Ah to be royal, where almost everything you do gets picked up and analysed and written about. The royal family is such an institution that everything they do is worth it though, right.
And so here we are, with an article about Meghan Markle closing a car door.
The unbelievably shocking incident occurred as Meghan attended her first solo event since becoming a royal. Arriving at the Royal (fitting) Academy of Arts, Meghan’s car pulled up, her door was opened for her, she stepped out of the car, greeted her host and – here’s the kicker – shut the door herself.
You can watch the moment here:
So why all the commotion about this simple act of closing a door, something us commoners do pretty much every day – if one is lucky enough to have one’s own door, of course.
Well, apparently royals aren’t really supposed to close their own doors. As you see in the video, there was a man there to open the door, so presumably he should shut the door too. On the other hand, maybe that’s beyond his pay grade, or he’s only been trained to royally open doors, and the royal closer was sick that day. Who knows.
What we do know is that Meghan definitely closed the door herself, and people are loving her for it.
Apparently, some people have never seen a royal shut their own door before, and it shows how down to earth and humble she is in real life.
One person wrote:
First time I’ve seen an on-duty princess shut her own car door…
Another said:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a member of the Royal Family do that before.
Wow.
While another Tweeted:
A princess who still takes the time to shut her car door. Well done Meghan!
Thankfully, others saw the funny side too.
One person said:
I just want to say well done Meghan & congratulate her for…
1: Putting on her own shoes.
2: Pulling up her bed sheets when she gets in bed.
3: Picking up her cup of tea to drink it.
4: Brushing her teeth.
& last but not least.. number 5: WALKING.
Another spared a thought for the doorman himself:
She must stop that! She’s gonna render someone unemployed soon
While other, more cynical people, wondered if the whole door situation was a publicity stunt and photo opportunity (though, arguably, everything the royal family do in public is).
One person said:
It’s a photo op thing. But I like the fact she did it. It humanizes her and makes her more relatable
While another also stuck up for the new member of the royal family:
I also love the fact that she did it, but disagree it was a photo op. Her body language says 2nd nature, she’s comfortable closing her own door and probably fed up w/ people closing it for her. Female code.
If you ask me, it looks like she just closed the door so she could walk forward, but I’m no expert.
Time to go home. Where’s my doorman at…
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.