An excerpt from upcoming book Finding Freedom is setting the record straight on one burning question: What was the relationship between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle really like when they both lived under one roof at Kensington Palace?
Authored by respected royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the book gives the most detail we’ve had to date on the Markle’s relationship with Middleton. According to the expert duo, the two women were never feuding, they just didn’t know each other well.
“Meghan would agree with the assessment that the duchesses were not the best of friends,” the two reporters wrote. “Their relationship hadn’t progressed much since [Markle] was Harry’s girlfriend.”
Scobie and Durand write that Middleton didn’t make a big effort with Markle in the way people had perhaps expected. They said Markle had envisioned the Duchess of Cambridge guiding her through things she would need to know as “an outsider to the firm” but that it never happened.
“Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadn’t bonded over the position they shared, but she wasn’t losing sleep over it,” they write. The book says Middleton did send Markle flowers for her birthday one year but that “Meghan would far rather have had Kate check in on her during the most difficult times with the press.”
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A source told the reporters that Middleton felt she didn’t have anything in common with the other “other than the fact that they lived at Kensington Palace.”
Interestingly, Middleton “did little to bridge the divide” between Prince William and Prince Harry when William reportedly told his brother he was moving too quickly with Markle. As a result, the Princes had a falling out and while the reporters say it wasn’t “necessarily [Middleton’s] responsibility” to mend things, they did note she is “fiercely loyal to her husband and his family.”
READ: THE UNKNOWN STORY OF HOW KATE MIDDLETON PICKED HER WEDDING DRESS TO PRINCE WILLIAM
Several Royal staffers also confirmed the famous fitting story (where Markle reportedly made Middleton cry during a fitting for her wedding) was “ridiculous and so false.”
“There are people, whether they work with the family or are members of the family, that know that a lot of this stuff isn’t true, and aren’t allowed to say anything, like that ridiculous story about Meg and Catherine and the bridesmaids’ dresses,” a “confidant” told the authors.
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While we will never really know the whole truth of this very intriguing relationship, Finding Freedom is the closest we’ve gotten to the happenings inside the palace walls.
A spokesperson for Markle and Prince Harry has denied that the couple had anything to do with the book. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom,” it reads. “This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
