KATE V MEGHAN
Rumours of a Royal rift reminiscent of Diana and Fergie split
SHE was the fairy princess, the beautiful American actor who mended Prince Harry’s broken heart and captivated the world with her poise and glamour.
But just six months after her wedding to Prince Harry, the woman known formerly as Meghan Markle is facing a torrid time in the UK, accused of being difficult, demanding and not getting along with her sister-in-law, the former Catherine Middleton.
She is also accused of splitting up the brothers, Prince William and Prince Harry, and being behind the decision to move out to Windsor Castle before their baby arrives in March or April, meaning the two families will no longer be neighbours at Kensington Palace.
The two couples, known as the Fab Four, are also planning to split their royal households, meaning the brothers will not share an office, although they remain joint patrons of the Royal Foundation, William and Harry’s main charity.
Royal expert Katie Nicholl said she had been told of tensions between the group.
She said while the stories emanating from the royal court were all unconfirmed, “there’s never smoke without fire”.
“Kensington Palace are very keen to play down any narratives of a rift,” Ms Nicholl, who wrote the book, Harry:
Life, Loss, and Love, said. “We will see what happens with the Royal Foundation.
“There were high hopes that we’d have this wonderful glamorous foursome at Kensington Palace but this move to Windsor will put an end to that.
“Not since the days of Diana and Fergie have we had such a fascinating dynamic.”
Indeed, the way the British media has been reporting the supposed Meghan and Catherine split is eerily similar to events more than 30 years ago, when the public gushed over two earlier royal brides — Diana Spencer and Sarah Ferguson — before the coverage turned on Fergie, the outsider.
Only last month, Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, known formally as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were on every front page as they toured Australia, announced they were expecting a baby, and wowed crowds across the Pacific with their irresistible mix of royal glamour and approachable warmth.
Like the commoner Sarah Ferguson when she married Prince Andrew, Meghan was being hailed as the breath of fresh air the fusty royal family needed — the divorced, biracial American with a history of right-on activism.
She helped Prince Harry grow up seemingly overnight, from an angry, grief-stricken young man still broken over the death of his mother Princess Diana, who had spoken several times of his wish for a family of his own.
But in the past few weeks, stories have emerged from the royal courts criticising Meghan for such things as getting up each day at 5am, bombarding her staff with text messages, and failing to follow royal protocol (by not wearing a hat when the Queen did, closing her own car door, crossing her legs at the knee, and being too affectionate with Harry in public).
These were minor niggles, always attributed to anonymous sources, but things went up a notch with two stories on November 9 about Meghan and Harry supposedly being difficult in the lead-up to their wedding at St George’s Chapel.
According to The Sun newspaper, the Queen had to intervene after Meghan set her heart on wearing the emerald en crusted Vladimir tiara at the wedding.
Courtiers were concerned because the tiara is believed to have come originally from Russia, and Meghan — allegedly reluctantly — finally agreed to wear something else, settling on Queen Mary’s diamond bandeau.
According to the report, both the Queen and her longtime dresser, Angela Kelly, were surprised at how hard Meghan and Harry stuck to their demands and it was alleged there were “temper tantrums”.
“There was a very heated exchange that prompted the Queen to speak to Harry. She said, ‘Meghan cannot have whatever she wants. She gets what tiara she’s given by me’,”
The Sun reported.
On the same day, a new book by royal expert Robert Jobson, Charles at 70, claimed Harry was “petulant
and shorttempered” before the wedding, and was alleged to have raised his voice as he told the staff: “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.”
The Queen reportedly stepped in and put her grandson Harry “firmly in his place”, according to Jobson’s book. And things went thermonuclear last Sunday when The Sun’s royal reporter, Emily Andrews, revealed Harry and Meghan would not be moving into apartment 1A at Kensington Palace next door to William and Catherine early next year. Kensington Palace confirmed the news a few hours later, saying the pair would be moving out of Nottingham Cottage in Kensington Palace and into Frogmore Cottage at Windsor Castle.
That sparked the next round of criticism of the cost to taxpayers to upgrade the new home, which is disused and divided into five staff apartments.
Underlying all of this are persistent stories of a spat between Meghan and Catherine, and like Yoko Ono in the Beatles era, Meghan was somehow responsible for breaking up the brothers.
On Wednesday, The Sun’s front page screamed: “Meghan Made Kate Cry”, and said Catherine had ended up in tears at a bridesmaid dress fitting for her daughter Princess Charlotte before Meghan’s wedding, but didn’t say precisely how she’d ended up upset.
Ingrid Seward, editor-inchief of Majesty Magazine, said the sisters-in-law did have a “fractious relationship”.
“Kate finds Meghan overpowering, but Kate is far too clever to allow it to go on and as a future queen would have seen it as her duty to make amends with Meghan,” Seward said.
“I don’t think they will ever be best friends, but the story of their fallout is old and has only been written about because of the move to Frogmore.”
Seward, author of My Husband & I— the story of the Queen and Prince Philip’s marriage — said she doubted the move to Frogmore had anything to do with Kate and Meghan’s relationship.
“Harry finds Kensington Palace a gilded prison to live in and has always wanted to move out,” she said.
Nicholl said Harry and Meghan’s move to Windsor was “unexpected”.
“To be leaving William and Kate does hint at some underlying issues because the plan was originally for Meghan and Harry to stay at Kensington Palace.”
She urged people to “cut Meghan some slack”.
“Don’t underestimate how difficult it is to marry into the royal family.”