Watch to find out more about the selfie ban.
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An almost inevitable result of any interaction between celebrities and adoring fans would be the request for a selfie. For the fan, it’s their way of bragging to their social media friends that “I met him/her!” and for the celebrities, it’s their way of staying connected to the fans and proving to one and all that despite their star power, they’re always “approachable.”
The British royals are celebrities in their own right, as the hordes of paparazzi who follow them prove, yet they still try to maintain a strict set of rules and etiquette that its members are expected to adhere to during public engagements.
Meghan Markle, a former Hollywood actress who is used to having close contact with fans, tends to bend these rules a bit. For instance, despite a standing protocol of having no physical contact with fans, Markle can sometimes be seen doing exactly that. Even Kate Middleton has occasionally broken some of these rules.
However, there is one particular rule that every royal, including Markle and Middleton, has never broken and that’s the ban on selfies with fans. And there’s a simple yet surprising reason why.
According to Greg Agnew, a royal fan who in May 2017 was one of those in attendance at the Queen’s Buckingham Palace garden party, revealed to INSIDER that the attendees were barred from taking selfies with the royals for the simple reason that it is seen as disrespectful.
Agnew explained, “The one thing they talked about a lot was no selfies, and the reason was that they didn’t want people turning their backs to the royal family and the queen. And that was very important to them.”
Agnew has invested in companies such as Google, Apple, and Facebook but that didn’t exempt him from the ban. They weren’t even allowed to approach Prince William and Kate Middleton, who were also at the party.
“You do not turn your back on the royal family, and you do not attempt to walk up and talk to them,” he explained.
“They had people who would walk around and pre-choose who was to have a conversation, and those people that had been selected had been positioned strategically every hundred meters or so, and the members of the royal family would go along and talk to one group of people and move to the next.”
While there is no official comment from Buckingham Palace regarding the supposed ban, Meghan Markle has practically confirmed that it exists.
After Markle’s engagement to Prince Harry in 2017, she was at her first royal walkabout in Nottingham, UK, when a couple requested a photo from the duchess. But Markle reportedly said, “We’re not allowed to do selfies.”
Selfies are “strongly discouraged” among the royals, said CCN Royal Commentator Victoria Arbiter during a previous interview with INSIDER.
“Royals would always rather have a personal interaction than have people clamoring for selfies,” she said. “If you grant one, then it quickly becomes overwhelming.
“From a security standpoint, they’re also not ideal as they warrant a certain closeness,” she added.