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Prince Harry Breaks Royal Protocol and Closes His Own Car Door

What is for all of us the most natural gesture in the world when getting out of the car is for the likes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a breach of royal protocol. One year after Meghan, Prince Harry has done it too.
Prince Harry arrives in London, breaks royal protocol and closes his own car door 16 photos
Photo: Instagram / Harry_Meghan_Updates
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Stop the presses because a fully-grown, completely able man just shut the door of the car he’d exited. Prince Harry has sent the media and royal-watchers in a frenzy by following in the footsteps of his American wife and breaking protocol by personally closing the door of the car he’d traveled.

It happened some hours ago, as Prince Harry arrived at the 5th anniversary of the Invictus Games at the Guildhall in London, U.K. He came alone and, after getting out of the car, he oh-so-casually reached back and shut the door.

While supporters online are praising him for being humble and down to earth, much like his former actress wife, royal-watchers are up in arms. They have some amount of justification for their outrage, too: the reason members of the Royal family are not allowed to close their own car doors has nothing to do with being snotty or lazy, and everything to do with security.

Sometime last year, after Meghan’s first breach of protocol of this type, insiders were telling the British media that all cars used by the Royals have self-locking doors. The reason they should let their security detail handle the issue of closing the door is that the door must never be closed, and therefore locked, so as to allow for a very quick escape in case of an emergency.

Whenever Harry or Meghan close the door behind them, they add a few more seconds to the time their security team would need to get them inside the vehicle if they’re under threat. The same insiders were saying that, for this reason, Meghan had been “barred” from doing it ever again.

There is no video yet of Prince Harry’s arrival at Guildhall, but the video report available below includes more photos of the “rebellious” gesture.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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