Before her relationship with Kate fell apart amid rows over bridesmaids dresses and ‘baby brain’ comments, Meghan Markle has claimed her sister-in-law took against her from the get-go because of her more casual style.
Harry’s wife recalled how she was ‘barefoot’ and wearing ripped jeans when she first met Kate and said that the ‘formal’ future Queen, and other members of the Royal Family, found it jarring that she was a ‘hugger’.
However, an intriguing snippet from a new memoir by Kate’s brother James, about the royal being introduced to his now wife, Alizee, for the first time, paints a very different picture of the Princess.
He described how Alizee appeared in the kitchen of the Middleton family home with her hair tousled and wearing nothing but his shirt, only to find Kate, William and their three children there.
Far from it being an issue, there was ‘no awkwardness at all’ and by the end of the weekend Kate had given Alizee her seal of approval, telling James the French financier was ‘just great’.
It suggests that whatever issues subsequently emerged between Kate and Harry’s wife, Meghan’s penchant for ripped jeans was not the root of the problem.
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James Middleton’s wife Alizee, pictured on holiday in Italy in 2020, was wearing nothing but his shirt the first time she met his sister Kate and Prince William
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Meghan Markle wore ripped jeans to the Invictus Games in Toronto in September 2017 – her first ever official public appearance with Prince Harry
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Alizee Thevenet and James Middleton attend the Bulgari gala dinner to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in July 2022
The Queen and Meghan Markle arrive in Cheshire by Royal Train
Describing Kate’s first meeting with Alizee, James said that she’d met his family by accident when the couple decided to stay at his parents’ home in Bucklebury, Berkshire after attending a wedding nearby.
Next morning, he woke up to discover they unexpectedly had company – William, Kate and their three children were visiting for the weekend.
‘I’m about to take a cup up to Alizee when she appears at the kitchen door,’ he recalled.
‘She has just got out of bed, her hair still tousled, and she is wearing one of my shirts. In situations like this, Alizee is wonderfully French. She does not panic or rush upstairs to get dressed. Instead, she just greets everyone warmly as if it’s not remotely unusual to be meeting her boyfriend’s sister and brother-in-law for the first time wearing only an oversized man’s shirt.
‘Hello,’ she says, proffering her hand and with no awkwardness at all we’re soon all chatting and the children are asking all kinds of cheeky questions at 100 miles per hour.
‘Then we are all talking and laughing as if she has been part of the family for years.’
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Meghan and Kate pictured at the Ladies Singles Final at Wimbledon in 2019
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On day two of the Invictus Games in 2020, Meghan wore slim leg denim, a Brandon Maxwell blazer and heeled Manolo Blahnik pumps. It was a more grown-up version of her original Invictus Games ensemble in 2017
He added that the next day when they parted ways, he got a ‘special squeeze’ from his sister, who whispered in his ear: ‘She’s just great.’
By contrast, Meghan Markle said there was some awkwardness with Kate straight away when they first met in 2017, and put it down to their very different styles.
Meghan recounted in the couple’s Netflix series Harry & Meghan that she was ‘barefoot’ and wearing ripped jeans when she first met Kate.
Discussing the meeting, she said she did not know the ‘formality’ the royals display in public continues behind closed doors and that she is a ‘hugger’ – which she did not realise was ‘jarring for some Brits’.
She said: ‘Even when Will and Kate came over and I was meeting her for the first time I remember I was in ripped jeans, I was barefoot. Like I was a hugger, I have always been a hugger I didn’t realise that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.’
‘I started to understand that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside, that there is a forward facing way of being and then you close the door and think “OK we can relax now”.
‘But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me.’
Even Prince Harry made reference to the two women’s differing styles in his memoir Spare, recalling how William and Kate had come over for dinner during one of Meghan’s visits from Canada.
It was the early days of their relationship and both couples were seemingly on good terms, but he said that the difference between them was apparent.
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The Duchess of Sussex said she wore ‘beige, camel and white’ while around other women to avoid clashing with their outfits. Pictured: Meghan with The Queen in June 2018
‘The only possibly discordant note I could think of was the marked difference in how the two women dressed, which both of them seemed to notice,’ he recalled.
‘Meg: ripped jeans, barefoot. Kate: done up to the nines.’
Of course, the subsequent deterioration of the relationship between the Sussexes and the Waleses has been well documented.
In interviews and since stepping down as working royals in early 2020, Meghan has repeated that her fashion choices were a source of contention.
In the third episode of the couple’s Netflix series, which aired in 2022, she said she had to ‘tone down’ her wardrobe to fit in.
‘Most of the time I was in the UK, I rarely wore colour,’ she said.
‘To my understanding, you can’t ever wear the same colour as Her Majesty if there’s a group event but then you also shouldn’t be wearing the same colour as one of the other more senior members of the family.’
To respect this rumoured royal protocol, Meghan says she started dressing almost exclusively in shades of camel, beige and white.
She continued: ‘I wore a lot of muted tones but it was also so I could just blend in. I’m not trying to stand out here.
‘There was no version of me [that was] joining this family and trying not to do everything I could to fit in. I don’t want to embarrass the family.’
