What Does Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Body Language Say?
An Expert Weighs In on Their First Appearance Together
Yesterday, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made their first joint appearance together. Yes,
an event so groundbreaking, so invigorating, so miraculous that it must be put
it in italics! (No, we aren’t obsessing over two strangers just to briefly
distract ourselves from imminent nuclear obliteration or superstorm destruction
or some freaky combination of both. Why do you ask?)
At the same
time, it was almost too much of a good thing. Mere days ago there were only a
few of photos of them together—and those were all grainy, out of focus, or
taken from a distance. Now there are pages on pages of high-quality ones, and gasp,
they capture so many different emotions! There’s laughing. There’s pondering.
There’s gazing at each other and off into the distance. There’s hand holding.
There’s hand-folding. There’s whispering. And while it was easy to
dissect the small amount of pictures before, now it’s nearly impossible for
even the most dedicated of Meghan-Harry over-analyzers.
It’s a job for
an expert: a body language expert, that is.
Vogue asked Patti Wood,
the “Babe Ruth of body-language experts”, to decode
Harry and Meghan’s facial expressions, positioning, posture, and hand-holding
from their big debut. Are they in love? Or is the pressure of the public eye
taking its toll? Wood weighs in, below.
Photo: Getty Images
“This is a connection moment—we are going to laugh
together in the same moment. We are having this experience of joy and fun
together. It’s a purely happy moment. Big, big grin, showing upper teeth,
which men typically only do when they are super happy and joyful and laughing.
It’s really great.”
Photo: Getty Images
“It’s a pre-touch. We see that smile again—she’s just
gleeful with that smile! He’s smiling too. Even if they aren’t looking in the
same direction, it’s a cool moment. See how his legs are spread out? He does
that all the time when he’s confident and relaxed. He goes into the ‘alpha
male’—legs spread out. That’s just guy behavior. It means he’s really relaxed,
open, connected with the experience.”
Photo: Getty Images
“There’s a lot of shared intimacy there. He kind of
kisses her head, she’s smiling, his left hand holding her, and then they are
holding hands with the other hands. I just love double touches! This is a
spontaneous double touch hold! It’s really, really good—with royalty, there’s
not a lot of double touching. Maybe you’ll see it on a red carpet, but you
won't necessarily see it spontaneously. It’s a great sign. He’s not pulling
her, he’s just holding her. This is very, very nice and relaxed.”
Photo: Getty Images
“He’s on the bottom, holding her hand up. He wants to be
connected, but he wants to take care of her. I love that! He is leading her—but I don’t like when men lead and hold
downward. That’s like a child—you have your hands on top and you are pulling
them. In this case you are cupping and holding, and that is much more
care-taking.”
Photo: Getty Images
“I love it. She’s comfortable leaning forward. It’s a
comfortable moment.”
Wood’s final prognosis: Meghan and Harry are in love—and,
incredibly, incredibly happy together. “They are used to sharing intimate
conversations and intimate moments. They are having fun together, and a lot of
the little touches and facial expressions—this is not the first time. This is
something that they do together. They have fun times together.”
Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at
www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at
www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
