All the times Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have broken royal protocol on tour

After charming their way around Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand over the past two and a half weeks, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first international royal tour has finally come to an end.

Love them or hate them, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have garnered a lot of press, thanks mostly to their pregnancy announcement, the Duchess’ $270,000 wardrobe, and some heart-melting moments with young fans – but another reoccurring theme was the couple’s almost constant breaking of royal protocol.

Here we take a look at exactly which rules the newlyweds bent, and which they completely ignored on their 16-day mission.

The no touching rule

If you think the royals are in a league of their own, you may not be wrong. One of the rules that many members of the Windsor clan follow is that they are not to be touched by non-royals.

We all remember that super awkward moment basketball star LeBron James tried to put his arm around Kate Middleton for a photo, and more recently the Queen of the Netherlands leaning in to greet Queen Elizabeth with a kiss on the cheek.

The only exception of course, is supposed to be a handshake (which is something royals are very familiar with) but even that’s a stretch for Princess Anne.

Before her mum the Queen relaxed the rules in the 1970s, the royal family stuck to a much more traditional etiquette, which the Princess Royal still follows.

“We never shook hands,” she told a recent documentary, “the theory was that you couldn’t shake hands with everybody, so don’t start, so I kind of stick with that, but I notice others don’t.”

“It’s not for me to say that it’s wrong, but I think the initial concept was it was patently absurd to start shaking hands.

“And it seems to me that it’s become a shaking hands exercise rather than a walkabout.”

Obviously, Harry and Meghan aren’t as fastidious, and they shook hands with as many locals as they possibly could on their 16-day tour, but they also went one step further and showed their love with hugs.

And in one of the sweetest moments of their visit, the Duke even let one five-year-old child rub his beard.

The no selfie rule

Early on in her introduction to royal life, Meghan was stopped by a fan and asked for a selfie. It’s something she’s likely been asked hundreds of times thanks to her role on Suits, but that time Meghan had to say no.

She was quoted saying: “We’re not allowed to do selfies.”

While it isn’t a hard and fast rule, it’s said that the Queen doesn’t like it when people turn around to take a selfie because she prefers to look people in the eye.

In fact, when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Canada on a royal tour last year, people were advised not to take selfies with Kate and Wills either.

“Turning your back to the Duke and Duchess and taking a selfie is discouraged if at all possible,” a representative of the Canadian tourism department said.

“I know it’s fun to do, but they much would rather see your face.”

That didn’t stop both Harry and Meghan from indulging in the odd selfie while visiting Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand however.

As part of their charm offensive, the newlyweds were seen taking a number of selfies with fans, including a six-year-old boy in Auckland who had recently lost his mum.

Going barefoot on the beach

Kicking off your shoes and getting your toes stuck into the sand seems like the most normal and natural thing to do at the beach, but it’s actually not very royal.

Meghan and Harry visited four beaches on their tour, and while it didn’t seem that odd that they kept their shoes on while hitting the sand on overcast days, it would have been positively mad to do so on a sunny morning in Bondi.

As many expected, the Duke and Duchess went barefoot as they met members of a wellness group that tackle mental health issues through surfing – but in doing so they broke tradition.

When the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton visited Sydney’s Manly Beach back in 2014, she kept her wedges firmly on her feet, just as Princess Diana did when she visited the NSW beach in Terrigal on her debut visit Down Under back in 1983.

This is because it’s very un-royal to go barefoot, and all royal women in particular are required to wear tights on public occasions.

Which brings us to our next royal rule…

Going bare-legged

During her very first public appearance after the royal wedding, Meghan raised eyebrows by wearing skin coloured tights that didn’t quite match her skin tone.

The tights seemed unnecessary, but there was a very good reason why she was wearing them.

“Generally speaking, the Queen is pretty progressive, but she does require all women in the family to wear pantyhοse if they choose to wear dresses or skirts,” Kelly Lynch, royal expert and managing editor of Dailybreak, told Yahoo Lifestyle earlier this year.

“The simple reason is, Her Majesty considers it ladylike, proper, and appropriate, and it’s the one rule she won’t budge on, regardless of temperature.”

There’s no hard and fast evidence for the Queen-issued mandate, barring the fact that every female family member from the Queen to Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge wear nude pantyhοse.

Granted, some of these women grew up during the era of nylons, which were invented in 1959 and considered essential for dignified events. However, unlike most millennials, Kate wears them regularly, and the fact that Meghan — a former fashion blogger — wore them to kick off her royal career suggests that hosiery is non-negotiable.

But proving she truly is a modern royal, Meghan hasn’t been wearing them throughout their royal tour.

PDAs galore

While they’ve been married for longer than many of us have been alive, it’s very rare to catch Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in any public display of affection.

The same can be said for Charles and Camilla and William and Kate, who are rarely seen holding hands in public, despite working very closely together as a couple.

Interestingly, this has never been the case for Harry and Meghan – who have won a lot of support from fans for being open about their love for one another – and as we all saw, they could barely keep their hands off each other throughout their tour.

“Public displays of affection, such a hand holding, may be accepted in private situations and in social spheres, but when out in public Harry and Meghan are on official business and so it is not considered professional behaviour,” William Hanson told the Daily Mail earlier this year.

Indeed, it seems common practice for William and Kate to stand at a slight distance from each other at official engagements, including their 2014 tour of Australia.

However, many think that the difference in the brothers’ behaviour is due to William being a future king, while Harry is never likely to ascend to the throne, and therefore can be a little more relaxed in the way he goes about his job.

So there you have it, five royal rules broken by the couple. Harry and Meghan truly are carving a path of their own within the royal family.

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