Meghan Markle’s “cruel” words about Princess Charlotte apparently reduced Princess Kate to tears and further cemented the rift between them that has continued to this day.
In spite of Meghan finding herself in a similar position to Kate when she married Prince Harry, as a non-aristocratic outsider joining the Firm, the two women struggled to build a friendship.
In the run-up to Meghan and Harry’s May 2018 wedding, tensions reached fever pitch, as it was reported at the time that the Duchess of Sussex made Kate cry in a row over bridesmaid’s dresses.
However it was later clarified that it was in fact Meghan who had been crying, and Harry also confirmed that Kate had sent flowers over to apologise.
But in the book ‘Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War between the Windsors’ author Tom Bower adds further fuel to the fire by claiming that Meghan compared Charlotte to her best friend Jessica Mulroney’s daughter Ivy.
But the Duchess was firm in her mind that her bridesmaids should not wear tights, and was backed by her then-close friend Jessica Mulroney.
They also disagreed about the hem of Princess Charlotte’s dress, which Kate “felt was too short and anyway did not fit”, the book claims.
Meghan’s inability to “compromise” made Kate upset, but three years later Meghan was able to give her side of the story in her and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey.
The Duchess explained: “She [Kate] was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she bought me flowers.
“A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.
“And I thought, in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, that it didn’t make sense to not be just doing whatever everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive, knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot.
“It wasn’t a confrontation, and I actually think it’s… I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that, because she apologised.”