There was a very interesting note in one of the articles that came out around Charles’ birthday, mentioning that he and Camilla actually hold hands in public quite often. They don’t get as much coverage as his sons, their every gesture isn’t scrutinized, and they’re not newlyweds, so their PDA has settled into a more relaxed state...but its there. In other words, there’s precedent. And, actually, a lot of it.
I’ve been watching royals a long time, and I remember people some folks gushing while others were clutching pearls that William and Kate were supposedly far more flirty than any royal couple had ever been before! Except that I also remember that Fergie and Andrew were actually more physical and in their time were either a breath of fresh air or a danger to the monarchy, depending on who you asked. And I recall that people were dissecting Charles and Di’s body language at their first appearances (which did include a small degree of hand-holding!) to either declare them head-over-heels in love or meanly holding back on the public who deserved to see more PDA. And as a student of history I know that Queen Victoria was blatantly besotted with her husband and didn’t care who knew. That was either delightful or troublesome, again, depending on who was doing the talking.
My point is, the conversation about Meghan and Harry’s PDA seems both repetitive and ridiculously overblown, especially comments like we saw in the Maclean’s article (which, honestly, I expect more of them that messy load of claptrap) that the two looked like they might tumble down stairs or as if they were competing in a three legged race. Good grief.
Royal love lives have always, always been an important part of any monarchy’s public face, the lovey-doves newlywed phase included. As big a part of their job as it is to highlight the issues of their day and the good work being done in their realm, all of their claim and basis for being in that role is because of family relations, and so they also have the job of conveying the strength of bonds within that family. And part of that has always been letting the world see when married couples are in love with other. This isn’t new, it isn’t shocking, and all the eye-rolling reflects more on the eye-rollers than anyone else.