Ever wondered what Prince Charles and Princess Diana were thinking when they had their engagement photos taken? Or whether you can tell what's in store for Prince William and Kate Middleton just from looking at their pictures? With under a week to go until the big day, we enlisted the help of Judi James, author of The Body Language Bible and Being Confident, to decipher what's going on behind the poses of both Charles and Diana and William and Kate, to see if it really is true love.
In focus: All you need to know about the royal wedding
First she took a look at Charles and Diana's engagement picture, taken in February 1981 and analysed their body language.
"It's easy to be retrospectively smart about Charles and Diana's iconic engagement pose, spotting his forced-looking smile and furrowed brow plus her pursed lips and narrowed eyes, but at the time it did seem to be a romantic-looking shot," James told tabloid!.
"He was placed on a higher step to accentuate status and masculinity (her height was seen as a problem) and the hand he's placed on her shoulder looks over-directed and awkward while the other is stuffed in his pocket in what looks like a desire to hide," she said.
Diana was made to look older than her years in the "matronly suit and pussy-cat bow that even Margaret Thatcher would have struggled to look right in," the body language expert continued, "Her arm forms a barrier while she displays the ring to camera and her expressive eye expression [like that of her husband-to-be] looks measured and slightly unhappy".
Charles and Diana married in 1981, having only met each other months beforehand, whereas William and Kate have been an item for at least the past eight years. The heir to the throne divorced Princess Diana in 1996 and she died just one year later.
Prince William on the other hand, has been keen to "get this Royal wedding right", choosing his own bride unlike Charles, and selecting Kate who is his age and also has a degree from the university where they met, James said.
The body language author, who has also worked with British reality show Big Brother and is Heat magazine's body language analyst, then took a look at William and Kate's first engagement pictures.
With William in a suit and Kate in a royal-blue Issa dress, the look is formal, but the pose is "far more equal-status and less emphatic of the traditional male/female roles," James said.
"While Diana looked shy and innocent beneath Charles's reassuring paw, Kate stands alongside her man oozing high levels of confidence and assured elegance. It's William who slightly mirrors his own mother's body language at the same event, using a shy smile, head-tilt and body-barrier gesture," she said.
So can she tell who's in charge in William and Kate's long-standing relationship, just by looking at the picture?
"Kate's open, perfect smile and symmetric, straight-on body posture suggests that although William's face-checking glances seemed to offering support it's Kate who will ultimately be the one doing the role of confident reassurance," she said.
The second photo was shot by Mario Testino, who famously took iconic, enduring pictures of Princess Diana just one month before her death.
This picture shows William and Kate cuddled up together, suggesting that "despite the regal, formal tag, William is keen to promote the warmer and more openly emotional side of his relationship, encircling Kate protectively in his arms while the pair replicate the look of love for the cameras," James said.
"It's all cuddles and woolly jumpers and is exactly the sort of thing Diana could pull off but Charles — with his more formal and less spontaneous public displays of affection — never could," she said.
What does this ultimately mean, then, for the happy couple? "It presents William and Kate as a real, loving couple rather than the rather formal, distant, idealised ‘fairytale' romance that Charles and Diana tried to depict," James concluded.
************************
True love analysis? William and Kate's tell-tale signs
We've seen what can be gleaned from analysing pictures, but what about how Prince William and his bride-to-be interact in person?
Patti Wood, body-language expert and author of seven books on the topic, has analysed President Obama, Bill Clinton and a host of other celebrities and politicians simply by their movements and gestures.
She gave tabloid! her take on Prince William and Kate Middleton's relationship, from her observations of filmed interviews.
The look of love
They look at each other often. There is also a lot of mutual gazing. That means they look at each other and connect, often lingering for the telling three-second count. (The three-second count indicated a high level of physical attraction.) When Kate responds to questions she looks at the interviewer not at William for approval as Diana often did when she first was engaged to Charles. Instead Kate looks at William with respect and affection.
The look of confidence
Kate watches William closely when he is talking, she does stand back slightly to show her place, but she doesn't bow down her head in submission or lack of confidence as you used to see Diana do in Charles' presence. Kate keeps her head and chin on what I call the "midline" for the throat window, showing her confidence and ease in high-stress media moments.
They are in sync
In photos you often see them taking on mirrored body language poses to each other. That frequent matching and mirroring shows they are in sync. In a recent interview they did tit-for-tat matching. This is another kind of isopraxism (or mirroring) in synchronous relationships. It is a dance of tit-for-tat movement. For example, one would move their upper body forward while the other moved an arm forward, one would move their head up and down, the other would move their arm up and down. Their body language shows synchronicity.
A love story
If you watch and listen to William as he tells the story of their proposal you will notice that is he truly happy, his smile is large, his voice is animated, and playful (more so than his normal baseline voice). He enjoys telling the story of the proposal. The words flow out smoothly and enthusiastically.
A body language expert's secret
When I am with couples I often ask about their first date, when they fell in love and/or their proposal. You can tell so much about a couple by how they tell and or listen and chime in as they tell their "love stories." Kate didn't chime in, which is appropriate to her role, but she certainly beamed and he wasn't tired of telling the tale. When Kate speaks her voice is happy, and she too has a nice smooth flow in her speaking, that shows ease and a true positive feeling.
