Princess Catherine’s sweet gesture with Roman Kemp’s family appeared to dismiss Meghan Markle’s “surprised” claims about how royals behave, even during informal settings. The Princes of Wales met the TV and radio star’s dad at his family home in Hertfordshire back in February 2023, after they teamed up for a short film for her Shaping Us mental health campaign.
The two got in touch after Catherine watched Mr Kemp’s documentary on men’s mental health. In a new interview with The Sun on Sunday, Roman spoke about his father, I’m a Celebrity star Martin Kemp, and revealed his sweet friendship with the future Queen, as well as her kind and relatable nature. The 32-year-old said that Catherine took her shoes off when she entered the house.
He revealed: “I remember when she arrived, she could see everyone else had taken their shoes off so she offered to take hers off.
“It was surreal. Somehow, you never expect to see a member of the Royal Family in their socks!”
Meghan Markle spoke about how the Royal Family carry on with the formality even behind closed doors when speaking on her and Prince Harry’s Netflix docuseries.
In episode two, the Duchess of Sussex recalled showing her that she met the Prince and Princess of Wales for the first time and alleged that, while she was more casual given the informal setting, that did not apply to her future in-laws, which she found “jarring”.
She said: “Even when Will and Kate came over and I had met her for the first time, they came over for the first time, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot.
“I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside, that there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and think, ‘OK we can relax now.’
“But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.”
She added: “I was a hugger and have always been a hugger. I didn’t realise that that was really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
Elsewhere, Roman revealed that his parents gave the future Queen some of their own apple juice, which Prince George ended up loving.
He revealed: “Later, my parents gave her some of the apple juice which they press in their garden to take home as a little gift.
“A few weeks later she wrote a lovely letter which my mum has kept thanking them and saying that Prince George loved the juice and is there any chance of more!”
