It was a text message revolving around the bridesmaid's dress at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding that started the real royal row. Prince Harry has shared his perspective on the infamous dress-fitting argument between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, which left the "Suits" actress "sobbing on the floor."
Prince Harry claimed that Princess Charlotte "cried when she tried the bridesmaid's dress on at home" as he referenced his niece directly, which is a violation of privacy that is certain to enrage his brother William. He believes that the infamous incident was initiated by his sister-in-law Kate, who appeared irritated that it had taken Meghan a day to get back to her about the issue.
The Real Royal Row
Harry, 38, writes in his new memoir "Spare," that Kate, 41, allegedly initiated a passive-aggressive text message argument as she seemed unhappy that it had taken Meghan a day to respond to her about the issue. The argument started just four days before his 2018 wedding to Markle, 41.
Princess Charlotte, now 7 years old, was scheduled to be a bridesmaid during the royal nuptials. Harry claims that Kate messaged Meghan to express her displeasure that the child's dress did not fit properly.
"Charlotte's dress is too big, too long, too baggy. She cried when she tried it on a home," the Princess of Wales allegedly wrote to Meghan.
Harry describes the outfits as "French couture," hand-sewn to precise specifications without a fitting, in his memoir. Finding that the dress didn't fit precisely "wasn't a big shock," according to the Duke of Sussex.
He asserts that the quarrel between the two ladies was made worse by Kate's refusal to accompany Meghan to see her tailor at Kensington Palace and her recommendations that they have a party for the page boys while his future wife was preoccupied with a dispute with her father, Thomas Markle.
After that, according to Harry, the preoccupied bride took a day to respond to Kate's complaint.
"Meg didn't reply to Kate straight away," the prince writes in his new memoir "Spare". "Yes, she had endless wedding-related texts, but mostly she was dealing with the chaos surrounding her father. So the next morning she texted Kate that our tailor was standing by."
"I told you the tailor has been standing by since 8am," Meghan reportedly wrote. "Here. At KP [Kensington Palace]. Can you take Charlotte to have it altered, as the other mums are doing?"
Harry claims that Middleton felt that this response "wasn't sufficient" and insisted that all the dresses "needed to be remade."
"Meg asked if Kate was aware of what was going on right now. With her father. Kate said she was well aware, but the dresses. And the wedding is in four days!" Prince Harry writes.
Harry adds that Kate had several other "problems with the way Meg was planning her wedding. Something about a party for the page boys? It went back and forth."
Row Became Permanent
According to reports, Kate agreed to take Charlotte to Markle's tailor and simply wrote, "Fine." However, Harry said that Meghan couldn't take the fighting and that he returned home to find his soon-to-be wife "sobbing on the floor."
Throughout the back-and-forth, Harry emphasized to Meghan that "Kate hadn't meant any harm," and he mentioned that the Princess of Wales visited the house the following morning with flowers and an apology card.
However, the drama was far from over. The incident soon leaked to the media and became fodder for gossip in tabloids. Initial reports, which Harry found offensive because they were supposedly false, stated that Meghan had made Kate cry over the altercation with the dress.
According to reports, palace representatives allegedly refused to publicly deny such rumors, further infuriating the prince's resentment of the royal family.
In their 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan claimed that she was the one who had been moved to tears during the altercation and lamented that staff members had declined to update the record.
"I would hope that she would have wanted that corrected, and maybe in the same way that the palace wouldn't let anybody else negate it, they wouldn't let her, because she's a good person," Meghan had told of Kate.
Over the years, who made who cry has been the subject of numerous debates.
When officials refused to speak, Harry and Meghan said that this was yet another instance of the palace's unwillingness to defend them, claiming that doing so would raise further questions about the incident and set a precedent for talking about private family problems.
In fact, it was one of the first topics Meghan brought up in her Oprah interview. Harry insisted last month that it showed how the institution was willing to lie to protect his brother but not disclose the truth for them in their Netflix docuseries.
