Before her relationship with Kate fell apart amid disputes over bridesmaids’ dresses and ‘baby brain’ comments, Meghan Markle claimed her sister-in-law confronted her from the start over her more casual style.
Harry’s wife recalled that she was “barefoot” and wearing ripped jeans when she met Kate and said the “formal” future queen and other members of the royal family found it shocking that she was a “hugger.”
However, an intriguing excerpt from a new memoir by Kate’s brother, James, about introducing the royal to his now wife, Alizee, for the first time, paints a very different picture of the princess.
She described how Alizee appeared in the kitchen of the Middleton family home with her hair disheveled and wearing only her shirt, only to find Kate, William and their three children there.
Far from being a problem, there was “no awkwardness at all” and by the end of the weekend Kate had given Alizee her seal of approval, telling James that the French financier was “just great”.
It suggests that whatever problems subsequently arose between Kate and Harry’s wife, Meghan’s penchant for ripped jeans was not the root of the problem.
James Middleton’s wife Alizee, photographed on vacation in Italy in 2020, wore nothing but her shirt the first time she met her sister Kate and Prince William.
Meghan Markle wore ripped jeans to the Invictus Games in Toronto in September 2017 – her first official public appearance with Prince Harry.
Alizee Thevenet and James Middleton attend the Bulgari gala dinner to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in July 2022
Describing Kate’s first meeting with Alizee, James said he met her family by accident when the couple decided to stay at his parents’ home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, after attending a nearby wedding.
The next morning, she woke up to find that they unexpectedly had company: William, Kate, and their three children were visiting for the weekend.
“I’m about to bring Alizee a cup when she appears in the kitchen door,” he recalled.
He just got out of bed, his hair is still messy, and he’s wearing one of my t-shirts. In situations like this, Alizee is wonderfully French. He doesn’t panic or run upstairs to get dressed. Instead, she simply greets everyone warmly, as if it’s not even remotely unusual to meet her boyfriend’s sister and brother-in-law for the first time wearing only an oversized men’s shirt.
“Hello,” he says, holding out his hand, and without any awkwardness, soon we’re all chatting and the kids are asking all sorts of cheeky questions at 100 miles an hour.
“Then we all talked and laughed as if she had been part of the family for years.”
Meghan and Kate photographed at the Wimbledon women’s singles final in 2019
On day two of the 2020 Invictus Games, Meghan wore skinny denim, a Brandon Maxwell jacket, and Manolo Blahnik pumps. It was a more adult version of his original Invictus Games set in 2017.
He added that the next day, when they separated, he received 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 immediately when they met in 2017, and she attributed it to their very different styles.
Meghan told the couple’s Netflix series Harry & Meghan that she She was “barefoot” and wearing ripped jeans when she met Kate.
Discussing the meeting, she said she was unaware that the “formality” the royal displays in public continues behind closed doors and that she is a “hugger”, which she did not realize was “jarring to some Britons”.
She said: ‘Even when Will and Kate came and I first met her, I remember she was wearing ripped jeans and was barefoot. I’ve always been a hugger, but I didn’t realise, that’s really jarring for a lot of Brits.
“I started to understand that the formality on the outside carries over to the inside, that there’s a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and you’re like, ‘Okay, now we can relax.’
“But that formality applies to both sides and that surprised me.”
Even Prince Harry referenced the two women’s different styles in his memoir Spare, recalling how William and Kate had come to dinner during one of Meghan’s visits from Canada.
It was the early days of their relationship and both couples apparently got along well, but he said the difference between them was evident.
The Duchess of Sussex said she wore “beige, camel and white” when she was with other women to avoid clashing with their outfits. Pictured: Meghan with the Queen in June 2018.
“The only possibly discordant note that occurred to me was the marked difference in the two women’s dress, which both seemed to notice,” he recalled.
‘Meg: ripped jeans, barefoot. Kate: Made 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 she stopped being a royal in early 2020, Meghan has repeated that her fashion choices were a source of controversy.
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.
“As I understand it, you can never wear the same color as Her Majesty if there is a group event, but you should also never wear the same color as any of the other senior family members.”
To respect this rumored royal protocol, Meghan says she began 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 blend in. I’m not trying to stand out here.”
“There was no version of me that was going to join this family and try not to do everything I could to fit in. I don’t want to embarrass the family.”