Woman who filmed girl hugging Meghan Markle forced to deny she was planted by PR staff

The woman who filmed a girl hugging Meghan Markle on a walkabout outside Windsor Castle has denied she was planted in a PR stunt.

Isabelle Charters, 25, met the Duchess of Sussex on 13 September as she greeted mourners and viewed floral tributes in the wake of the Queen's death with her husband, Prince Harry.

The Duchess was filmed greeting the well-wishers before she was asked by Amelka Zak, 14, if she could hug her, and she happily obliged.

The footage was later reposted to social media, where it quickly went viral, garnering 3.9 million likes on TikTok alone.

Isabelle captioned the now-viral TikTok: "Meeting Meghan, what a beautiful soul. We love and support you."

"Oh my goodness. You are literally so beautiful," she can be heard saying in response to the hug.

While many people were touched by the sweet exchange, some critics suggested Isabelle was a PR plant to improve Meghan's image in the UK after she and Prince Harry stepped down as senior members of the Royal Family in early 2020.

Isabelle has now posted another follow-up video insisting that she was not planted there deliberately and said she didn't even know Meghan was going to be there.

She added that she did not previously know Meghan after others suggested that they knew each other from the Invictus Games.

"This may shock you but the girl next to me who ended up hugging Meghan, I have never met in my life," she said.

"I have no relationship with this girl. I'm not associated with her. We were purely next to each other in the crowd by chance. We were total strangers.

"So ultimately I wanted to show that the experience and interaction that we had with Meghan was really lovely and genuine.

"And she was so kind to us, even though it was short it was really sweet and don't believe everything you read online."

TikTok / @izzychar97

As reported by the MailOnline, Amelka explained to CNN why she wanted to hug Meghan.

She said she thought it was the right thing to do after 'everything that's happened' as she wanted Meghan to know that people in the UK still like her.

Amelka added: "We were just waiting for her to come and she came near me and asked my name and how my day was, how long I was waiting.

"And I asked her if I could have a hug, and she hugged me back. It was quite an amazing moment. I'm still shaking now."

Topics: News, Royal Family

Emma Guinness

@guinness_emma