The facial expressions of royal family members during Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding have gone viral after footage resurfaced on TikTok.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex married in a fairy-tale ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018.
One fan of Princess Diana and the British royals posted a video on TikTok showing clips of Harry and Meghan at the altar edited together with shots of the facial expressions of different family members.
Prince Harry lifts Meghan Markle’s veil during their wedding ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018.
Prince Harry lifts Meghan Markle’s veil during their wedding ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, on May 19, 2018.
Owen Humphreys – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Why It Matters
At the time, they were loved by the British public and there was little outward hint of the full-blown royal rift that would later ensue.
Now though, it has become common for royal fans on TikTok to paw over footage from the Sussexes’ wedding looking for clues about how Harry’s relatives really felt during the ceremony.
It is, of course, extremely difficult to discern a person’s overall impression of an event—let alone a marriage—purely from a small selection of fleeting facial expressions.
However, videos of this nature can attract large audiences on social media.
This clip has been liked 960,000 times and viewed 12.7 million times, putting it at the higher end of traffic volumes for TikTok royal content that looks back at the past.
The post sought to contrast the reactions of the royals at St. George’s Chapel with Queen Elizabeth II’s expression at Prince William and Princess Kate’s wedding at Westminster Abbey in April 2011.
Queen Elizabeth II’s Reaction
The TikTok video begins with a clip of Harry and Meghan at the altar in St. George’s Chapel interspersed with clips of the queen.
While Elizabeth was not particularly smiling in those moments, it is difficult to discern what she was really feeling.
Some press images show the queen smiling during the ceremony, including outside the chapel.
The edit goes on to show Prince Philip, King Charles III, Queen Camilla, Zara Tindall, Prince William, Princess Kate and Princess Beatrice.
It then cuts to clips from Kate and William’s Westminster Abbey wedding in 2011, ending on a moment when the prince bowed and the princess curtsied to the queen, who appeared to respond with a nod of approval.
Again, press images from the day show moments when Elizabeth was smiling and others when she was not.
Left, Queen Elizabeth II is seen smiling outside St. George’s Chapel after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding and, right, watching intently during the couple’s wedding ceremony inside the chapel on May 19, 2018.
Left, Queen Elizabeth II is seen smiling outside St. George’s Chapel after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding and, right, watching intently during the couple’s wedding ceremony inside the chapel on May 19, 2018.
Alastair Grant – WPA Pool/Getty Images and JONATHAN BRADY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Wider Discussion of Queen Elizabeth II’s Feelings About Harry and Meghan’s Wedding
Lady Elizabeth Anson, a cousin and friend of the queen’s, told the biographer Sally Bedell Smith that the monarch had shared some views about Harry and Meghan’s big day.
The queen died in 2022 and Anson in November 2020, making it harder to verify the account, however, Bedell Smith posted extensive quotes from those interviews on her substack blog Royal Extra in 2025.
Anson said the queen had a difficult phone call with Harry about who would officiate the wedding ceremony at St. George’s Chapel.
Harry had asked the Archbishop of Canterbury without consulting the Dean of Windsor, who was in charge of the chapel.
“Harry has blown his relationship with his grandmother,” Anson was quoted as saying. “She said she was really upset. I was shocked when the queen told me this, how she was so saddened.
“I had no idea about the conversation, that he was rude to her for ten minutes. They had tea with her the day before yesterday. She was trying to find out about the wedding dress, and Meghan wouldn’t tell her.”
“Harry seems to think the queen can do what she wants, but she can’t,” Anson added. “On the religious side, it is the Dean of Windsor’s jurisdiction.”
Ingrid Seward, in her book My Mother and I, wrote that Anson had also passed on some of the queen’s views to her.
She wrote: “Lady Elizabeth told me that the Queen had made only one remark to her about Meghan and Harry’s wedding, which was that the bride’s Givenchy wedding gown was ‘too white.’
“In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcee getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal.
“Nor was the Queen comfortable with the Prince of Wales’s [Charles’] decision to stand in for Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, and walk her down the aisle.”
Left, Queen Elizabeth II smiles at Prince Philip during Prince William and Princess Kate’s wedding at Westminster Abbey, on April 29, 2011, while, right, another photo shows her watching the ceremony intently.
Left, Queen Elizabeth II smiles at Prince Philip during Prince William and Princess Kate’s wedding at Westminster Abbey, on April 29, 2011, while, right, another photo shows her watching the ceremony intently.
Dave Thompson and Kirsty Wigglesworth – WPA Pool/Getty Images
Prince Harry and Meghan Describe Their Relationship With Elizabeth
Harry and Meghan have always presented themselves as close to the queen, with the prince telling Hoda Kotb in a Today interview in May 2022 that: “We have a really special relationship. We talk about things that she can’t talk about with anybody else.”
Meghan also told Oprah Winfrey in March 2021 about a special moment she shared with Queen Elizabeth in June 2018, a month after the wedding, on a visit to Mersey Gateway Bridge, in Widnes, England.
“She gave me beautiful pearl earrings and a matching necklace,” Meghan said. “And we were in the car going between engagements, and she has a blanket that sits across her knees for warmth.
“And it was chilly, and she was like, ‘Meghan, come on’ and put it over my knees as well. Just moments of…and it made me think of my grandmother, where she’s always been warm and inviting and…and really welcoming.”
Meghan has also spoken in the past about the impact social media criticism has had on her mental health, including to the Teenager Therapy podcast in 2020 when she said social media abuse had been “almost unsurvivable.”
“Yes, it’s a great way to connect, but it also ends up being a place where there’s a lot of disconnection, you know, I can speak personally to,” she said.
“I’m told that in 2019 I was the most trolled person in the entire world, male or female. Now, eight months of that I wasn’t even visible, I was on maternity leave or with a baby.
“But what was able to just be manufactured and churned out, it’s almost unsurvivable.”
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly 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.