Meghan Markle Was "Naive" for Thinking the Royals Were "Formal and Standoffish," Says Expert

Prince William and Princess Kate recently appeared on Mike Tindall's podcast The Good, The Bad & The Rugby, surprising and delighting fans in equal measure.

As part of this conversation, we got to hear a bunch of super fun tidbits about the Prince and Princess of Wales' royal life, as they chatted and bantered with Tindall and his co-hosts, as well as Princess Anne.

Most incredible was Kate's revelation that she really enjoys a spot of beer pong from time to time, as the group joked about how competitive the Waleses are with each other. Beer pong! A princess!

Anyway, this podcast appearance made it clear to listeners everywhere that despite their royal status, William and Kate are down to earth in many regards, and are also really fun to be around.

This, according to royal expert Jennie Bond, stands in stark contrast to remarks Meghan Markle once made about the royals while she was explaining why she felt out of place among them on the Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan.

"I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside," the Duchess of Sussex explained. "That there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and 'phew I can relax now' but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me."

For Bond, Meghan had misunderstood how the Royal Family works.

"The picture we got from this podcast was of a family very far removed from the one described by Meghan when she complained about how formal and standoffish she found them," the expert commented, speaking to OK!.

"They are a family where trust is everything. And it obviously takes a certain amount of time to build up trust. If that surprised Meghan, then she was being naive."

I can see all sides of this, TBH. I agree with Bond that of course the royals know when to relax and have fun, and that of course it's important to make sure you can trust someone before you let them in fully.

But that doesn't mean that—from her subjective point of view—Meghan didn't feel excluded or unwelcome, especially since Americans are typically more open off the bat than British people are. Two things can be true, ya know?