Kate Middleton vs Meghan Markle has become one of the tabloids’ favourite royal rivalry stories.
In the latest royal family tell-all book, Endgame by Omid Scobie, the same old story is being touted out again. As Scobie puts it in the book, Kate Middleton is allegedly “cold if she doesn’t like someone”. He adds, “This is a side of Kate that rarely gets written about.”
He goes on: “Advocating for mental health causes – the mental health of mothers, for that matter – but ignoring her own sister-in-law’s cries for help seemed out of character for someone the public knew as sweet and easy to get along with.”
Elsewhere in the book, one of Scobie’s sources comments that Kate spent “more time talking about Meghan than talking to her”. In fact, Kate apparently “has jokingly shivered when Meghan’s name has come up”.
Of course, the fixation on the two royals’ alleged feud is nothing new.
After Oprah’s exclusive interview with Meghan and Harry last year, one of the most talked-about revelations was the alleged rift between Meghan and Kate, especially the widely circulated news story that Meghan made Kate cry before her wedding to Harry. According to Meghan, it was the other way round. In fact, during the interview, Meghan herself revealed that the public perception of the feud had been blown out of proportion and, in some cases, even fabricated.
“The narrative with Kate, which didn’t happen, was really, really difficult,” Meghan told Oprah. “I think that’s when everything changed, really. No, [I didn’t make Kate cry]. The reverse happened.
“A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining — yes, the issue was correct about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry and it really hurt my feelings. 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.”
Meghan went on to note that there was no confrontation between the two, and that she accepted Kate’s apology. But what she found difficult was being blamed for something that not only she didn’t do, but that happened to her.
“Everyone in the institution knew it wasn’t true,” Meghan said. “I’m not sharing that piece about Kate in any way to be disparaging to her. I think it’s really important for people to understand the truth, but also I think a lot of it that was fed into by the media.”
If you’re surprised that flower girls’ dresses are getting as much as attention as talk of suicide, bullying and racism, don’t be. Time and again, royal women have been pitted against each other in the media – the Kate vs Meghan drama is no different.
Oprah raised the question of ‘a different standard for Kate’, citing the many newspaper headlines in which the two have received obviously different treatment. Kate ‘tenderly cradled’ her baby bump, while Meghan was accused of ‘vanity’ and ‘acting’ for the same thing; Kate’s eating of avocados went widely unreported (except when touted as a morning sickness cure) whereas Meghan was lambasted for her contribution to ‘human rights abuse and drought’. Though it’s worth remembering that Kate received more than her fair share of negative headlines while she was going out with William, she has, as of late, received more favourable treatment than her sister in law in the press.