Kate Middleton Allegedly Debunks Meghan Markle's 'Formality' Claims as Fans Declare 'Maybe the Issue is Meghan'

Princess Kate appeared to cut across Meghan Markle's past claims about royal 'formality' at Royal Ascot in Berkshire this week, when she was photographed warmly hugging and kissing her sister‑in‑law Alizée Thevenet in full view of cameras and racegoers. The affectionate moment, quickly shared online, has been seized on by some royal fans as fresh ammunition in the ongoing debate over Meghan's portrayal of life inside the monarchy.

The moment came after Meghan used the couple's Netflix series Harry & Meghan to describe her early meetings with the then‑Duchess of Cambridge as stiff and emotionally distant. In the 2022 docuseries, she recalled greeting Kate at Nottingham Cottage in ripped jeans and bare feet, and said she was taken aback that the 'formality on the outside carried through on the inside' of royal life.

At Royal Ascot, though, the Princess of Wales looked very different from the aloof figure that has taken root in some corners of social media. Back at the racing festival for the first time in two years, Catherine arrived in a bright yellow outfit, joined senior royals in the parade ring, then peeled off to spend time with her own family.

Alongside Prince William and other Windsor relatives, she was photographed chatting animatedly with her mother, Carole Middleton, and Alizée Thevenet, who is married to Kate's younger brother, James Middleton. Cameras caught the future queen embracing and kissing Alizée, the pair laughing together in a way that appeared anything but formal.

Royal Ascot Footage Reignites Meghan 'Formality' Debate

The images resurfaced Meghan's earlier description of feeling out of step with royal expectations, especially around physical affection. In Harry & Meghan, she called herself a natural hugger who found British reserve 'really jarring', saying she eventually realised 'the formality on the outside carried through on the inside ... that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me'.

Harry expanded on that in his memoir Spare, recounting Meghan's first meeting with Prince William. He wrote that the encounter 'completely freaked him out' because 'Willy didn't hug many strangers. Whereas Meg hugged most strangers.' According to Harry, William had expected 'standard reverence per the protocol', while Meghan had never been briefed on such unwritten rules.

Those remarks are what some royal watchers now see as quietly challenged by the Princess of Wales's easy display at Ascot. Nothing in Meghan's account has been formally rejected by Kensington Palace, but public perception is a different contest, and this clip has armed her critics.

Online, many users seized on the footage as supposed evidence that Meghan's take on royal 'formality' was exaggerated or, as some put it, self‑serving. One user on X, formerly Twitter, wrote: 'She does hug and get along with sisters-in-law. Hmmm. Someone was lying. Maybe that someone with a history of being a problem....was the problem.'

Others were less combative but no less engaged. 'How nice! I'm sure they see each other enough but we, the public, rarely see them together. They both look beautiful!' one commenter posted. Another added: 'The Princess of Wales has a lovely relationships with her sister‑in‑law Alizée Middleton.'

Then came the line that crystallised a certain strand of opinion: 'Hmmmm. Maybe the issue is Meghan?'

Kate, Meghan And The Question Of 'Inside' Royal Life

For starters, an affectionate moment with a close relative does not, on its own, disprove Meghan's claim that she found royal life intensely formal. Families are inconsistent, and the Windsors are no exception.

What the Royal Ascot images do show is how sharply two versions of the same woman now collide in public. In Meghan's telling, Catherine embodied a kind of institutional froideur that never really thawed, even behind closed doors. In the Ascot footage, the Princess of Wales looks like a warm, tactile sister‑in‑law, greeting Alizée as many thirty‑somethings would greet a close friend on a big day out.

The setting matters. Royal Ascot is one of the most visible fixtures in the royal calendar, where protocol usually dominates. For Catherine to hug and kiss Alizée there may not be a political statement, but it is clearly a public one.

Palace officials have not responded to the clip or to Meghan's earlier remarks. As usual, Kensington Palace has stayed clear of the back‑and‑forth that erupts online whenever a new image or anecdote feeds the Sussex‑versus‑Wales storyline.

Formally, nothing has been proven either way, and royal households are not about to publish a log of who hugged whom and when. Nothing is confirmed yet so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.

Even so, the reaction is revealing. For some viewers already inclined to see Meghan as the source of unnecessary drama, the Ascot footage felt like proof that the 'formality' problem lay less with the institution and more with one woman's culture shock. For her supporters, it looks like carefully staged warmth that says little about what happens once the cameras are gone.

Between those versions sits a less tidy reality. Royal life is both performance and family, protocol and emotion. Catherine can be formal in one room and relaxed in another; Meghan can feel shut out in a household where others feel perfectly at home. Both accounts can hold pieces of the truth.

What the Ascot moment underlines is that, more than four years after the Sussexes stepped back, even a simple hug in the royal enclosure is read as commentary. That is the nature of modern monarchy now, whether anyone at the Palace likes it or not.