When Meghan Markle stepped onto the stage at the royal foundation forum alongside her future husband Prince Harry, Prince William and Princess Kate in February 2018, it seemed to mark an exciting new chapter for the Firm.
Excited fans believed the future of the monarchy looked bright as the ‘Fab Four’ made their first joint appearance together since the announcement of Harry and Meghan’s engagement.
But behind the smiles, tensions were brewing.
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It was Prince Harry who lifted the lid on behind-the-scenes difficulties, describing an “awkward moment” that he said highlighted a cultural clash between Meghan and Kate.
He wrote: “Meg asked to borrow Kate’s lip gloss. An American thing. Meg forgot hers, worried she needed some, and turned to Kate for help.
“Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube. Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced. Small clash of styles, maybe? Something we should’ve been able to laugh about soon after. But it left a little mark.”
Harry further speculated that Kate was likely “on edge”, understanding that she was now “going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg”.
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According to a royal author, however, it was by no means the only awkward moment from that day. At one point, Harry is said to have interrupted Meghan with a whispered comment after she reportedly created an awkward atmosphere with some of her remarks.
In his book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War between the Windsors, Tom Bower claimed that the Duke’s interjection during Meghan’s speech was much more weighted than first thought.
While the four all laughed at Prince Harry’s comment, the author believes it was the royal’s way of reminding his fiancée at the time not to get ahead of herself.
Meghan was outlining the important work she hoped to get involved with in empowering women – until Harry spoke up to remind her they also had a wedding to plan.
She told the audience, “With so many campaigns like MeToo and TimesUp, there’s no better time to continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered and people supporting them.
“You’ll often hear people say, ‘Well you’re helping people find their voice’ and I fundamentally disagree with that, because women don’t need to find a voice. They have a voice, they need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen.”
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However, as Bower noted, while the royals are patrons of the Foundation, they have limited influence on its direct activities.
“That power was exercised by the Foundation’s executives, an unimpressive group criticised for ineptly moving the royals around like chess pieces,” Bower wrote.
“While William, Kate and Harry had become accustomed to their motley behaviour, Meghan’s arrival as a natural recruit for the Foundation’s philanthropic work disturbed the rhythm of the executives’ habits. Her feminism also upset their ingrained conservatism.”
He continued: “She had not been invited to join the Royal Foundation to reinvent the Royal Family’s customs.
“While Meghan spoke, Harry spotted William’s rictus grin… “‘Wedding first,’ Harry whispered loudly.
“‘We can multitask,’ Meghan replied to the unexpected interruption.”
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Bower stated: “Instead of speaking about mental health she had been swept up by her vision of a modern monarchy. She imagined herself as centre-stage rather than recognising the reality of standing on the periphery. As the discomfort among the four became obvious, William tried to restore harmony.
“The Crown, he volunteered, should be ‘relevant to their generation’ but the Four should ‘not reinvent the wheel’.”
In an ITV interview with Tom Bradby in January 2023, Harry claimed Kate and William didn’t get on with Meghan “from the get-go”. Asked why the relationship got off on a bad note, Harry said there were “lots of different reasons”.
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He went on: “I don’t think they were ever expecting me to get into a relationship with someone like Meghan, who had, you know, a very successful career. There was a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning.”
Pushed on what he meant by that, Harry continues: “American actress, and that was playing out in the British press in the media at the time as well. I had that in the back of my mind, and some of the things that my brother and sister-in-law – some of the way that they were acting or behaving definitely felt to me as though unfortunately that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really sort of, you know, introducing or welcoming her in.”
Asked specifically what he meant, Harry added: “Well, American actress, divorced, biracial – there’s all different parts to that and what that can mean.”
