Getting honest. Over the years, Princess Kate and Meghan Markle have offered a glimpse at their dynamic as they faced major obstacles in their friendship.
The duo initially seemed to hit it off when Prince Harry started dating the actress in 2017. At the time, Kate and Meghan joined Prince William and his brother on various royal engagements — which got them dubbed as the “Fab Four.”
The Duke of Sussex reflected on their close relationship during their first joint royal engagement.
“I think it’s really good that we’ve got four different personalities,” he said in February 2018. “You know, we’ve all got that same passion to want to make a difference. But [we have] different opinions, and I think those opinions work really, really well [together]. Working as a family does have its challenges. Of course it does. … But we’re stuck together for the rest of our lives.”
Meghan, for her part, noted that their decision to team up for their Royal Foundation nonprofit with William and Kate was “togetherness at its finest.”
Ahead of Harry and Meghan’s nuptials, rumors started to swirl of a growing rift between the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Sussex. Harry and Meghan later announced that they were stepping back from their duties as working members of the royal family. They confirmed their decision not to return to their senior roles in 2021.
“Following conversations with the duke, the queen has written confirming that in stepping away from the work of the royal family it is not possible to continue with the responsibilities and duties that come with a life of public service,” Buckingham Palace wrote in a statement in February 2021. “The honorary military appointments and royal patronages held by the duke and duchess will therefore be returned to Her Majesty before being redistributed among working members of the royal family.”
One month later, the California native broke her silence on the challenges she faced after moving overseas. “If members of [Harry’s] family say, ‘Well, this is what happened to all of us’ or if they can compare what the experience that I went through was similar to what has been shared with us — Kate was called ‘Waity Katie’ waiting to marry William,” she told CBS. “While I imagine that was really hard, and I do, I can’t picture what that felt like. This is not the same.”
Meghan continued: “And if a member of this family will comfortably say, ‘We’ve all had to deal with things that are rude.’ Rude and racist are not the same. And equally, you’ve also had a press team that goes on the record to defend you, especially when they know some things are not true. And that didn’t happen for us.”
A source later told Us Weekly that Kate felt “there was a misunderstanding” when it came to her relationship with Meghan. After Meghan and Harry welcomed their daughter Lilibet in June 2021, a second insider revealed Kate made an effort to mend their issues.
“Kate has been reaching out to Meghan a lot more since [Lilibet] was born, she’s sending [notes and] gifts and trying to build up a relationship,” the source shared. “The firm has been instructing staffers to reach out more to Harry and Meghan to get them to soften a bit.”
Meghan, who also welcomed son Archie in 2019 with Harry, publicly reunited with Kate following Queen Elizabeth II‘s death in September 2022. The “Archetypes” podcast host and Harry joined William and Kate to greet mourners after the late monarch died at age 96.
According to another source, the Prince and Princess of Wales had plans to reach out to Harry and Meghan during a trip to the U.S.
“Once Kate and William’s Boston plans are set in stone, she’s planning to extend an olive branch to Meghan in a bid to reunite the brothers and heal the rift,” the insider told Us about the December 2022 visit, noting that Kate was inspired by what Elizabeth and Princess Diana “would’ve wanted.”
Scroll down for Meghan and Kate’s candid quotes about each other:
