A not-so-fabulous Fab Four? Prince Harry is breaking down wife Meghan Markle’s tense relationship with sister-in-law Princess Kate.
The Duke of Sussex, 38, remembered his first “fab four” public outing with Meghan, 41, Prince William and Kate, 40, in his Spare memoir, Us Weekly can exclusively reveal. The group answered a few “softball questions,” which Harry found to be an overwhelming “positive” environment.
“The audience was keen, all four of us were having fun, the whole atmosphere was hugely positive. … ‘Here we go,’ I thought hopefully,” the Archewell cofounder wrote in Spare, which is set for a Tuesday, January 10, release. “Days later, controversy. Something about Meg showing support for #MeToo, and Kate not showing support — via their outfits? I think that was the gist, though who can say? It wasn’t real.”
Harry — who married the Suits alum, 41, in May 2018 — further wrote in his debut memoir that the media’s comparison of Meghan and the Princess of Wales, 40, impacted their relationship. He claimed: “I think it had Kate on edge while putting her and everyone else on notice that she was now going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg.”
The allegedly competitive nature was seemingly exacerbated by an “awkward moment” several moments before their joint Royal Foundation Forum appearance. Harry alleged that the Daters’ Handbook actress asked to borrow Kate’s lip gloss — which he called an “American thing” — when she forgot hers.
“Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube,” the Invictus Games cofounder remembered in his debut memoir. “Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.”
While Harry noted that he and Meghan “should’ve been able to laugh about” the encounter, it instead stung — especially when the press “sensed” that it was a part of “something bigger.” Harry added, “‘Here we go,’ I thought sorrowfully.”
Kate — who married Harry’s older brother in April 2011 — and the “Archetypes” podcast host have long had a tense relationship with previous reports indicating that Meghan made Kate cry leading up to the California native’s royal wedding.
“That was a turning point. The narrative with Kate, it didn’t happen,” Meghan — who shares children Archie, 3, and Lilibet, 19 months, with the military veteran — recalled during her CBS tell-all interview in March 2021, noting it was “the reverse” that occurred. “A few days before the wedding she was upset about flower girl dresses and it made me cry. It really hurt my feelings.”
The former Hallmark actress added at the time: “It was a really hard week of the wedding. And she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologized. And she brought me flowers and a note, apologizing. And she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right, to just take accountability for it.”
While the Duchess of Cornwall — who shares three children with William, 40 — eventually apologized for her actions, the pair’s bond was further fractured when Harry and Meghan stepped back from their duties as senior working royals and relocated stateside.
Spare will be released on Tuesday, January 10.
