UNBELIEVABLE!’: Meghan Markle’s awkward moment left major royal ‘grimacing’
Prince Harry detailed the “awkward moment” between his wife Meghan Markle and sister-in-law Princess Catherine over lip gloss in his bombshell memoir Spare
The Waleses and the Sussexes shared a close bond from the outset (Image: Getty Images)
Princess Catherine was reportedly left horrified by Meghan Markle during an uncomfortable encounter involving lip gloss.
In his explosive memoir, Spare, Prince Harry confirmed the widely rumoured friction between the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex, both 44. He outlined the pair’s disputes over bridesmaid dresses and, ultimately, how the Waleses and the Sussexes stopped sharing the same communications staff within the palace.
Even the two women’s backgrounds were worlds apart, as Harry revealed a particular “awkward moment” in which Catherine “grimaced” at his wife over the manner in which she applied some borrowed lip gloss backstage at an event. This follows a royal author disclosing Catherine’s “final straw” with Harry.
Harry wrote, “All this came on the heels of an awkward moment backstage. 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.”
Harry continued, “Kate grimaced. Small clash of styles, maybe? Something we should’ve been able to laugh about soon after. But it left a little mark.
“And then the press sensed something was up and tried to turn it into something bigger. Here we go, I thought sorrowfully.”
The Waleses and the Sussexes shared a close bond from the outset. So close, in fact, that they were famously dubbed the “Fab Four” once they began appearing together at joint engagements.
Following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement announcement in 2017, both Prince William and Princess Catherine voiced their delight for the couple.
In a joint statement with her husband, Catherine said, “We are very excited for Harry and Meghan. It has been wonderful getting to know Meghan and to see how happy she and Harry are together.”
Catherine subsequently told reporters, “William and I are absolutely thrilled. It’s such exciting news. It’s a really happy time for any couple and we wish them all the best and hope they enjoy this happy moment.”
In 2018, following the announcement of Meghan’s first pregnancy with Prince Archie, Catherine once again conveyed her delight.
“It’s such a special time to have little kiddies. And a cousin for George and Charlotte, as well, and Louis. It’ll be really special,” she told the press.
However, it later emerged that, beneath the joyful exterior, tensions had been simmering between the pair.
Just days prior to Harry and Meghan’s May 2018 wedding, a dispute arose over alterations to Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress.
Initially, reports leaked to the press suggested that Meghan had left Catherine in tears. Yet during her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan insisted the “reverse happened.”
Prince Harry divulged an ‘awkward moment’ (Image: Getty Images)
Tensions came to a head in June 2018 at Kensington Palace, when Catherine was reportedly left offended after Meghan suggested she might be suffering from “baby brain” due to hormones following the recent birth of Prince Louis.
Catherine allegedly informed Meghan that they were not sufficiently close to be discussing her hormones, while Meghan was reportedly left baffled by Catherine’s response.
Ultimately, reports suggest that Catherine and Meghan never forged a close friendship before the Sussexes relinquished their roles as senior royals and relocated to the US in 2020.
Since their departure, the couple has repeatedly aired family grievances across numerous interviews, while Harry continued to make explosive claims about virtually every member of the Royal Family in his memoir, Spare.
Now, Catherine has reportedly given up attempting to encourage William to mend his relationship with Harry, and did not push him to meet with his brother during his recent visit to the UK.
This latest development follows a source telling Us Weekly that she had been “trying to convince” her husband to meet with his estranged brother, and had even planned to speak with Harry herself.
Prior to Harry’s trip, reports suggested that Catherine had reached her “final straw” with Harry following his remarks about King Charles’ cancer, according to one author.
In his biography of the Princess of Wales, Kate! The Courage, Grace, and Power of the Woman Who Will Be Queen, royal biographer Christopher Andersen claimed that Catherine had initially refused to abandon her efforts to help heal the rift between William and Harry. Nevertheless, the 41-year-old Duke of Sussex’s remarks about King Charles’ death during an early May interview with the BBC abruptly brought Catherine’s efforts to a halt.
“She would not give up,” Andersen told Fox News Digital. “Even after Harry threw William under the bus in his memoir Spare, she was willing to keep trying. And the final break came.
“The final straw came really shortly after the king was diagnosed with cancer, when Harry [essentially] said, ‘I’d like to mend fences because we just don’t know how long [my father] has to live.'”
“Well, that kind of statement can be very hurtful to somebody who doesn’t really want to consider their own mortality and is battling cancer.”
In March 2024, the Princess of Wales publicly revealed her own cancer diagnosis, following major abdominal surgery.
Andersen told Fox News Digital that Harry’s remarks concerning Charles’ cancer were “hurtful” to Catherine and “ignited this firestorm of speculation about how sick the king really was at this point.”
The author suggested that Catherine subsequently resolved to withdraw entirely from any further attempts to intervene in the fractured relationship between Harry and William.
