Earlier this week, on Thursday, March 8, my favorite (sorry, William and Kate) royal couple attended an International Women's Day event in Birmingham, England, meant to encourage young women and girls to pursue careers in STEM fields. How amazing is that? But, like any time this couple is spotted in public, in addition to taking in Meghan's effortlessly cool style and Harry's ginger handsomeness, we can't help but be on the lookout for clues about what the two are really like behind closed doors. Thankfully, we have Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's body language to help give us a few hints.
For example, the two are set to wed in May 2018. Is the pressure getting to them? Or are they settling into their new life? Maybe they are more in love than ever? Since the couple can only tell us so much themselves, it was time to call in an expert. Elite Daily contacted Patti Wood, a body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language, and Charisma, to get her take on what the pair's body language at the International Women’s Day event can reveal about them. And folks, if you love Meghan and Harry as much as I do, get ready to be super stoked.
For Wood, everything you need to know about the couple’s dynamic you can learn from their… hands? Yep, the first thing she noticed was how they are holding hands: “The hand hold is something we’ve seen before,” says Wood. “We know … this is their way of holding hands. It’s very nicely intertwined, but neither person is holding on too tight. It’s very level if you look at it straight on. It just says that they are very comfortable being interlaced with one another.”
Meghan’s other hand also caught Wood’s eye. “I’ve noticed that women in certain settings put the purse inside … I always love it when a woman holds a hand on the inside and doesn’t have a purse in the way," she says. "It says that [Harry's] more important than anything else.”
In this image, Wood sees that Meghan is truly happy because of the way her face is "lifted" in a smile. "If you look at all the muscles, they are just pulled upward, all the way up to her forehead. Her eyebrows are raised up — and then the open-mouth, front-teeth-showing smile," she says. "This is very spontaneous; this is not a painted-on smile."
But again, it’s Meghan’s hands that give Wood the best insight into the couple. “If you look at her hand, you see how it's actually touching him, and the fingers are very relaxed,” she says. “She’s doing that little touch, the ‘can you believe it?' touch, where you’re having this moment, and you’re sharing it with your partner, so you need to touch them so they feel exactly what you’re feeling.”
It’s this final picture that Wood finds the most surprising and illuminating. In this case, it’s Harry’s hand that she focuses on. “This is really interesting, because it's very mixed in terms of what he’s doing. He’s grabbing her," says Wood. "My intuition is that he’s trying to get her away from that crowd, because the grasp is actually very strong. It's the same kind of grasp on a child that’s about to go in the crosswalk … but he’s playful at the same time. The grip is saying, ‘I am going to be in the moment with you, but I am also going to keep you safe.’”
As to why that’s so significant, Wood adds, “It shows something I haven't seen in him before: that he’s very aware of where she is and wanting her to be safe ... but he has this other part that can connect with her.”
Meghan appears to be unfazed by his guiding hand, however, which Wood says bodes well for the couple. “Again, she’s got that smile. She’s got the shoulders like ‘oops,’ [but] she’s not embarrassed by it," she says. "She doesn’t feel chastised by him, which speaks very well of their relationship. They’re having a smiling moment with it, which tells me more than any other photo of theirs that they are going to make it.”
I never thought I was much of a romantic, but hearing that Meghan and Harry are really in love and are "going to make it" is enough to warm even my cold little heart.
