Prince Harry Claimed Meghan Markle Awkwardly Clashed With Kate Middleton at Her 1st Trooping the Colour
Tensions were high at the Royal event.
Prince Harry once revealed an awkward exchange between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton that happened at Markle’s first Trooping the Colour in 2018.
Markle and Harry have not attended the annual celebration of the British monarch’s official birthday since 2019 and, per People, are not invited to this year’s June 14 event amid an ongoing feud with the Royal Family. And it seems Harry may have given insight into why this particular event is a source of tension between the Royals in his 2023 memoir, Spare.
Harry recalled that the 2018 Trooping the Colour festivities were one of his and Markle’s “first public appearances as newlyweds” after getting married a month earlier. The pair returned from their 10-day honeymoon in the Mediterranean just in time to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday.
Royal fans will remember that Markle made headlines for breaking Royal protocol at the event, but Harry noted in his memoir that throughout most of the day, “everyone present was in a good mood, upbeat.”
Related story Memorable Photos of Princess Diana at Trooping the Colour Through the Years
However, the Duke of Sussex said the mood suddenly shifted after the family’s appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Upon returning inside, Harry wrote that, “Kate asked Meg what she thought of her first Trooping the Colour.” Harry said that his new bride jokingly described the event as, “Colourful,” poking fun at the name. After her joke, Middleton allegedly responded with what Harry called “a yawning silence” that “threatened to swallow us all whole.”
Middleton and Markle’s fraught relationship was well documented in Harry’s memoir. He wrote that the two women had a falling out in the lead up to his and Markle’s wedding after Middleton’s texts about Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress not fitting properly left Markle “sobbing” on the floor.
Harry and Markle attended the Trooping the Colour once more in 2019, but by the time the Royals made their return after a two-year hiatus in 2020 and 2021, the couple had announced their departure from Royal duties and relocated to the US.
Before you go, click here to see the best photos of the royal family at Trooping the Colour over the years.