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Instead of an elegant bob, the Prime Minister’s curtsy looks more like a crooked lunge, leaving the Duke of Cambridge a little taken aback at Amiens Cathedral yesterday.
In June, Mrs May treated William to a similar display at a ceremony at the Defence and National Rehabilitation Centre with her long legs splayed out awkwardly.
According to English etiquette bible Debrett’s, women should curtsy when being introduced to a member of the Royal Family, then again when they leave.
It states: “To make a curtsy briefly bend your knees with one foot forward.” But this is a movement the PM seems to struggle with.
Mrs May is not the first politician to over-egg her curtsy. Margaret Thatcher habitually dipped almost to a crouching position while greeting the Queen.
But it is not just the uninitiated that struggle.
Despite attending the exclusive Hurst Lodge preparatory school, Sarah Ferguson executed an awkward manoeuvre on her wedding day.
In a voluminous silk dress, the Duchess of York might as well have prostrated herself on the floor as she greeted her new mother-in-law, the Queen.
Men get off lightly when it comes to royal protocol and are merely required to bow.
Debrett’s states a bow should be “made by bending from the neck or shoulders while briefly lowering your eyes”.
Former Australian prime minister and staunch republican Julia Gillard decided to swerve the curtsy altogether when she met the Queen in 2011, shocking protocol experts by opting for a swift bob of the head and a hand shake.
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