All royals are expected to bow or curtsy to the sovereign and his wife, King Charles and Queen Camilla. Since he ascended to the throne, Prince William and Princess Kate have been seen formally greeting the monarch with a bow and curtsy on multiple occasions.
The one concise rule is that all members of the Royal Family are required to bow or curtsy to King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla. But what is unclear is who Catherine, Princess of Wales, Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have to curtsy for, as they are not of royal blood.
According to the royal rule book, female members of The Firm must curtsy to the most senior members of the monarchy – currently King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla – whilst their male counterparts must bow their heads.
William Technically Has to Bow to Queen Camilla
“The personal impact is likely the protocol changes that roll into action almost immediately,” an insider said shortly after Charles took the throne. “The family will now have to bow or curtsy to King Charles and Queen [Consort] Camilla.”
According to Royal protocol, Kate, along with other female members of the family including Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, Meghan Markle and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, must curtsey to the King and Queen Camilla as they are the most senior members of the family and male royals are expected to bow their heads.
Members of the royal family do not bow or curtsy to each other – it is an act reserved only for the King and Queen.
While Kate Middleton is destined to be Queen Consort, she also has to abide by some strange curtsying protocols. Of course, she has to curtsy to the Queen, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles and Camilla, but purportedly she's also obligated to bend the knee to "blood princesses", but this changes when William is present.
"The general rule of thumb to remember is that a Royal Highness does not curtsy to another Royal Highness," Myka Meier, an etiquette expert and the author of the book Modern Etiquette Made Easy, tells PEOPLE.
The rules of curtsying within the royal family are quite complicated and depend on the setting and who is present, which decide who curtsies to whom. Kate was obliged to curtsy to every member of the royal family, including Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie who outranked her as “blood princesses”.
Technically, there are no "obligatory" rules.
According to the royal family's official website, "there are no obligatory codes of behaviour" when meeting the sovereign or other royal family members.
William, son of King Charles III, was made Prince of Wales on 9 September 2022. There are no plans for a formal investiture, with an emphasis instead on "deepening the trust and respect of the people of Wales."
William certainly has the option of choosing a new regnal name when he becomes King (perhaps one of his middle names: Arthur, Philip, or Louis, or George, like his great-grandfather), but if he keeps William, he would be known as King William V. For her part, Kate will be known as Queen consort, and will hold the title ...
While Kate has never revealed it, multiple outlets have claimed she is a British size six, or an American size two, with a 24-inch waistline. Her weight has remained roughly the same since her 2011 marriage to Prince William, as she still recycles the same outfits today that she wore back then.
In an interview with Good Morning America on Monday, Harry seemed to soften his stance on Camilla, saying that he has a “huge amount of compassion for her.” He added that they haven't spoken in a while, but he loves every member of his family, so they remain cordial.
She also has tattoos on each of her wrists and a tiger on her left-hand shoulder blade. While she does not appear to have any permanent markings, Princess Kate has experimented with temporary tattoo designs before.
If the Princess of Wales is conducting an engagement alongside Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, but without her husband, she has to curtsy to her cousins-in-law because they were born into the Royal Family and are therefore "princesses of the blood".
Camilla Originally Wanted to Be “Princess Consort”
So why did Camilla initially want to be Princess cCnsort and not Queen Consort? Apparently, this decision was made partly out of respect to Princess Diana—which is also why Camilla doesn't use the title Princess of Wales and instead goes by Duchess of Cornwall.
Camilla, Charles III's second wife, was the princess of Wales from 2005 to 2022, but did not use the title due to its popular association with her husband's first wife, Diana.
Some reports insist that, upon marrying into the family, Kate Middleton had to curtsy to all "blood" princesses, such as Beatrice and Eugenie, as well as her own children (except when accompanied by Prince William—duh).
"But there is no hard and fast rule, and if you can't do it or don't feel comfortable doing it or don't want to do it that's fine; it doesn't mean you hold the queen in any less respect and you won't be sent to the Tower." Another royal source added, "People do tend to bow or curtsy to the queen, and that's just good ...
While it is now common practice for both the bride and groom to give each other a ring as a sign of their eternal devotion, a royal aide explained that Prince William's decision not to wear a ring was 'simply down to personal preference'.
Since Charles has taken to the throne, the tradition has changed so that now, in the Royal order, Camilla has outranked Princess Anne - meaning all the royal women in the family must (and will) curtsy to her.
As the Queen Consort, Camilla is no longer required to curtsey to other members of the royal family but when she travels abroad she must curtsey to monarchs around the world. As a sign of respect, the Queen Consort must always walk behind her husband King Charles.
Anne falls behind her younger brothers in the order of succession because male primogeniture served as protocol for the royal family from the Act of Settlement of 1701 up until 2013.
A clear indication that this part of the story is false. It is worth noting that this story only came about after Princess Eugenie's wedding where she wore the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara. Speculators assumed this had been the Emerald tiara that Meghan had coveted.