Kate Middleton’s crucial deal-breaker with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle that ‘set them on a different course’

The Princess of Wales was set on an “entirely different course” to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle due to one particular deal-breaker, a royal author has revealed. 

Kate, 44, had initially believed Prince William‘s differences with his younger brother were due to tensions over their “heir and spare” dynamic, royal editor Russell Myers explains in William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, published earlier this year.  

However, there was one notable point of contention between the Wales and Sussex camps that Kate reportedly found difficult to look past. 

This, according to author Russell, was “Harry and Meghan’s attitude to palace staff”. 

He writes: “She believed William and Harry’s fundamental differences as the ‘heir and the spare’ had created the inevitability of Harry wanting more from his role than being a bit-part player.”

The author adds: “At first she had thought William and Harry’s squabbles were rooted in immaturity or stubbornness, on both sides, but Harry and Meghan’s attitude towards palace staff, who she and William cared about, set the couples on an entirely different course.”

Meghan’s bullying claims

Bullying accusations were made against the Duchess of Sussex during her time as a senior member of the royal family. 

Buckingham Palace launched an investigation into the claims in 2021, with the Duchess’s lawyers denying the claims. The findings of the review were never made public. 

Meghan said that the allegations were “a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation”. 

Harry and Meghan stepped down from the royal family in 2020 and moved to Montecito in the US, where they live with their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, four. 

Since leaving royal life, they have focused on their charitable foundation, Archewell Philanthropies, and media projects such as deals with Netflix and Spotify, which have now come to an end. 

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Kate’s relationship with Harry and Meghan

Kate was once very close to her brother-in-law Prince Harry, and he once called her “the sister I never had and always wanted”. 

In his memoir, Spare, Harry reflected: “I liked seeing Kate laugh. Better yet, I liked making her laugh. And I was quite good at it.” He said he had looked forward to having a “serious girlfriend” so that they could all laugh together.  

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“Things have sadly deteriorated since then,” HELLO!‘s Royal Editor Emily Nash commented previously. The so-called “Fab Four” were last seen together at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in 2022. 

Now, they live thousands of miles apart and are not believed to be in regular contact. 

Elsewhere in the book, Russell writes: “As an ‘outsider’, Catherine had witnessed the deterioration of William and Harry’s relationship. She had seen Harry and Meghan become ever more bitter at having to follow the rules of a hierarchical and hereditary monarchy, until they felt as if they could follow them no longer. 

“Sources suggest Catherine had less interest than her husband in trying to persuade Harry to stay in his current role.”