Queen Elizabeth II quietly stepped in to resolve disagreements between Princess Catherine and Meghan Markle as their tensions threatened to overshadow the monarchy, her former butler Grant Harrold has said.
The Prince and Princess of Wales, 43, and the Duke, 41, and Duchess of Sussex, 44, known as the fab four, presented a picture of unity in the glory days after Harry introduced Meghan to the royal family in 2016.
Scenes from the balcony of Buckingham Palace showed the royals laughing together and seemingly enjoying each other’s company – but life behind the palace walls was not all as it seemed.
It’s understood the once-friendly relationship between Catherine and Meghan became increasingly strained in the months following Prince Harry’s engagement to the former Suits actress in 2017.
On Wednesday, Harrold told RadarOnline the late Queen was known for her “deep commitment to maintaining unity within the Royal Family”.
And he said she would have “quietly stepped in to try and smooth things over” if she sensed any tension between Kate and Meghan.
“Her focus was always on preserving a strong and united front, especially among the younger generation of royals,” Harrold said.
The former butler, who served Elizabeth and then Prince Charles from 2004 through 2011, said she “would have done everything in her power to make sure family disagreements never overshadowed duty.”
He added while dynamics behind the scenes may have begun to shift as Harry and Meghan’s relationship grew more serious, Elizabeth would have noted “signs of strain and done what she could to resolve it.”
Meghan herself first spoke out about reports of friction with Kate in the Sussexes’ bombshell tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021.
Rumours had surfaced in several British newspapers Meghan made Catherine cry in the lead-up to her royal wedding over a dispute about Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress, but claimed the opposite was true.
“And I don’t say that to be disparaging to anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding, and she was upset about something, but she owned it and she apologised and she brought me flowers and a note apologising, and she did what I would do if I knew that I’d hurt someone, right, to just take accountability for it,” Meghan told the talk show host.
Harry, in his memoir Spare, wrote he found Meghan “sobbing on the floor” after the exchange, and Kate later apologised with flowers and a card.
He also detailed other instances of friction, such as an earlier comment from Meghan about Kate having “baby brain” after she gave birth.
After Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal life in 2020, tensions between the royal wives remained strained, much like the relationship between warring brothers William and Harry.
Meghan and Catherine last saw each other at Elizabeth’s funeral in September 2022, which marked the Duchess’s last known visit to the UK.
‘ 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 ’
