To mark Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement, the pair gave an interview to the BBC – and the Duchess of Sussex revealed what it was like to meet sister-in-law the now Princess of Wales for the first time
Meeting your partner’s family for the first time is daunting – not least for Meghan Markle, who had to introduce herself to royalty when she first started dating Harry. And the Duchess of Sussex revealed her first impression of her sister-in-law Kate after meeting her at a private dinner she hosted with her then husband-to-be.
Harry spotted Meghan on Instagram in 2016 before asking her out to dinner at Soho House in London. From there, the couple went on more dates before spending a week camping in the wilderness together. After Harry and Meghan’s engagement in 2017, the couple gave an interview to the BBC’s Mishal Hussein and recalled Meghan’s first meeting with Kate.
Speaking at the time, Harry said: “It was exciting I mean I’ve – you know I’d been seeing her for a period of time when I literally didn’t tell anybody at all.
“And then William was longing to meet her and so was Catherine, so you know, being our neighbours, we managed to get that in a couple of – well quite a few times now and Catherine has been absolutely…” And Meghan with a one-word answer chipped in: “Wonderful.”
She praised the Royal Family for being so welcoming toward her and recalled the special moment when she met the late Queen for the first time.
Meghan said: “I think, you know, to be able to meet her through his lens, not just with his honour and respect for her as the monarch, but the love that he has for her as his grandmother, all of those layers have been so important for me so that when I met her I had such a deep understanding and of course incredible respect for being able to have that time with her. And we’ve had a really – she’s – she’s an incredible woman.”
When Meghan first joined the royal fold, many thought that she and Kate would be able to bond over their shared experience of marrying into the Royal Family. But it seems the two women never really hit it off, due to vastly different personalities, and later Meghan admitted suffering a ‘jarring’ moment on seeing Kate for the first time.
Speaking in episode two of the six-part Harry & Meghan Netflix, Meghan explained: “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.”
Meanwhile, Harry went into more detail surrounding the two women in his memoir Spare, as he recounts several times that his wife, Meghan, seemed at loggerheads with his sister-in-law, Kate in the early days of their romance.
He claims 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 lip gloss. And he writes how Kate asked for an apology from Meghan when she accused her of having “baby brain” following the birth of Prince Louis.
Harry also pinpoints the exact moment he realised Meghan and Kate might not have been on the same page during the very same dinner. In Spare, Harry notes how Meghan cooked and that all seemed to be going well as they chatted about Wimbledon and the legal drama Suits.
He writes: “The only possibly discordant note I could think of was the marked difference in how the two women dressed, which both of them seemed to notice. Meg: ripped jeans, barefoot. Kate: done up to the nines. No big deal, I thought.”