France’s first lady made an embarrassing blunder at the D-Day memorial today that left onlookers cringing.
During the service the Queen and Brigette Macron, both dressed in stunning white dresses, laid wreaths of flowers at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer.
After they placed the bouquet, the pair stood back to reflect on the moment and Macron reached out for Camilla’s gloved hand.
However, Camilla withdrew and did not return the gesture for a moment and the wife of the French Prime Minister grabbed it.
The Queen and Brigitte Macron laid flowers at the memorial
GETTY
After she gave the monarch’s hand a slight squeeze, Macron dropped it and the two stood side by side in front of the memorial as they reflected on the significant monument.
Even though it was a sweet gesture from Macron, getting up close and personal with members of the Royal Family is usually frowned upon.
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On the royal website, it claims that there are “no obligatory codes of behaviour” when meeting members of the Royal Family, but there’s an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t try and get too friendly.
The late Queen Elizabeth was known for keeping a firm distance from her subjects and, except for her family, was not one for dolling out affection.
Brigitte Macron is not the first person to make this mistake and follows in the footsteps of Hollywood star Tom Cruise who offered his hand to Kate Middleton to assist her up a small set of steps at the Top Gun: Maverick premiere.
Michelle Obama famously put an arm around the late Queen when she met her in 2009, a gesture that Queen Elizabeth returned.
Brigitte Macron reached out for the Camilla’s hand
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Although the incident was a cause for concern the time, reflecting on the interaction 10 years later, during a 2019 London promotional event for her memoir, Michelle Obama said it was a “natural human reaction” to get so touchy with Queen Elizabeth.”
She said: “What is true among world leaders is that there are people who handle protocol, and usually the people they’re representing don’t want all that protocol.
“So you wonder, well, who are you doing this for? Because they don’t want it, we don’t want it.
Emmanuel Macron also kept King Charles and Queen Camilla waiting when he was 20 minutes late
Getty
“But it’s just the way things are. So I don’t know that I could have done anything differently because it was a natural human reaction.”
President Emmanuel Macron also kept King Charles and Queen Camilla waiting when he was 20 minutes late for the D-Day memorial ceremony today.
Cnews, the TV news outlet, wrote: “While the King and Queen of England were already installed, Emmanuel Macron and his wife arrived twenty minutes late for the Franco-British ceremony, which shocked the English.”