once the self-locking door (think child lock, just from the outside) is slammed shut.
That's why, on arrival, royals are meant to leave their doors wide open. Perhaps you can tell how apprehensive a royal is about turning up somewhere by how wide they leave their door open. In Meghan's case, she was arriving at the Royal Academy of Arts on her first solo event as a royal, which isn't exactly the scariest of venues, after all.
In other Meghan news, her former TV show Suits has been cancelled, and her taste for avocado and toast has been blamed by one tabloid for 'fueling drought and murder', as if no-one else in the entire world eats avocado and toast!