Meghan Markle defended by Ben Shephard in clash with Bower

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Meghan, Harry, and their two children are set to descend on Balmoral Castle this summer after the Queen reportedly invited them to stay during her ten-week break at the Scottish holiday home – but reportedly, other senior royals will not be there at the same time. The visit, which has been widely reported as an “olive branch” gesture from the Queen, will be the Sussex’s first trip to Britain since their visit over the Platinum Jubilee.

But long before the Sussexes’ infamous “Megxit” from the Royal Family in January 2020, Meghan and the Duchess of Cambridge were believed to have been friends, with Meghan reportedly “idolising” her sister-in-law. 

Body language expert Judy James told New Idea that this was evident when they watched the tennis at Wimbledon in 2018. 

Meghan and Harry tied the knot at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May 2018, although the pair told Oprah Winfrey in an interview aired in 2021 that they had officially married in the days before. 

But according to her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, her desire to become a princess and be “swept off her feet” began long before.

In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk in 2020, Markle Jr even claimed Meghan launched her acting career – which saw her star in the drama Suits – to meet Prince Harry. 

He said: “Watching her grow up I don’t think it was the British Royal Family, it was the princess thing – Cinderella and all that kind of stuff, Beauty and the Beast and all those Disney movies that revolve around being a princess and a prince and being swept off your feet.”

Meghan visited Buckingham Palace in London in her early teens and it was then that Markle Jr claimed she “set her sights on what she wanted”. 

He said: “I mean seeing the palace and Windsor and all that it would just be incredible.”

But on Meghan’s lifestyle blog, called The Tig, which she ran from 2014 until 2017, she dissed the “pomp and circumstance” surrounding Kate and William’s wedding. 

Instead, the now 40-year-old Duchess of Sussex said she preferred the fictional character She-Ra Princess of Power, the brave alter ego of Princess Adora. 

In 2014, she wrote: “Little girls dream of being princesses. I, for one, was all about She-Ra, Princess of Power. And grown women seem to retain this childhood fantasy.

“Just look at the pomp and circumstance surrounding the royal wedding and endless conversation about Princess Kate.”

Two years later, Meghan had her blind date with Prince Harry before which she claimed in the famous Oprah Winfrey interview that she had not researched the Royal Family or her soon-to-be-husband. 

But once Meghan became a Royal herself, she looked up to Kate for inspiration. 

In 2018, Ms James said: “While Kate sits smiling as she watches the tennis, Meghan face-checks her closely in what looks a little like admiration.”

However, according to journalist Bower’s explosive biography,  ‘Revenge: Meghan, Harry And The War between the Windsors’, Meghan had left Kate in tears in the build-up to her wedding after the pair reportedly fell out over the length of then-three-year-old Princess Charlotte’s dress. 

Bower claims Kate felt Meghan’s attitude “confirmed” the bullying allegations made by her staff, which Meghan has continuously denied. 

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He wrote: “Kate burst into tears. Kirstie Allsopp, a friend of Camilla, would later confirm that Kate was reduced to tears by Meghan bullying her staff. After leaving that unhappy scene Kate decided to make amends.

“She crossed the Kensington Palace corridor and presented Meghan with a bunch of flowers. Kate also told Meghan not to speak rudely to her staff. What followed can never be irrefutably established. In Kate’s version, Meghan slammed the door in her face and threw the flowers in a dustbin.”

But in the “Oprah with Meghan and Harry” interview, Meghan alleged it was Kate who made her cry. 

Meghan, in the interview released in February 2021, said: “A few days before the wedding, [Kate] was upset about something – yes, the issue was correct, about the flower girl dresses – and it made me cry and it really hurt my feelings…

“[Kate] apologised, and she brought me flowers and a note apologising, which is what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone… to just take accountability for it.”

But Meghan’s admiration for Kate was still there as she added that Kate was a “good person” and that there had not been a “confrontation”.

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