Queen Camilla ignores royal tradition to give warm greeting to friend Dame Judi Dench

She may be Queen Camilla these days but that won’t stop Her Royal Highness from ignoring royal traditions to give her friends the hello they deserve.

The 74-year-old royal this week hosted a reception at Hampton Court Palace inviting her famous pals, and it seems as though she made it clear they didn’t need a formal hello.

After getting out of her car, the Queen walked over to greet a group of friends including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Joanna Lumley and Sir Derek Jacobi, and they each appeared to curtsey or bow as a sign of respect which caused a rather awkward moment.

A video posted to Twitter showed Camilla approach Dench and go straight in for a kiss on the cheek, however, the actress was mid-way through giving her friend a formal greeting and gently curtsied causing a slight fumble and giggle afterwards.

The Queen then moved on to her friends Gyles Brandreth, and Lumley giving both of them a similar warm greeting by kissing them on both cheeks. Both Brandreth and Lumley offered a respectful bow or curtsey in return

According to the Royal Family website, there are no current obligatory rules on how a member of the public should greet members of the Royal Family, however, past traditions have seen men bow their heads and women give a small curtsey.

Despite the lack of rules, hugging is reportedly not encouraged but a handshake is allowed.

It comes after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Netflix docu-series Harry & Meghan was released and appeared to show the Suits actress mocking the royal tradition.

Recalling her first encounter with the Queen, Meghan mocked her attempts to adhere to royal protocol and recreated her first curtsey to the late Queen Elizabeth.

She described the moment as “surreal” and compared the meeting to a dinner at “Medieval Times”, an olden-day themed dinner event with sword-fighting and jousting performances.

Markle then performed a curtsey in front of Harry, who seemed awkward and quiet throughout the reenactment.

“She had no idea what it all consisted of,” Harry said in the scene. “So it was a bit of a shock to the system for her.”

Markle went on to say: “I didn’t know I was going to meet her until moments before. We were in the car and we were going to the Royal Lodge for lunch, and he [Harry] was like, ‘Oh, my grandmother is here, she’s gonna be there after church.’

“I remember we were in the car, driving and he’s [Harry] like, ‘You know how to curtsey, right?’ And I just thought it was a joke.”

The duke then relayed to the audience: “How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you would need to curtsey, especially to an American. That’s weird.”

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.