Tea, cookies, maybe some beach pics and some sweet chat: The Cambridges' and Sussexes' 2018 get-together when the latter had just returned from their honeymoon should have been be a pleasant, harmless moment.
But according to extracts from
Spare
(
Le Suppléant
, published by Fayard), Prince Harry's memoirs to be published on January 10, the interview was above all intended to ease the growing tensions between the two couples.
But, between well-established resentments and attempts at intimidation, would only have exacerbated them.
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Among the (many) excerpts from the book that have already leaked to the press, including the
Daily Mail
in Great Britain, Prince Harry therefore returns to this thorny episode.
A few weeks earlier, his marriage to Meghan Markle caused friction between those who were previously called the "Fab Four", and more particularly between the two women.
This is the famous "tights affair", unveiled by the English tabloids in November 2018: during a fitting of the children of honor, Meghan and Kate would have had a disagreement on the outfit of little Charlotte, as Kate would have burst into tears.
During the interview she will give to Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, Meghan Markle will however affirm that it is, on the contrary, the Duchess of Cambridge who made her cry.
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"The tights affair", the return
In
The Substitute
, Harry recounts that on entering Kensington Palace, where Prince William and Kate Middleton lived at the time, his wife was ecstatic over the splendor of the place, a far cry from the Ikea furniture "bought with the card from credit from Meghan on sofa.com” for their cottage at Frogmore House, a few miles away.
Once the tea was served, the two couples first exchanged courtesies: Meghan and Harry asked Kate and William about their children, and the latter asked them about their honeymoon.
Then Meghan Markle entered the heart of the matter, addressing a quarrel born, according to her, at the beginning of her relationship with Harry, when Kate thought that her future sister-in-law wanted to use her network in the fashion world.
Dissension that would have been exacerbated by the preparations for the wedding.
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Kate Middleton immediately demanded an apology, for a specific reason: during the pantyhose affair, the American actress allegedly blamed her sister-in-law's sensitivity on her hormones, who had just given birth to the Prince Louis.
In Kensington, Meghan Markle recalled the episode: “You had forgotten something, and I said it was not serious, that it was because of the pregnancy.
It was because you had just had a child, because of the hormones."
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"We don't do those things here"
According to Harry, Kate Middleton's reaction was pithy: "We're not close enough for you to talk about my hormones.
As for William, he criticized Meghan Markle for being "rude", assailing her, like a child, "that we don't do those things here".
The American would have replied: "If it does not bother you, do not point the finger at me".
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The Duchess of Sussex then reportedly said she never meant to offend Kate Middleton: “Meg said she never did anything intentional to offend Kate, Harry writes in
The Substitute
.
And that if that had been the case, she begged her to tell him, so that it would not happen again.
Alas, after a quick embrace, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle would have decided to leave the premises before the situation worsened further.
War is declared
This is not the first time that Prince Harry, once so close to his sister-in-law, has scratched the image of the latter.
In
Harry & Meghan
, the documentary aired in December on Netflix, the Duchess of Sussex evoked the coldness with which Kate Middleton and Prince William would have reacted the first time that she invited them to dinner, having welcomed them with a hug, in ripped jeans and bare feet.
As for her husband, he says in his memoirs that the Cambridges would have encouraged him to wear, during a fancy dress party, this Nazi uniform which caused so much scandal in 2005: an episode for which he had to apologize publicly.
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While it is not yet in bookstores,
The Substitute
contains a number of damning revelations for the Windsors, and in particular for Prince William.
Buckingham has not yet commented.
But it's a safe bet that the Sussexes will not be invited there anytime soon, to resume tea.
