Prince Harry says claims Meghan Markle ‘broke royal protocol’ were often false

Meghan described learning royal rules as ‘a baptism of fire’

Prince Harry has said that media claims Meghan Markle broke protocol when she joined the royal family were often fabricated.

On Thursday (8 December), the first three episodes were released from Prince Harry and Meghan’s Netflix documentary Harry and Meghan.

You can follow The Independent’s live blog here.

The documentary sees Meghan discuss joining the royal family after their engagement was announced in November 2017.

As she began making royal appearances, the Duchess of Sussex learnt that the royals championed “deliberately non-controversial” causes, as seen when Meghan referenced the #MeToo movement at an event held by The Royal Foundation.

“I didn’t know that that would be taboo to talk about,” she said, before explaining that “joining this family, I knew that there was a protocol for how things were done”.

She then referenced the 2001 teen film The Princess Diaries in which a high school student who is heir to a European monarchy (Anne Hathaway) is taught how to be a princess by her grandmother (Julie Andrews).

“There’s no class [where] some person goes, ‘Sit like this, cross your legs like this, use this fork, don’t do this, curtsy then, wear this kind of hat,’” Meghan said. “It doesn’t happen. So I needed to learn a lot.”

The duchess said that she was never taught how to do the “royal wave”, but knew “you don’t wanna wave like an American”, and learnt the national anthem by googling it and “practising and practising”.

Markle at a 2018 royal appearance in Cardiff (Getty Images)

“Everything is just… smaller,” she explained.

A voiceover then played from a reporter suggesting Meghan “broke royal protocol” with actions such as hugging a young school girl.

Prince Harry explained that “on top of that, with the press, there were a lot of invented protocols”.

Meghan added: “It was baptism by fire.”

Harry and Meghan is on Netflix now.