Reports of Meghan Markle allegedly having difficulty with royal protocol are not uncommon these days, but probably shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering how new she is to the royal family. The latest such report claims that the Duchess of Sussex broke yet another obscure rule over the weekend when she made her first Wimbledon appearance as a royal and cheered on her close friend, Serena Williams, in the women’s final.
At first glance, there wasn’t anything amiss with Meghan Markle’s choice of wardrobe at Wimbledon, as she wore a blue-and-white striped button-down shirt and white silk pants to the event. However, Page Six noted that Meghan brought a white fedora with her, one that happened to be the same hat she wore in 2016 when she was also supporting Williams at the tournament.
Although Page Six noted that Meghan Markle was trying to follow royal protocol by not wearing the hat, the publication noted that hats are strictly forbidden in the royal box at Wimbledon for men and women alike. Generally, royals are advised to “dress smartly” for the annual tournament, with men specifically required to wear a jacket and tie, as detailed by the Sun .
The Sun further explained the rationale behind the ban on hats in the royal box, noting that wearing them is forbidden because it “blocks the view” of other people. As such, Meghan had no problem wearing her white hat when she was at Wimbledon in 2016 but had no choice but to carry the hat with her as she sat next to sister-in-law Kate Middleton and watched Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber face off in the tournament final.
Sisters are doing it for themselves https://t.co/j4ySxhBCy6
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) July 14, 2018
In the end, Williams fell short against Kerber and gave an emotional interview for “all the moms out there,” which, according to Harper’s Bazaar , affected Meghan so much that she was spotted blinking tears away as the camera focused on the royal box.
In the two months since her marriage to Prince Harry, the Duchess of Sussex’s alleged violations of royal protocol have often earned her the admiration of the internet, many of whom use the double-edged term “royal rule-breaker” to refer to her, according to Glamour . Over the weekend, the publication compiled a list of times Meghan Markle was accused of breaking royal protocol, and while the duchess’ decision to bring her white hat to Wimbledon was not yet included, Glamour ‘s list of 18 purported violations included many which it felt were “outdated and minute.”
