A lip gloss, a dress and a misunderstanding with Camilla: here are the reasons for the anger between Meghan and Kate

In 2018, when Princes William and Harry still got along and couples were referred to as the “x”, it was a tabloid tip that broke that happy image of Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton, marking the beginning of the fractures between the four. Prince Harry gave his version of this incident in his memoir, Shootin which he also reveals the hitherto unknown role played in the dispute by his stepmother, Queen Camilla.

As the Duke of Sussex tells in the book, it all started with a message Kate Middleton sent to Meghan during the preparations for the latter’s wedding. “Apparently there was a problem with the bridesmaids’ dresses. They had to be changed. The dresses, which were French couture, had been hand-sewn to size, so it was no wonder they needed alterations.”

Prince Harry explains that his wife wrote to Kate to let her know when the tailor was available for alterations. However, it was not enough for Kate Middleton, who replied to her sister-in-law: «Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long and too wide for her. She burst into tears when she tried it at home.’

“Okay, and I told you that your tailor is available from eight in the morning. Here. in Kensington. Can’t you get Charlotte to make adjustments like the other mothers?” Meghan replied. Kate told her no, they needed to be redone, and made new demands on the pageboys’ clothes. Meghan burst into tears, overwhelmed, according to Harry, not only by the wedding preparations but also by the confrontation with her father, who had just cheated on her. Harry consoled her, assuring her that Kate meant no harm.

“Indeed, the next day Kate showed up with flowers and an apology note»writes Harry.

However, things didn’t end there. Shortly after the wedding, a British royal journalist published an article on Kate and Meghan’s “frosty and detached” relationship, claiming that “Meg made Kate cry over her bridesmaids’ dresses”. The falsehood of this information outraged Harry and Meghan, who then arranged a meeting with William and Kate in their Kensington Palace apartment.

According to Harry, the sister-in-law got straight to the point. «Meghan, I know I made you cry», he says he told his wife. “Meghan was grateful for her apology, but she wanted to know why the press said those things and what she was doing to clarify them,” continues Harry.

That’s when Prince Harry has pointed the finger at Camilla as responsible for the misunderstanding. “Willy [il principe William] he leaned back in his chair and admitted that while we were on tour in Australia, he and Kate had gone to dinner with Camilla,” he says. “And, sadly, he said, that perhaps he had let it slip that there had been a conflict between the couples.” Prince Harry lets slip that it was Queen Camilla who leaked the discussion to the press. According to Harry, Camilla has been leaking information about other members of the royal family to the press for years to get positive coverage of her, a strategy she started using when she was one of the most hated women in the country due to her rivalry with the popular Diana.

“There was an open willingness on both sides to exchange information,” Harry said, referring to Camilla and the tabloids in an interview with the US program 60 Minutes. “And given the hierarchy that exists in the royal family, with her [Camilla] that she aimed to become queen consort, this meant that she would do anything to get that role».

Whether or not it was due to Camilla’s strategy, the argument between Kate and Meghan over Princess Charlotte’s dress was not the only one between the two sisters-in-law.

Prince Harry says that, in June 2018, he and Meghan Markle visited Prince William and Kate Middleton in their Kensington flat. All went well “until Meg broached the topic of tension between the four of them.” According to Harry, that’s when Kate and William brought up other things that were worrying them. First they said they were angry because they hadn’t received anything for Easter. Harry and Meghan apologised, but took the opportunity to tell them that they in turn didn’t like the fact that on their wedding day they “moved the cards and decided where to sit”, choosing to sit together rather than separately like the other married couples (as the American tradition says).

Things went from bad to worse and, according to Harry, Kate suddenly said Meghan owed her an apology. Apparently, during a conversation about wedding preparations, Kate forgot something and Meghan told her her oversight was likely due to hormones, as she was pregnant with her third child at the time.

Kate didn’t take the comment well: «Yes, you mentioned my hormones. We don’t have much confidence to talk about my hormones!». Prince William jumped into the discussion and, pointing a finger at Meghan, told her that that kind of comment is rudesays Prince Harry in the book.

In another chapter, Harry also says that Kate “she looked disgusted” when Meghan asked him for lip gloss. The sister-in-law’s gesture was “something we could have laughed at shortly after, and she instead left a small mark”. “Then the press sensed something was going on and tried to turn it into something worse.”

Harry, who has never criticized Kate before, she also scolds her sister-in-law for suggesting her ea William about dressing up as a Nazi at a party they went to together. Harry wanted to make her laugh and decided to take her advice, with the catastrophic consequences of her choice. “I liked seeing Kate laugh. In fact, I liked making her laugh. And I was pretty good at it. My totally transparent comic side immediately got along well with her totally masked comic side. Whenever I feared that Kate would take Willy away from me, I consoled myself thinking about the laughs we would have in the future and I told myself how nice it would be to have a girlfriend who could laugh with us ».