The big difference between Meghan Markle’s and Kate Middleton’s pictures we never noticed

It says a lot about the Duchesses’ backgrounds

Kate Middleton has been Duchess of Cambridge for nearly a decade now. She married into the royal family in 2011 and has attended a large number of official engagements. Her sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has made fewer public appearances during her years as a royal. However, royalty fans quickly noticed a striking difference between how Meghan and Kate have their photos taken.

Kate Middleton

During her time at university, Kate already had to learn how to avoid the paparazzi’s cameras. She has been in the public eye ever since she started dating Prince William, back in 2003. Since 2011, the year she married her prince, she has been making official appearances as a royal. But in all the photos taken of the Duchess, there’s one detail we never noticed before, until Meghan Markle came along and acted differently.

Meghan Markle

Before she married Prince Harry and became a Duchess, Meghan Markle was already used to being surrounded by cameras. As a successful actress, she spent many hours on set and on the red carpet. Meghan’s acting background is also very much visible in the pictures taken of her during her public appearances as a royal. She distinguishes herself from Kate Middleton because of one small detail that makes all the difference.

Eye contact

If you look closely at photographs taken of Kate, you may notice that the Duchess always averts her gaze. Kate never looks directly down the lens of the camera. Meghan’s eyes, on the other hand, seem to meet the photographer’s eyes time and again.

Body language expert Judi James explains this difference to Cosmopolitan: “Although Meghan is the same age as Kate, there is a virtual generational difference in their relationships with the camera,” Judi says. “Like many young women of the selfie generation, Meghan’s habit of doing what is called ‘camera courting’ (addressing the camera with a direct gaze), suggests a desire to communicate openly and confidently in the way that her peers would do via social media and blogs.”

Red carpet experience

But that’s not the only reason. “There is a moment in an actor’s life when they do have to court the cameras directly as Meghan does, and that is during red carpet appearances,” Judi continues. “This is the one occasion when an actor will learn to pick out the cameras in the crowds and engage it with prolonged bouts of direct eye contact to get the shot. It could be that this red carpet technique is the one Meghan is mimicking when she works the crowds with Harry.”

The comparison below is only one of the many examples. We never noticed it before, but once you see it, there’s no un-seeing it!

Source: Cosmopolitan | Images: Brunopress