The Princess of Wales’s alleged “initial reluctance” to meet the Duchess of Sussex came “from a good place,” a source has claimed. Princess Catherine and Meghan Markle may have a frosty relationship now but that wasn’t always the case.
The two women appeared to share a closer bond when the Duchess first married into the Royal Family, attending various events together for causes close to their hearts. However, despite the Sussexes having already discussed their first meeting with the Waleses, a royal book alleged that the future Queen was seemingly wary of meeting the former Suits actress when the time came.
Royal author Christopher Andersen claimed in his book, Brothers and Wives, that Catherine had “side-stepped” Prince William and Prince Harry’s efforts to get her to meet Meghan.
As per the Mail, a source who knew Catherine from her Marlborough College days claimed that the princess’s “initial reluctance” did “come from agood place”.
They told the author: “She’s always been a substitute big sister to Harry, watching out for him and making certain no one takes advantage.
“I think she was a little frightened by what she was reading,’ the friend allegedly explained.”
The author said: “William worried aloud that things were moving too fast. Meghan had secured a degree of control over his brother that no other woman ever had,’ wrote Mr Andersen in his book, Brothers And Wives.
“Harry was on the defensive whenever the subject of Meghan came up, leaving friends and family alike on tenterhooks.”
During their engagement interview with the BBC in 2017, Harry and Meghan spoke about their first meeting with Prince William and Princess Catherine.
Harry said: “William was longing to meet her and so was Catherine, so you know, being our neighbours, we managed to get that in a couple of—well quite a few times now and Catherine has been absolutely…”
Meghan then finished his sentence with a telling three-word remark, saying: “She’s been wonderful.”
However, in 2022, during their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, the Duchess gave a different angle about their meeting.
Despite singing Kate’s praises at the time, Meghan later insinuated that she was treated in a cold manner by the couple in the Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan, released in 2022.
She said: “Even when Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. Like I was a hugger, I’ve always been a hugger. I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.
“I guess I started to understand really quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.”
The royals have never commented on those claims.
