A tense clear the air meeting between Meghan and Kate was revealed by Prince Harry in Spare – and experts have explained how it changed the course of the monarchy
A clear-the-air meeting between Waleses and the Sussexes “ripped the monarchy to pieces”, a royal expert has claimed. Back in June 2018, the Prince and Princess of Wales met with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex after tension had brewed between the couples after Harry and Meghan’s wedding. It came after, as Harry recounted in his memoir Spare, that his new wife seemed at loggerheads with his sister-in-law in the early days of their romance.
He says the two women had a row over bridesmaid dresses in the lead-up to his wedding that left Meghan in tears and that Kate “grimaced” when the duchess borrowed her lipgloss. Both couples decided to have a clear-the-air chat shortly after the Sussexes’ honeymoon.
However, things got so tense that Kate’s fingers supposedly went white. Harry describes the moment in his memoir after he and Meghan were invited over to see William and Kate for tea at their Kensington Palace apartment. He recalls how both couples aired their grievances including Kate, who asked for an apology from Meghan as she gripped a leather sofa so tightly her “fingers were white”.
According to Spare, Kate wanted Meghan to say sorry for making a remark about her hormones and having “baby brain” while she was pregnant. The book then recounts how Meghan apologised and explained that is how she speaks to her friends.
But the encounter took a turn when Harry claims William “pointed a finger at Meg”, then allegedly blasted: “Well, it’s rude, Meghan. These things are not done here.” To which he says Meghan responded: “If you don’t mind, keep your finger out of my face.”
Now in a new Channel 5 documentary, ‘Meghan vs Kate: The Meeting That Changed the Monarchy’, royal experts believe this meeting was a turning point for the Sussexes as set the wheels in motion for Harry and Meghan to dramatically quit their royal roles.
According to the Daily Mail’s Richard Kay, this was the meeting that saw “the seed of Megxit sewn” while fellow expert Sarah Hewson said: “Had that meeting been a success, had they been able to put their differences aside, things would have been very different indeed.”
And chief royal correspondent from Newsweek, Jack Royston said: “If only they’d listened. If Meghan had listened what was being said to her, she could have changed way back in 2018. And even if they had still quit the monarchy, they could have saved themselves so much pain and so much conflict.
“What happened in that room back in June 2018 was the defining element of the relationship between the two couples that ripped the monarchy to pieces.”
While respected royal author Valentine Low added: “They had pathetic little differences that should have been sorted out in two minutes. But it helped fuel the flames.”
Harry’s observation in Spare comes after Meghan took aim at Kate during her and Harry’s Netflix docuseries. As she recalled their first meeting she said she was “surprised” by the behind-the-scenes formality of members of the royal family.
Speaking in episode two of the six-part Harry & Meghan docuseries, she said: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Meghan vs Kate: The Meeting That Changed the Monarchy, airs on Channel 5 on Saturday at 9.20pm.