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Prince Harry Claims the Queen’s Former Dresser Angela Kelly Sent a ‘Clear Warning’ Holding Wedding Tiara Back From Meghan Markle (Exclusive)

Tiara trouble. According to Prince Harry, Queen Elizabeth II‘s former senior dresser, Angela Kelly, became “obstructive” when tasked with lending Meghan Markle an accessory for her wedding day, Us Weekly can exclusively reveal.

Related: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Royal Drama: Everything to Know

The Duke of Sussex, 38, explained in his Spare memoir that Meghan, 41, was slated to wear a tiara from the late monarch’s personal collection for the May 2018 nuptials. However, when the big day arrived, Kelly, 65, was unreachable and therefore couldn’t hand over the accessory.

“Meg’s hairdresser had come in from France for the rehearsal and the tiara still wasn’t there,” Harry explained, alleging that he attempted to call Her Majesty’s “dresser and confidant” several times to no avail.

Prince Harry Claims the Queen’s Former Dresser Angela Kelly Sent a ‘Clear Warning’ Holding Wedding Tiara Back From Meghan Markle - 777 Commonwealth service at the Westminster Abbey, London, United Kingdom - 09 Mar 2020
Prince Harry. FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

 

The Archewell cofounder claimed that the dressmaker finally “appeared out of thin air” and handed him a release form to sign along with the diadem.

“I thanked her, though I added that it would’ve made our lives so much easier to have had it sooner. Her eyes were fire,” the prince alleged, adding that he could “read in her face” a “clear warning.”

Related: Prince Harry's Ups and Downs With the Royal Family Over the Years

The tiara debacle was discussed in the August 2020 book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family. According to the work, penned by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, Kelly took issue with Meghan’s selection of the Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau Tiara.

Prince Harry Claims the Queen’s Former Dresser Angela Kelly Sent a ‘Clear Warning’ Holding Wedding Tiara Back From Meghan Markle - 778 The State Funeral of Her Majesty The Queen, Service, Westminster Abbey, London, UK - 19 Sep 2022
Angela Kelly. Mark Stewart/Pool/Shutterstock

 

The claim about Kelly — who served as Elizabeth’s personal assistant and senior dresser from 2002 until the queen’s death in 2022 — is not the only example of Meghan’s mistreatment put forth in Spare, which hits shelves on Tuesday, January 10. Harry also alleged that his father, King Charles III, told him he didn’t have the financial means to support the Suits alum despite providing for Prince William and Princess Kate.

The BetterUp CIO said that he came to believe that the conflict “wasn’t about money” at all.

“Pa might have dreaded the rising cost of maintaining us, but what he really couldn’t stomach was someone new dominating the monarchy, grabbing the limelight, someone shiny and new coming in and overshadowing him,” he wrote. “He’d lived through that before and had no interest in living through it again.”

Related: Prince Harry and Father King Charles III's Ups and Downs Through the Years

After Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior royal duties in 2020, they stopped receiving public funds, but Charles, 74, continued to offer financial support from his private funds for a short time.

“My family literally cut me off financially, and I had to afford security for us,” the former military pilot said during his tell-all CBS interview in March 2021. “[I was cut off] in the first quarter of 2020. But I’ve got what my mom left me and without that, we would not have been able to do this.”

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