Royal Romance on Life Support? Shocking 2018 Video Resurfaces Showing Meghan Markle’s Hand Reach Brutally REJECTED by Prince Harry – And the Internet Is Calling It the Most Awkward Moment in Royal History“It’s like watching Bluetooth searching for a signal that was never there.” The savage meme that broke the internet in 2018 is back, and it’s more painful than ever.
London, December 1, 2025 – A six-year-old clip from October 2018 has exploded across social media again, and royal watchers are declaring it the single most telling moment in the entire Harry-and-Meghan saga. The footage, taken as the couple arrived at the Sussex Royal Instagram account’s inaugural post-event in Sussex (yes, really), shows Meghan Markle extending her hand toward Prince Harry in what appears to be an instinctive bid for affection… only for Harry to keep walking, eyes forward, leaving her fingers grasping at thin air.
The rejection lasts less than two seconds. But in the slowed-down, endlessly looped version that has racked up 47 million views in the past 72 hours alone, it feels like an eternity.And the internet has spoken with brutal unanimity: the Bluetooth meme was prophetic.“The Range Just Isn’t There” – The Meme That Aged Like Fine (and Savage) WineOriginally posted by a now-deactivated Twitter account in October 2018 with the caption:
“Watching Meghan try to grab Harry’s hand is like watching Bluetooth try to connect to the wrong device. The range just isn’t there.”
The tweet went viral within hours, was stitched into TikTok sounds, and became the defining joke of early “Sussexit” skepticism. At the time, Palace PR dismissed it as harmless banter. Seven years, one explosive Oprah interview, one memoir titled Spare, one Netflix docuseries, and countless “sources close to the couple” later, the clip feels less like a joke and more like a documentary.Frame-by-Frame: The Cringe That Keeps on GivingLet’s break down the now-infamous 1.8 seconds:
- 0.0s: Meghan, glowing in a navy Givenchy coat, steps out of the car beaming.
- 0.4s: She subtly shifts her handbag to her left arm and extends her right hand downward, fingers relaxed – the universal “hold my hand, babe” signal.
- 0.7s: Harry, staring straight ahead like a man who has just remembered he left the stove on at Buckingham Palace, keeps both hands firmly in his coat pockets.
- 1.2s: Meghan’s hand hovers for a split second, realizes the connection has failed, and retreats.
- 1.8s: She recovers with a hair tuck and that trademark megawatt smile, but the damage is done.
Body-language expert Judi James, speaking to British tabloid The Sun this week, didn’t hold back:
“That was a public micro-rejection of seismic proportions. Meghan offered affiliation and Harry declined without even registering the bid. In royal terms, that’s the equivalent of shouting ‘I want a divorce’ through a megaphone at Trooping the Colour.”
The Comments Section Is a BloodbathTikTok users have set the clip to everything from sad violin music to the Windows XP shutdown sound. Top comments as of this morning:
- “Bluetooth searching… searching… device not found ”
- “This is the exact moment he realized the AirPods weren’t connecting either.”
- “She upgraded to Spotify and he stayed on cassette tapes.”
- “The royal family watching this like ‘Welcome to the club, Meghan’.”
Even some former Meghan defenders are throwing in the towel. One viral post with 1.2 million likes reads: “I was Team Sussex until I saw this in 4K. The ick is terminal.”Palace Sources vs. Montecito SpinUnsurprisingly, the Sussex camp has stayed silent – a rarity these days. But an anonymous “friend of the couple” reportedly told Page Six that the moment was “taken out of context” and that Harry “simply didn’t see” the hand because he was “focused on greeting well-wishers.”Royal historians, however, point out that Harry was famously tactile with Kate Middleton and even with palace staff in his pre-Meghan days. Photos from the exact same 2018 tour show him holding Meghan’s hand literally minutes earlier while walking into the event. The contrast is… noticeable.
The Bigger Picture: A Love Story Slowly Losing SignalSince stepping back from royal duties in 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have faced relentless speculation about their marriage.
From Harry’s solo appearances to Meghan’s increasingly independent branding (hello, American Riviera Orchard), the cracks have been impossible to miss.And now this 2018 clip – once dismissed as petty gossip – has become exhibit A in the prosecution’s case that the problems started long before Megxit, before Oprah, before Spare. As one X user perfectly summed it up:
“In 2018 we laughed because it was awkward.
In 2025 we’re crying because it was a warning.”
Bluetooth never did connect that day. And six years later, many are wondering if the signal between Harry and Meghan ever truly locked in at all.Stay tuned. Because if royal history has taught us anything, it’s that when the memes write themselves this brutally, the truth usually isn’t far behind.
