Meghan Markle and Princess Kate Middleton were reportedly both in tears over their infamous bridesmaid dress dispute at Meghan and Prince Harry’s wedding, a royal staffer has claimed.
“I can tell you that all the papers and commentators got this wrong, the truth is that as with many of these spats between sisters, brothers or even sisters-in-law, both sides were really upset,” an unnamed royal staff member was quoted as saying in author Tom Quinn’s biography, Yes, Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, which was published in March.
After the Suits alum, 43, tied the knot with the Duke of Sussex, 40, in 2018, reports surfaced that Meghan and new sister-in-law Kate, 43, had gotten into an argument over the fit of the bridesmaid dress that Kate and Prince William’s daughter, Princess Charlotte, was meant to wear in the ceremony. It was rumored at the time that Kate had cried over the issue.
“Kate had only just given birth to Prince Louis and was feeling quite emotional,” royal reporter Camilla Tominey wrote in the Telegraph at the time.
Meghan later implied that she was the one who was driven to tears. She said in a 2021 interview on CBS, “The reverse happened.”
However, the royal staffer told Tom, 69, “The truth is that during the discussions about the bridesmaid’s dress, Meghan said a few things she regretted and Kate said a few things she later regretted, but it was all in the heat of the moment. Both women were crying their eyes out!”
In her CBS interview, Meghan admitted that it “was a really hard week of the wedding.”
“[Kate] was upset about something. But she owned it, and she apologized and she brought me flowers and a note apologizing,” she claimed. “I actually think it’s — I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that because she apologized. And I’ve forgiven her.”
She also said it was “shocking” to her that the story made the press months after the wedding.
Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle
“I would have never wanted that to come out about her ever, even though it happened,” Meghan continued.
Neither Kate nor William, 42, has publicly addressed the bridesmaid dress drama.
However, Harry shared his perspective on the situation in his 2023 memoir, Spare. He claimed that Kate had texted Meghan four days before the wedding, saying, “Charlotte’s dress is too big, too long, too baggy. She cried when she tried it on at home.”
Harry wrote that Meghan told Kate to take the dress to the tailor who was “standing by” at Kensington Palace, but Kate allegedly refused and said that “all the dresses need to be remade.”
“A short time later, I arrived home and found Meg on the floor. Sobbing,” he claimed. “I was horrified to see her so upset, but didn’t think it was a catastrophe.”
Harry added that Kate stopped by the following day with flowers and a card for Meghan.
Royal tailor Ajay Mirpuri also spoke out about the incident after Harry’s book was published.
“If anything happened … it didn’t happen in front of me,” he told the Daily Mail. “But yes, weddings are stressful at the best of times — and especially one at this high level; you’ve got to respect that. They were faced with a problem like anyone gets at a wedding, with last-minute hitches. I can understand why anybody would be upset if the dresses weren’t fitting — it’s nerve-wracking.”
Ajay continued, “I feel for them all because you wouldn’t want the children to go out on a big stage in an ill-fitting dress — and that’s what they were. All six bridesmaids’ dresses had to be fixed, and we did it.”
