Prince Harry revealed an awkward moment in his book Spare when his new wife, Meghan Markle, made his sister-in-law, Princess Kate, “grimace”. In his 2023 memoir, the Duke of Sussex detailed attending the 2018 Royal Foundation Forum with his new wife and the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The “awkward moment” showcased a cultural clash between Meghan and Kate. The estranged Duke said: “Meg asked to borrow Kate’s lip gloss. An American thing.
“Meg forgot hers, worried she needed some, and turned to Kate for help. Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube. Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.”
Harry goes on to say that the four “should’ve been able to laugh about” the moment, but the press “sensed” it was “something bigger” and it may have “left a mark” on the women’s relationship.
The coverage of that Royal Foundation Forum event focused heavily on Meghan’s politics, rather than the foursome’s charitable work.
Harry speculated: “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.”
In the memoir, Harry also spoke of disagreements between the women over Meghan and Harry’s wedding. The Duchess of Sussex reportedly said that the now-Princess of Wales forgot a wedding detail due to “baby-brain”, having just given birth to Prince Louis.
Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress was then too big, and the pair disagreed on whether a new dress should be made or the original tailored.
According to Harry, this ended with Kate saying she and Meghan weren’t “close enough” for her to talk about Kate’s hormones and William pointing at her and calling her “rude”, adding this wasn’t how Brits behaved.
Prince Harry revealed he looked forward to creating a powerful “fab four” even before he met Meghan and often discussed his hopes with his brother.
“I also said I couldn’t wait for them to meet her, that I looked forward to the four of us spending lots of time together, and I confessed, for the umpteenth time, that this had long been my dream – to join them with an equal partner,” Harry explains.
“To become a foursome. I’d said this to Willy so many times, and he’d always replied: ‘It might not happen, Harold! And you’ve got to be OK with that.’
“Well, now I felt that it was going to happen and I told him so — but he still said to slow down. She’s an American actress after all, Harold. Anything might happen.”