Prince William Gets a Sweet New Nickname but Meghan Markle Won’t Be Too Happy About It
Prince William's recent outing in Norfolk has earned him an amusing moniker that goes completely against his public image.
Prince William has accumulated several nicknames over the years. Princess Diana famously called him ‘Wombat’, his brother Prince Harry referred to him as ‘Willy’ in his memoir, and so on. However, the Prince of Wales recently earned an online moniker that is an amusing juxtaposition with his public image of having a stiff upper lip, partly created after his sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, described their awkward first interaction. And, interestingly, this recent online chatter began after a peculiar moment on Thursday when William hugged a staff member at a mental health charity in Norfolk.
Little would William have known on Thursday morning that a sweet moment of support and solidarity would trigger an avalanche of social media responses, with a social media user even calling him ‘Prince of Hugs’ on X. A huge part of the dramatic reactions has been that the Prince of Wales is famously not a hugger, a statement repeated by Harry and Markle time and again.
The Duke of Sussex even recounted the moment when Markle met William for the first time and immediately went for a hug, a greeting the latter was not used to. Harry had found the situation amusing at the time. Markle recalled meeting William and Kate Middleton for the first time, saying she was in “ripped jeans and barefoot” during their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. “Like I was a hugger, always been a hugger. I didn't realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits,” she said via The New York Post, implying that she probably got a frosty reaction.
The Duchess of Sussex had further analyzed the situation to highlight the cultural differences between her and the royal family by saying, “I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside, that there is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and think, 'OK, we can relax now’. But that formality carries over on both sides, and that was surprising to me.” The particular statements were eventually added to a list of things that went wrong between the Sussexes and the Waleses.
However, the game seems to have completely changed, as now William seems okay to embrace people to offer support. And as for his wife, Middleton is known for being warm with the public during engagements and walkabouts. She is rightfully called the ‘Children’s Princess’ due to her affectionate interactions with kids and has often spoken about how much she adores them.
In his bombshell memoir, Harry mentioned some other instances where the cultural differences between his wife, brother, and sister-in-law were glaringly obvious, such as when Markle asked to borrow Middleton’s lip gloss before an event, creating a tense moment between the quartet, or when Middleton reportedly had an issue with Markle talking about her “hormones”.
