Harry and Meghan have been ‘cut off’ by William and Kate after making a series of claims about the royal family – but there was a time when the foursome really got on, a royal author says
The Sussexes are now all but estranged from the royal family and are no longer said to be on speaking terms with Prince William and Princess Kate.
Ever since Harry and Meghan decided to step down from The Firm, relations between the former ‘Fab Four’ have completely soured. But there was a point when William and Kate were incredibly excited to welcome Meghan into the fold.
Writing in his new book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants – which has been excerpted in The Times – Tom Quinn recounts a surprisingly lighthearted moment between Meghan and William, apparently witnessed by a staffer.
He writes: “It’s easy to forget that when Harry first started dating Meghan, both William and Kate found her delightful — ‘They thought she was a breath of fresh air,’ one staffer remembered”. The source says when Meghan first joined the fold and the couples were getting along swimmingly, she once came across Meghan and William doing a jokey parody of Fifties jiving together. The sweet moment must feel like a very distant memory for the couples, who haven’t been seen together for four years.
William and Kate weren’t the only ones to initially welcome Meghan with open arms. A courtier previously told the Daily Mail that “the Queen believed that Meghan would be a breath of fresh air and a great asset to the Monarchy.”
They added: “The Queen fast-tracked her entry into the Royal Family, inviting Meghan to join her at a service to mark Commonwealth Day – her first official engagement with the Queen – two months before the wedding. It was another clear indication that Her Majesty valued Meghan and wanted her to be seen as a part of the family without delay.”
However, the Queen is said to have started to have concerns about Meghan the closer it got to the couple’s wedding in 2018, according to royal writer Richard Eden. She was said to be surprised when Meghan rejected her suggestion that Duchess Sophie act as a mentor as she prepared to join the Royal Family, and was also “taken aback” at her choice of a bridal gown, as well as her attitude towards her wedding tiara.
“She had offered Meghan access to her collection of tiaras and, during what Harry later described as an ‘extraordinary morning’, allowed her to try them on in front of her, her devoted dresser Angela Kelly and a royal jewellery expert in her private dressing room,” Eden wrote. “Something later went badly wrong, however, when Meghan tried to arrange a fitting with Kelly, who, it seems, did not like the manner in which she was being treated by the bride and groom.”
Since quitting royal life, Meghan and Harry have very little contact with his family. The biggest rift appears to be between Harry and his older brother, with sources stating that William no longer trusts Harry after he revealed intimate details about his family and openly criticised King Charles, Queen Camilla, William and Kate.
The Sussexes have voiced their views on a number of occasions, including in their infamous Oprah interview, Harry’s memoir, Spare, and their tell-all Netflix series. Meghan raised eyebrows in the latter when she appeared to mock the deep curtsy she had performed in front of the Queen at their first meeting.
Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants by Tom Quinn will be published out on February 18.
