Prince William and Kate Middleton shared a “look of love” that went viral on TikTok during the Commonwealth Day service.
The Prince and Princess of Wales had a brief aside on March 13 while sitting in Westminster Abbey, which was also their wedding venue in 2011.
William appeared to shrink down to see beneath the rim of Kate’s Philip Treacy hat, which was similar to the one she wore to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in September.
A video showing their interaction was viewed nearly 200k times and liked almost 8k times after it was shared with the message: “The Look of Love.”
One comment read: “Their looks say more than a million words. Complicity, love and tenderness; that’s what William & Catherine are.”
In the clip, Kate leans over to William to whisper something and prince appears to reply: “Really?”
The moment came during King Charles III’s first Commonwealth Day service since becoming monarch in September.
Anti-monarchy protesters gathered outside with banners chanting “not my king,” the second time Charles was heckled in a week.
The king and Queen Camilla were booed during a visit to Colchester, in Essex, England, on March 7 in a sign their coronation in May could be a bumpy ride.
Commonwealth Day has in the past been the scene of high drama after it was Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s final royal job before they quit Britain for a new life in America in March 2020.
However, there was a dispute ahead of the service after Harry and Meghan, who had announced their resignations two months earlier, were not invited to process into the abbey with Prince William.
The book Battle of Brothers by Robert Lacey claims: “When Harry heard that he and Meghan had been so graphically shunted aside on this final appearance, he was furious.
“The subservience of a ‘spare’—one of the basic reasons for this very sad parting of the ways—could not have been more strikingly illustrated.
“The phone lines had hummed over the preceding weekend (the service was on a Monday afternoon)—and fortunately Prince William had more sense than his underlings.
“He and Kate would be quite happy, he declared, to skip the procession and to take their places without ceremony in the congregation alongside Harry and Uncle Edward.”
However, Lacey wrote that the slight to Harry was plain for all to see in the order of service, which had already been printed “explaining to the congregation that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would enter and process down the aisle with the main royal party —making no mention at all of William’s younger brother and his wife. So there was the snub in black and white—plainly set out for all to see.”
Jack Royston is the chief royal correspondent at Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
Prince William and Kate Middleton shared a “look of love” that went viral on TikTok during the Commonwealth Day service.
