Prince Harry met with Melania Trump at the Invictus games in Toronto over the weekend, and the pair snapped a few photos together during the event. In nearly all of them, Harry has his middle and ring fingers tucked into his jacket with his thumb while his pointer and pinky fingers remain visible.
While the gesture could mean nothing at all, many people are curious about the fact that Harry seemingly held his hand like this for a good amount of time, which could mean he wanted the gesture to be photographed and noticed.
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And because this is the Internet, Twitter has offered several theories behind the prince’s possibly-innocent move, with several people claiming that Harry was flashing a sign of the devil.
Prince Harry meeting FLOTUS and making devil hand sign. Is that a Hi Donald, or I’m Here So I Won’t Get Fined? pic.twitter.com/BN61WH3dGx
— Karen DaltonBeninato (@kbeninato) September 23, 2017
Prince Harry giving us a subliminal message that he knows the Trumps are the devil, too 😂 Trying to ward off the evil 🤣 pic.twitter.com/1b6w1XGtOI
— Sarah (@goldenlamb13) September 24, 2017
Is it just me, or does it look like Prince Harry is flashing some secret rescue hand signal here? pic.twitter.com/Hc2wkI1TUi
— Kevin Flynn (@kevinpflynn) September 23, 2017
Harry has previously held his hand in his jacket, but Patti Wood, body language expert and author of Snap: Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language & Charisma, told The Huffington Post that this specific gesture is a new one for the royal.
“This is called the horn or the devil’s horn, and what people are saying in the media about it is not correct,” she said. “It is not a sign that he’s the devil, but rather a warning off of evil spirits. It’s a protective gesture against evil or darkness and illness.”
Joe Navarro, body language expert and author of What Every Body is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People, said that he doesn’t think people should read too far into Harry’s gesture.
“Had the photographers loitered too long? Is there something else going on?” he asked, adding, “To me, you can’t draw too many inferences from the photo. I wouldn’t personally read too much into that.”
Both experts, however, noted that there was visible tension in Harry in the photos.
“There was some psychological discomfort,” Navarro said. “The look of his face, the look of his hand is very unusual, except for the fact that he and his brother have a tendency to cover their belly which is a self-soothing behavior to deal with a bit of tension.”
Photo Credit: Getty / Pool / Samir Hussein
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