Queen Camilla showed her true colours last week (Image: Getty)
Queen Camilla recently broke royal protocol during her and King Charles’s state visit to the US, and the move has gone largely unnoticed. The King and Queen spent four days in the US visiting Washington DC, New York and Virginia.
During their visit to New York, the royal couple paid tribute to the victims of the 9/11 terror attack and said they “stand in enduring solidarity with the American people”. Charles and Camilla’s words of sympathy were written in a message left with a bouquet of flowers placed at the imposing memorial in New York, honouring the thousands of people who lost their lives almost 25 years ago.
Those who died have been immortalised by the tribute Reflecting Absence – twin waterfall pools that sit in the footprints of the World Trade Centre’s north and south towers brought crashing down when terrorists flew passenger planes into the buildings.
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Queen Camilla shares a hug with Anthoula Katsimatides (Image: Getty)
Queen Camilla meets bereaved families of 9/11 (Image: Getty)
During their visit, Charles and Camilla were accompanied by media mogul and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, chairman of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, who took up office just a few months after the terrorist attack.
They also met another member of the board of directors of the memorial, Anthoula Katsimatides, who was among other bereaved 9/11 family members.
Ms Katsimatides’s brother, John, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, was one of those killed during the 9/11 attacks.
He was a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, dying at the age of 31 on the 104th floor of The World Trade Centre.
Camilla was seen breaking royal protocol and hugging Ms Katsimatides, who opened up about their meeting.
She said: “I asked if I could hug her. She didn’t hear it at first, so I repeated myself and she smiled and said ‘of course’. I’m from Queens and am Greek and we hug.”
Anthoula Katsimatides lost her brother at the 9/11 attacks (Image: Getty)
She added: “It’s a real honour for them to come and visit to pay their respects. I can’t stop crying, but it’s fine. The memories are as fresh for me today as they were 25 years ago.”
Ms Katsimatides then said: “One of the big concerns for us is that a generation is growing up not knowing 9/11 and what happened.
“So to bring a King here to remember the 25th anniversary is so important. It reminds people. We all have a personal story to tell.”
While not an official royal rule, it is generally thought that it should be avoided initiating physical contact with a member of the Royal Family unless they offer it first.
However, in recent years, the royals have been more keen to breach the code and have been seen physically interacting with members of the public on many occasions.
According to the Royal Family’s official website, there are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting the King and Queen or a member of the Royal Family, but many people wish to observe the traditional forms.
For men, this is a neck bow (from the head only) whilst women do a small curtsy. Other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way.
On presentation to the King, the correct formal address is ‘Your Majesty’ and, thereafter, ‘Sir’.
On presentation to The Queen, the correct formal address is ‘Your Majesty’ and subsequently ‘Ma’am,’ pronounced with a short ‘a,’ as in ‘jam’.
For male members of the Royal Family, the same rules apply, with the title used in the first instance being ‘Your Royal Highness’ and subsequently ‘Sir’.
For other female members of the Royal Family, the first address is conventionally ‘Your Royal Highness’ and subsequently ‘Ma’am’.