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Archive footage of Kate Middleton performing a curtsy to Queen Elizabeth II on Easter Sunday in 2019 has gone viral on social media after being uploaded to video sharing platform TikTok.
The clip is the latest social media edit concerning royal curtsies to be widely circulated, with the subject matter being pulled into focus by Meghan Markle in December 2022, where she described thinking that being asked to curtsy to the queen when first meeting her was a "joke."
Along with Kate, other royal family members' curtsies have been edited into social media clips by fans, including Meghan, Princess Diana and Princess Margaret.
A curtsy is a traditional form of reverence offered by female members of the royal family to the monarch. The act is performed twice each day, at the royal's first meeting the king or queen and then again upon saying goodbye. There is no formal expectation that members of the public have to curtsy to the monarch or other members of the royal family, however, in Britain some choose to do so of their own volition.
Kate's curtsy, shown in the TikTok video uploaded by user royal_secrets24, was offered to Queen Elizabeth II at the royal family's special Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel within the walls of Windsor Castle.
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Traditionally, the royal family and household have decamped from London to Windsor for the Easter holiday, in what was known as Easter Court. King Charles has been in residence at the castle recently, though it is not known whether he intends to take the same diary lead as his mother.
Kate and Prince William have attended every royal Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel since 2017 (apart from 2020 and 2021 owing to the COVID pandemic), before this they were either on royal tours or believed to have been on vacation during their children's school break.
For the 2019 service, Kate wore a blue coat dress designed by Catherine Walker & Co.—one of Princess Diana's favorite design houses—paired with a custom hat and grey suede accessories.
The viral video has been viewed over 300,000 times and received in excess of 35,000 likes. Many commenters have praised the royal for her curtsy to the late-queen, who died at the age of 96 in September 2022.
"A perfect queen in waiting," the video caption reads, with one TikTok user writing: "She gives and accepts with grace."
The edited clips then also include recent footage of Kate receiving curtsies while out and about on royal engagements.
After the queen's death, Kate's royal titles changed from the Duchess of Cambridge (which she was from her wedding day in 2011) to first the Duchess of Cambridge and Cornwall (which William inherited when he became first in line to the throne) and then a day later, King Charles made his son and daughter-in-law the new Prince and Princess of Wales.
Kate is the first royal to use the Princess of Wales title since Princess Diana's death in 1997. Legally, after marrying the then Prince Charles in 2005, Queen Camilla was Princess of Wales, however, she chose not to use the title out of respect for the late Diana.
Both Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have discussed curtsying in their recently released media projects.
On being first introduced by the prince to his grandmother, the queen, Meghan explained in the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan: "I remember in the car driving up, and he [Harry] said, 'You know how to curtsy right?' [...] And I just thought it was a joke."
"How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother and that you will need to curtsy? Especially to an American, like, that's weird," Harry then said.
The prince also referenced his future wife's curtsy in his memoir Spare, in which he described it as "flawless."
Meghan made a last public curtsy to Queen Elizabeth alongside sister-in-law, Kate, at the monarch's state funeral in September.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more