Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton’s cry-fest over bridesmaid dresses leading up to the Duchess of Sussex’s royal wedding marked the “beginning of the end” for their relationship.
British royal expert Hilary Fordwich made the claim after royal author Tom Quinn revisited the alleged clash in his book “Yes, Ma’am: The Secret Life of Servants.” May 19 also marks Markle and Prince Harry’s seventh wedding anniversary.
“In isolation, this incident could be construed as either minor or irrelevant, but it became a flashpoint exposing far deeper tensions between Meghan Markle and Princess Catherine,” Fordwich told Fox News Digital.
MEGHAN MARKLE’S ‘MESSIAH COMPLEX,’ FREQUENT HUGS SPARKED CLASH WITHIN PALACE BEFORE ROYAL EXIT: BOOK
“Now, with the benefit of hindsight, it can be seen as the beginning of the end of their relationship. It was not, as it seemed at the time, the end of the beginning. The dress incident was not isolated. There were already many tensions.
“This private conflict, leaked to the press, became a media firestorm, marking a significant escalation in tensions and, over time, further amplified by the media, compounded and complicated by personal, cultural and institutional differences.”
After Markle said “I do” to Harry, reports surfaced that the sisters-in-law disagreed over the tailoring of Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress, which caused Kate to cry. However, in her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Markle claimed “the reverse happened.” She also claimed Kate later apologized for making her shed tears.
Quinn claimed a royal staffer gave an account of what really happened behind palace doors.
“You remember all the fuss about Meghan being accused of making Kate cry when they had a dispute about Charlotte’s bridesmaid’s dress?” said the staffer in an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital.
“Well, I can tell you that all the papers and commentators got this wrong – the truth is that, as with many of these spats between sisters, brothers, or even sisters-in-law, both sides were really upset.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
“The truth is that during the discussions about the bridesmaid’s dress, Meghan said a few things she regretted, and Kate said a few things she later regretted, but it was all in the heat of the moment.”
“Both women were crying their eyes out!” the staffer claimed. “The incident with the bridesmaid’s dress became a kind of marker for all the other problems that Meghan had with Kate and with William and other members of the family.”
WATCH: KATE MIDDLETON SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATED ROYAL LIFE WHILE MEGHAN MARKLE STRUGGLED FOR THIS REASON, AUTHOR SAYS
Fox News Digital reached out to Archewell, which handles the offices of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Kensington Palace for comment. A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace previously told Fox News Digital,”We don’t comment on such books.”
The disagreement reportedly centered on how Princess Charlotte’s dress fit for the wedding, resulting in the women exchanging heated words.
Fordwich pointed out that Kate had just given birth to Prince Louis and was described as “quite emotional” at the time. However, when Markle spoke out about the disagreement to Winfrey in an interview viewed by nearly 50 million people globally, it was “the last straw in the eyes of royal courtiers.”
“They are extremely protective of Princess Catherine,” said Fordwich. “She has always been very forgiving, but Prince William is adamant regarding there being no further contact with Meghan.”
LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
“Meghan and Princess Catherine came to blows over bridesmaid dresses,” British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard claimed to Fox News Digital.
“If this is their only personal upset, then they are doing pretty well! [But] emotions were running high in the lead-up to the wedding. From what I understand, all the bridesmaid dresses were huge, with very little time to make them good. No one would have wanted the bridesmaids, especially Princess Charlotte, to look like a laughingstock. I’m sure both ladies shared a similar perspective, that they wanted the outfits to fit well.”
“Having said that, Princess Catherine has nothing in common with Meghan,” said Chard. “Catherine is standing by her husband and following in the late Queen Elizabeth II’s footsteps – keeping quiet and carrying on.”
During her sit-down with Winfrey, Markle told the media mogul that “it was a really hard week at the wedding” and Kate was “upset about something.” However, she later “owned it” and “apologized.”
“She brought me flowers and a note apologizing,” said Markle. “I think it’s — I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that because she apologized, and I’ve forgiven her.”
The former American actress said she found it “shocking” that the dispute hit the press several months after the wedding.
“I would have never wanted that to come out about her ever, even though it happened,” she said.
The interview, which detailed the couple’s struggles with royal life, highlighted explosive accusations. One of the claims made was that someone in the family questioned the skin color of Markle’s baby before he was born. Harry later clarified that the royal in question was not the late queen or his grandfather, Prince Philip.
Following the tell-all, a statement was released by Buckingham Palace on behalf of the queen that read, “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much-loved family members.”
Harry later wrote about the spat in his 2023 memoir “Spare.” In it, he claimed that his sister-in-law texted Markle four days before the wedding that, “Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long, too baggy. She cried when she tried it on at home.”
According to Harry’s book, Markle directed Kate to see the tailor at Kensington Palace, but it was Kate who insisted “all the dresses need to be remade.” After a “back and forth” between the women, Harry said he later found Meghan “on the floor, sobbing.”
“I was horrified to see her so upset, but didn’t think it was a catastrophe,” he wrote.
MEGHAN MARKLE’S ‘WILD ABOUT HARRY’ COVER STORY ENGULFED ROYALS WITH DREAD, EMBARRASSMENT: EXPERT
Harry added that the next day, Kate visited with flowers and a card to apologize.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals in 2020, citing the unbearable intrusions of the British press and a lack of support from the palace. They moved to California.
“I hope by now, as they are both adults and mothers too, that they can put all of this behind them,” said royal expert Ian Pelham Turner about the wives. “I believe behind the scenes, they tried to do that. Meghan sent Kate a very kind message during her early days of cancer. If anyone can repair the damage… it’s these two ladies.”
In March of this year, Quinn claimed to Fox News Digital that the Duchess of Sussex’s frequent hugging had become a problem among the royal family. The over-familiarity was considered “rude” by staff, who claimed Kate, as well as William and King Charles III, would “flinch” when Meghan moved in for an embrace.
“Tension developed between William and Harry as a result of Meghan’s warm, friendly, hug-everyone approach,” Quinn wrote.
“It made William uncomfortable because she hugged him virtually every time they bumped into each other; the hugging and cheek kissing fueled gossip among the staff that Meghan was flirting with William, which she was obviously not, but the tense atmosphere caused by all the touchy-feeliness (and the resultant gossip) deepened the rift between the brothers.”
Quinn told Fox News Digital that while all the staff he spoke to agreed that the rumors were untrue, Kensington Palace was also a “hothouse where gossip and rumors develop.”
“These rumors could become a life of their own,” he said. “The senior royals have to stop them before they start. Meanwhile, Meghan was upset and felt that the royal family was… pushing her away. I think the fact that Meghan felt slightly rejected was one of the reasons why this whole project [being senior royals] didn’t work.”
“She was very warm,” said Quinn. “Whenever she met other members of the family, she would hug them… the royals just don’t do that… Meghan was astonished, for example, that Charles was so formal with his mother. It was as if she couldn’t understand why the family was so cold. She came from a tradition where if you met someone close to you, you hugged them.”
“Yes, Meghan got very bad press in the U.K.,” Quinn continued. “She was nicknamed the ‘Duchess of Difficult’ by people who worked for her when she was a member of the royal family, and also by other members of the royal family.”
Markle also spoke about being a hugger in her 2022 Netflix series “Harry & Meghan.”
“Like I was a hugger, always been a hugger,” said Meghan. “I didn’t realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.”
MEGHAN MARKLE’S ‘AVALANCHE OF MISSTEPS’ MAKE IT A STRUGGLE TO WIN BACK THE PUBLIC: EXPERTS
“I guess I’d start to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside,” she said. “There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door, and you relax now. But that formality carries over on both sides, and that was surprising to me.”
