People are saying Meghan Markle broke royal protocol when she was just being nice

Meghan Markle has been in Edinburgh with fiancé Prince Harry visiting Social Bite centre, a Scottish homelessness charity - where she reportedly broke royal protocol by hugging the charity's co-founder.

Alice Thompson told the bride-to-be she was “deeply inspired” by the speech she made at the UN Women Conference in 2015.

In a burst of emotion, Markle hugged Thompson – reportedly breaking a protocol as members of the royal family rarely hug members of the public.

However when Indy100.com asked a Clarence House spokesperson if such rule appears to exist, they laughed and added "not that I am aware of".

How curious. There are not any official rules about meeting a royal, and the royal family website states:

There are no obligatory codes of behaviour when meeting The Queen or a member of the Royal Family

While the royal family don't tend to engage with the public in that way, this may just be because it would be exhausting to hug 300 members of the public in the space of an hour.

Journalist Omid Scobie, who was at the scene, recalled what happened:

Lovely.