Kate Middleton’s tense reaction to Meghan Markle’s failed Trooping the Colour joke

After marrying Prince Harry, Meghan attended her first ever Trooping the Colour ceremony, and made an awkward joke about the occasion to sister-in-law Kate

It’s no secret that Kate, the Princess of Wales, and her sister-in-law Meghan do not have a close relationship.

While William’s wife has stuck to the royal mantra, ‘never complain, never explain’, Meghan has raised eyebrows with past comments about her sister-in-law, including claims Kate made her cry before her wedding, and her surprise at how ‘formal’ the future Queen is, even behind closed doors.

And now, with relations between the Sussexes and the royals at an all-time low, it seems unlikely the rift will ever be healed. Indeed, just this weekend, Meghan came under fire for seemingly releasing two new products from her lifestyle range to coincide with Kate’s return to the public eye at Trooping the Colour – a move labelled “silly” by experts.

But according to Prince Harry, cracks in the ladies’ relationship were evident back in 2018, when Meghan made her Trooping the Colour debut.

Writing in his book Spare, Harry claims that his wife was left red-faced at the event, when she tried to crack a joke with Kate, but did not get the reaction she was expecting.

Kate reportedly asked newlywed Meghan what she thought of her first Trooping the Colour, to which Meghan just said: “Colourful.”

Although Meghan’s answer was short and to the point, it did not get a positive reaction, with Harry writing in his memoir: “A yawning silence threatened to swallow us all whole”.

Harry and wife Meghan stepped down as working royals back in January 2020. Prior to that, the couple made two highly-anticipated appearances at Trooping the Colour; in 2018 shortly after their wedding, and in 2019, following the arrival of the couple’s eldest child Archie.

The event was then scaled down dramatically in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and took place at Windsor Castle without a large gathering of the royal family.

In previous years, the late Queen had been joined by her wider family with extended members of the royals joining more senior royals for the traditional Red Arrows fly-past.

But that all changed in 2022. The Queen decided to limit the Platinum Jubilee Trooping the Colour balcony appearance to just working members of her family for the first time, with Prince Andrew and Harry and Meghan omitted from the royal line up.

The monarch’s decision to only include royals carrying out official public duties was taken “after careful consideration”, Buckingham Palace said at the time.

The symbolic move was interpreted ato be a snub to Harry and Meghan, who had quit the monarchy for a new life in the US, and to Andrew, who was cast out of the institution over his civil sexual assault case.

The Sussexes are understood not to have been invited to attend since.

Prince Harry most recently returned to his home country in May to celebrate 10 years of the Invictus Games. However, he did not reunite with his father. He cited the King’s ‘full schedule’, but this was called into question by claims that Charles had offered Harry royal accommodation, which was refused.

The father and son last saw each other in February when Harry flew to London to see the King amid news of the monarch’s cancer diagnosis. Their meeting lasted just 45 minutes.