Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton Haven't Communicated Directly Since 2019
Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton notoriously clashed during the American's time in the U.K., but according to Omid Scobie, the two royal wives stopped speaking before the Duchess of Sussex fled the country.
“For Meghan, who found much of her time as a working royal a lonely and isolated experience, there was a hope that Kate would be someone she could at least turn to for an encouraging word during her lowest points, including her emotional difficulties during her pregnancy,” Scobie shared in his new book, Endgame.
Scobie alluded to the Princess of Wales being distant toward the Suits star.
“Kate, however, was uninterested in forming this kind of bond with Meghan," he added.
In the docuseries Harry & Meghan, the duchess described the future queen as "formal," and Scobie's book paints a similar picture.
“She can be cold if she doesn’t like someone,” he penned.
Scobie later claimed Kate “wasn’t a fan” of Meghan, and "she spent more time talking about Meghan than talking to her.”
In Spare, Prince Harry described Kate as "the sister I've never had," but things turned sour after the Sussexes profited off of their royal family feud.
“She was close to Harry, and she will always look back fondly on those moments … and the relationship he had with their children…but to her there is no way she could ever trust them after all their interviews," Scobie explained.
The friction between Meghan and Kate often played out in the British tabloids and was a key point within the Sussexes' various tell-all projects. OK! previously reported Tom Quinn explored the women's dynamic in Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family.
A staffer called Meghan "a very nice, smiley, super-positive person" who "always felt in control of her own destiny."
In 2021, Meghan told Oprah Winfrey that she knew very little about the British royal family, and her narrative aligned with the anonymous staffer's comments.
"She was dazzled by the worldwide fame that being a princess would bring, but she was shocked by the palace protocol and by the fact that she was not and never could be first in the pecking order," the source told Quinn.
The insider suggested Meghan struggled with her ranking within The Firm.
"She hated being a second-rate princess – second to Catherine Middleton, I mean. She thought she would be living in Windsor Castle, for example, and just couldn’t believe it when she and Harry were given Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace," they continued.
"She hated the fact that she had to do what she was told and go where she was told in the endless, and to a large extent pointless royal round," they stated.
With Meghan's history of being a vocal feminist and often advocating for women, her experiences behind the palace gates were a culture shock.
"I don’t think in the whole of history there was ever a greater divide between what someone expected when they became a member of the royal family and what they discovered it was really like. She was hugely disappointed. She was a global superstar but was being told what she could and could not do, what she could and could not say. She hated it,” the source continued.