While Kate Middleton has continued to win over fans as the jewel of the Royal Family following the Queen’s death last September, last week saw the Princess of Wales truly shine as she found herself in her element on a series of royal visits.
After first attending Wimbledon, where sport-lover Kate, 41, was seen animatedly chatting to tennis ace Roger Federer, she then attended a 75th anniversary party for NHS workers, where she giggled through icing a cake – another one of her favourite pastimes – before stunning in royal blue as she watched King Charles crowned in Scotland.
But while the queen-in-waiting can seemingly do no wrong with her show of endless grace and affectionate smiles, Kate’s appearances also coincided with reports that she had pushed for the now infamous line: “recollections may vary”, as part of Buckingham Palace’s ground-breaking response to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s explosive interview with Oprah in 2021.
In his book, Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind The Crown, author Valentine Low – who has previously confirmed to Closer that Kate and Meghan had struggled as friends from the very beginning – writes that Kate is “steelier” than she looks, adding, “It was Kate who clearly made the point… She is playing the long game”.
Low writes how a palace source told him that Kate believed the original draft needed to be “toughened up a bit” to show Meghan and Harry that the royals would not remain silent in the face of the serious allegations – including those of bullying and racism – they had made.
Now a source confirms that Kate, who unwittingly found herself at the centre of the soap-opera-style saga, is not afraid to fight fire with fire, having already broken the golden royal rule of “Never complain, never explain”.
The insider says, “Kate is fiercely protective when it comes to defending her family and the overall interests of the royal family. If that means fighting fire with fire at times then she’s more than willing to do so – even if it makes her less popular with certain people.
“She’s very much the voice of reason and is known within the Firm for being a clear, fair thinker who tries to weigh up all sides before rushing to judgment or thinking ill of anyone.
“In this case she felt a polite but strong message needed to be sent back to the Sussexes – namely that there were other interpretations and views about certain events and instances, which the world needed to know in no uncertain terms.”
“Make no mistake, she’d do the same again – she’s made it clear she’ll fight these continual scandalous accusation for the sake of her family.”
Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41 – who stepped down as senior royals in January 2020 to start their new life in California – spoke angrily and openly about the injustices they felt they had suffered, which they say included the denial of help for Meghan’s plummeting mental health and the questioning over the colour of their baby’s skin.
But it was the allegations against Kate that some found the most shocking, with Meghan insisting that she had been left in tears over an argument she and Kate had been embroiled in over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress.
The feud, dubbed “bridesmaid-gate”, was later backed up by Harry in his January memoir, Spare, in which he wrote how he had found Meghan “sobbing on the floor” ahead of their May 2018 wedding, after Kate is said to have insisted her daughter’s bridesmaid dress was remade and that the flower girls all wore tights.
In their December Netflix documentary, Meghan also painted a portrait of her estranged sister-in-law – who shares Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, eight, and Prince Louis, five, with Prince William – as “cold” and detailed an occasion where her hug had been shrugged off in place of a formal handshake.
And while Closer recently reported that Meghan, who signed with new management agency WME in April, has been laying low as she distances herself from the toxicity of Harry’s royal feud, there’s no doubt that the Sussexes are experiencing their biggest brand crisis yet.
After being dropped by Spotify last month and being labelled as “grifters” by one of the streaming giant’s producers, insiders have speculated whether Meghan could be following in the footsteps of her husband and penning her very own tell-all.
But the source warns that Meghan should be wary of her next moves. They say, “Meghan needs to be extremely careful with these power games because Kate won’t hesitate to keep sticking up for the royals as well as herself.
“She’s shown an incredible amount of tolerance and bitten her lip but even she can only be pushed so far, and this latest revelation is being seen as a very clear message to Meghan to back off and watch what she says about Kate moving forward.
“The bottom line here is that Kate’s not afraid to take the gloves off and play dirty if she has to. It’s about self-preservation and not being walked all over, but also what’s fair and right at the end of the day, too.”