Beyonce Breaks Royal Protocol While Meeting Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, and the Beyhive Has Words

It is hard to keep up with all the royal family rules, even for Beyonce and Jay-Z. The music power couple met royal power couple Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at the premiere for The Lion King in London Sunday and stepped on their security’s plans at Leicester Square.

A source told Entertainment Tonight that Beyonce and Jay Z breached royal protocols just by arriving later than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. This gave the singer and rapper a chance to “upstage” the royals because they got a much bigger applause from the crowd than Harry and Markle.

Some members of Beyonce’s fan base reacted to the news she broke royal protocol.

Thanks to videos from journalists and onlookers, fans are getting a sense of the words Markle and Beyonce exchanged during the event. Beyonce was heard calling Markle “my princess” when they hugged and called Markle and Harry’s son Archie “so beautiful.” She also reportedly told the royals that she and Jay-Z “love you guys.”

Harry was reportedly heard telling Beyonce, “You’ve been rather busy.”

“Congrats on the birth of your baby,” Jay-Z later told them.

This was the first red carpet event of its kind for Harry and Markle since they married in May 2018. It was also their first major public appearance since Archie was born in May.

Before the Lion King premiere, Markle was spotted at Wimbledon twice, and attended the King Power Charity Polo Day with Archie on July 10 to see Harry play.

Beyonce voiced Nahla in Disney’s remake of The Lion King. She also contributed a new song, “Spirit,” to the soundtrack. The song was originally planned to be played over the end credits, but it ultimately ended up being used in the film itself. It was co-written with Ilya Salmanzadeh and Timothy McKenzie.

“I suddenly thought, ‘No, no, no. This song is a gift. This song does a great bit of storytelling.’ … I just thought, ‘Hang on. We should try this at this different spot as opposed to the end title,’” composer Hans Zimmer, who wrote the score for the original film, told HuffPost of the song. “I think it will be, if it’s in the body of the movie and it’s over a crucial scene, I think it will have much more resonance and weight.”

Zimmer added, “I know she got really excited about that, too, to be in the movie as opposed to that spot.”

The film includes several of the original Elton John/Tim Rice songs from the 1994 film, including “Circle of Life,” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” and “Can You Feel The Love Tonight.”

The Lion King opens on July 19.

Photo credit: NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP/Getty Images