Princess Kate has won praise from fans online as footage of her performing reverential royal curtsies has gone viral on TikTok.
Curtsies are traditional gestures of respect offered by female members of the royal family to the monarch and their consort twice each day, once upon meeting and the second upon saying goodbye.
A curtsy takes the form of a short bending of the knee and bowing of the head. Traditionally, curtsies were offered by members of the public to royalty, with men offering a customary bow of the head. However, today, these are not expected, though some still choose to offer them of their own volition.
Most prominently, curtsies today are displayed at events where the king and queen are present with members of the extended royal family.
Since her marriage into the monarchy in 2011, Princess Kate and her curtsies have drawn repeated focus at large-scale events, from jubilees to pageants, and concerts to coronations.
Uploaded to TikTok by user @queen.lilibethwindsor on August 26, footage of Kate offering a number of curtsies has gone viral in a compilation of clips featuring other royals performing the gesture; these include Queen Camilla (when she was still Duchess of Cornwall), Princess Anne, Meghan Markle and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.
The first clip shown was captured as Kate offered a curtsy to her father-in-law, King Charles III, during the state visit of the president of South Korea in 2023. The princess stepped on to a special dais on which the monarch was standing to greet the president, offering a quick curtsy as she passed wearing a striking red caped outfit.
The video also includes footage of Kate curtsying during the coronation ceremony in 2023, wearing her blue-and-red robes as a member of the Royal Victorian Order, and clips of the princess curtsying to the late Queen Elizabeth II on a number of different occasions.
The post has received in excess of 20,500 likes and numerous comments, many of which have praised Kate and other royals included in the video footage for their graceful curtsies.
"Now THAT is a killer curtsy from Kate," wrote one TikTok fan. "Stylish, respectful, elegant. The Princess of Wales is a true star."
"She never misses a beat," posted another, with a further comment reading: "Meghan, she always looks so elegant. everything looks so good on her... And Catherine is always so respectful."
Meghan sparked a curtsy controversy in December 2022, when she said that she thought it was a joke when she was first asked if she knew how to perform the gesture to Queen Elizabeth II while dating Prince Harry. The duchess retold the story in her Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, accompanying the anecdote with an exaggerated bow.
Despite this, Meghan displayed a number of elegant curtsies to Queen Elizabeth during her time in Britain, which won her praise from fans.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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