Queen Elizabeth II allegedly confronted her grandson Prince Harry about Meghan Markle’s escalating wardrobe costs, according to royal commentator Robert Jobson.
The late monarch, who died in September 2022 aged 96, is said to have been fond of Meghan when she first joined the royal fold in 2016.
But Jobson claims the Queen’s view shifted as the Duchess’ taste for luxury labels, funded by palace budgets, began to grate.
“The Queen thought that Meghan was spending too much on clothes,” Jobson told the Telegraph UK’s associate editor Camilla Tominey on The Daily T podcast.
He noted that while the Queen herself wore costly garments during royal tours in the 1940s and 1950s, Meghan’s choices – including a bespoke Dior gown estimated at AUD $121,300 during the 2019 Morocco tour – were considered by the monarch to be “over the top and not sending out the right message”.
The gown, entirely custom-made haute couture, has notably never been worn again.
Jobson and Tominey also discussed an rumoured flashpoint between the Queen and Harry, after he rang her during her regular 5pm tea time to request additional funds.
“She (the Queen) took a call from Harry and then reportedly remarked, ‘more money’ rolling her eyes,” Tominey said.
“Yeah, I think that she got fed up,” Jobson replied, adding that the Palace had “spent a lot of money” supporting the couple.
“I think the point was that they (the Palace) had supported Harry, and he was then saying later, ‘I never got any’, well, he did. He got many, many, many thousands of pounds. More than we could probably know.”
Jobson said the spending reached such heights that King Charles III (then Prince Charles) eventually told the Sussexes: “I’m not a bank anymore.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Jobson claimed Meghan was initially “shocked” to learn that Harry wasn’t “making as much money” as she expected a senior royal would, and that she envied the Prince and Princess of Wales’ home in Adelaide Cottage.
“At the time, Meghan and Harry were seen as the star couple, so she probably thought, ‘well, hang on, if I’m the star of a movie, I get the most money and the biggest trailer, and I don’t. I’ve got nothing here’,” Jobson said.
“I don’t think she fully understood.”
Claims about Markle’s penchant for luxury labels land as she faces separate allegations that she “took” an AUD $2800 designer gown from a 2022 photoshoot without permission.
The emerald green, one-shoulder Galvan ‘Ushuaia’ gown was recently spotted by eagle-eyed viewers in the trailer for the upcoming With Love, Meghan Netflix holiday special.
Fans quickly recognised the dress from her Variety cover shoot two years earlier – a connection first highlighted by NewsNation’s Paula Froelich – before a fashion insider told Page Six the gown had “disappeared from the photo shoot” and alleged Meghan “took the dress from the shoot without asking”.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Duchess firmly rejected the claims, telling People that the suggestion any item was removed “without the full knowledge and agreement of the on-set stylists or their respective teams is not only categorically false, but also highly defamatory”.
“Any items kept were done so in total transparency and in accordance with contractual arrangements,” they added.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.skynews.com.au ’
