In fact, nourished as we are on a diet of passionate smooches and 22-kisses-a-movie promises, the lip-lock between Prince William and his bride, the newly anointed Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, was a royal disappointment! Admittedly the pressure to perform on the two was immense, with two billion around the world gathered to witness their first snog as a royal couple. What else did you expect of the British, snickered a colleague. They are so cold they are known to make love with their socks on! But still, you do expect much more from a couple who has had almost a decade to perfect the art!
The saving grace was that in admirable contrast to Prince Charles's stiff cold-lipped greeting of his shy bride Princess Diana 30 years ago, son William was warmer and more human. Still, a somewhat sad-looking, shy Di arching her graceful long neck to reach for Charles's reluctant royal lips is a far more picture-worthy and touching moment than the coming together of the new royals who, after all, looked like any other young couple in love!
However, William's kiss was no display of British coldness, but of royal decorum. Stepping back from the first kiss, delivered with his hands clasped together tellingly in front of him, William is supposed to have murmured "I love you" to his bride. Or so say lip readers, the latest tool of paparazzi. The lascivious crowd exhorted, "More, more, we want more...kiss again!" Lip readers decipher the prince's next words thus, "'Let's give them another one. l love you. One more kiss, one more kiss, okay." And the couple leaned in to yet another 'lip-sealed' sedate peck. But this time they couldn't conceal the amusement in their eyes or the happy smile on their lips. Kate giggled, William grinned.
The crowd shouted in ecstasy as the storybook walk of 'one of them' from commoner to princess was sealed with a kiss, so what if it was a sealed-lip kiss!
The tightly pursed mouths and conscious restraint clearly signified the beginning of a more responsible relationship, one that takes into account the burden of responsibility that future monarchy imposes on young William and Kate. No more can they cavort in public. Perhaps that is why the young couple took nine years to formalise their relationship; the only thing that changes with the vows is that their embraces and public dalliances are henceforth subject to public approval or disapproval as behaviour befitting the future king and queen. In fact, the couple didn't seal their wedding with a kiss at Westminster Abbey as the Church of England forbids it in holy sites. With this wedding, Diana's son has formally and consciously stepped into the royal frame set up for him since birth.
Back in 1981, when the crowds clamoured for a Charles and Diana kiss on the balcony after they married, Charles reportedly murmured to Di, "I am not going to do that caper. They are trying to get us to kiss." And she is supposed to have responded, "Well, how about it?" Their body language showed a miserable-looking Charles's extreme reluctance, portending a disastrous marriage.
The body language of young William and Kate was diametrically opposite. Happy, totally in love, shy, exchanging loving glances and sharing a clear connect - body experts talk of their 'total confidence' and how they looked into each other's eyes while taking their vows. The young couple was regally composed with an irrepressible happiness shining through. Just like the kiss that will, for a long time to come, be a defining image of their wedding day.
