Both Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have insisted that Prince William and his wife, the Princess of Wales, found the Duchess of Sussex‘s love of hugging ‘jarring’.
Now, a new book by royal expert and journalist Tom Quinn has echoed these claims, suggesting that the American former actress’ tactile manner made the heir to the British throne ‘uncomfortable’.
In an extract from Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, via The Times, the author added that the Duchess’s ‘hugging and cheek-kissing fuelled gossip among the staff that Meghan was flirting with William’.
‘She was obviously not, but the tense atmosphere caused by all the touchy-feeliness (and the resultant gossip) deepened the rift between the brothers,’ claimed Mr Quinn.
His book, published on February 18, offers a glimpse of the Royal Family from the staff members who have served them.
They recalled how Kate and William found Meghan ‘delightful’ when she first started dating Prince Harry. However, ‘tensions’ apparently developed due to the Duchess’s ‘warm, friendly, hug-everyone approach’.
She would allegedly hug her brother-in-law, for instance, ‘virtually every time’ they saw one another.
‘Kate, William and Charles tended to flinch when she moved in for a hug. Meghan was understandably hurt, as everyone apparently hugs everyone in California,’ wrote the author.
In their Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, the Suits star, 43, said she did not know the Royal Family’s ‘formality’ carries through 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.’
Harry also recalled the apparently awkward first meeting between his now wife and his brother and sister-in-law in his bombshell memoir Spare.
He claimed William ‘recoiled’ from Meghan’s hug and described the moment he introduced his sibling to his then girlfriend as a ‘classic collision of cultures’.
The meeting took place in late 2016 at the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Kensington Palace apartment, shortly before Harry and William went on a shooting trip.
The Duke of Sussex explains how Meghan had already met Princess Eugenie, her then-boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, the Duchess of York, Prince Andrew and the Queen.
Describing the short walk from Harry and Meghan’s home Nottingham Cottage to Apartment 1A, the Duke admitted that he was more nervous for his girlfriend to meet William than anyone else.
When his brother answered the door, Harry says William was a ‘bit dressed up’ in smart trousers and a shirt.
He wrote: ‘I introduced Meg, who leaned in and gave him a hug, which completely freaked him out. He recoiled.’
Giving some context to the awkward encounter, Prince Harry said his brother wouldn’t usually hug someone he didn’t know.
In contrast, Harry explained how this was just Meghan’s way of greeting strangers.
He continued: ‘Maybe Willy expected Meg to curtsey? It would have been protocol when meeting a member of the Royal Family for the first time, but she didn’t know and I didn’t tell her.’
Elsewhere in the book, Prince Harry recounts having to remind the then Suits actress that she would need to curtsey for the Queen when they first met at Windsor Castle in 2016.
However, the father-of-two didn’t feel the need for her to do that when meeting William because he ‘loved Suits’.
After ‘exchanging a few warm words’ in the doorway, the Prince of Wales invited the couple into the flat – prompting Kate and William’s black cocker spaniel Lupo to start barking.
When the couple asked after Kate, William told them that she was out with their children George and Charlotte.
Following the brief meeting, Meghan returned to spend her first night alone in Nottingham Cottage while the brothers embarked on their shooting trip.
William and Harry have barely spoken to each other since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit their royal duties and left the UK for the US, with their feud having been exacerbated by the publication of Spare.
But the father-of-two reportedly reached out to his older brother after his wife Kate’s shock cancer diagnosis last year.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were understood to have made contact with the Prince and Princess of Wales ‘privately’.
Harry and his brother were then seen together for the first time in two years in August 2024, after both attending the funeral for their uncle Robert Fellowes. However, witnesses said they didn’t see the warring brothers speak.
Reports at the time claimed Harry made a discreet dash to Britain to attend the service for the 82-year-old who was their mother Princess Diana’s brother-in-law.
On Tuesday, Meghan resurfaced on Instagram as she gave a huge shout out to singer Billie Eilish for helping her out with a sweet request following the Los Angeles wildfires.
In the video, the Duchess, who was dressed casually in an sweatshirt embroidered with her two children’s names on it, Lilibet and Archie, began excitedly sharing that something she was expecting in the mail had finally arrived.
She explained that about two or three weeks ago, she and her husband, Prince Harry, visited the town of Altadena, which was completely devastated by the LA fires in January.
Meghan, who appeared to be make-up free, explained that the couple were visiting a mother and her 15-year-old daughter whose home burned down in the area, as they joined them to see their property for the first time since the fire.
The With Love, Meghan star was told that the one thing that the young woman had been looking for in her home was a t-shirt she got at the Billie Eilish concert that was left in the washing machine or dryer.
Unfortunately, however, their home was destroyed in the fires and so was the t-shirt.
However, Meghan was determined to have the 15-year-old’s story reach Eilish, and she was successfully able to secure a big collection of signed merchandise for the teenager, which she showed in the video.
‘I thought of everybody that I knew and I made a voice note, and I was like, “Please can someone get this voice note to Billie Eilish? Here’s what I’m asking,”‘ Meghan explained in the clip.
She then excitedly panned the camera to the bounty of products, which included a lunchbox, t-shirts and more.
‘I don’t even know what this stuff means, but it’s signed for her!’ the Duchess said excitedly, joking that she felt ‘old’ for not knowing if the lunchbox was a popular part of her fandom.
While thanking the star, she also revealed that it was Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine and his supermodel wife Behati who helped her secure the merchandise from Eilish.
‘Huge thank you, Billie Eilish, this is going to mean so much to her, and honestly, to Adam Levine and Behati, you guys helped me get this over the line, and to everyone who is showing up for people in big and small ways to get through what’s happened in California, just thank you so much,’ she shared.
‘I’m going to go and email her mom now, just wanted to share with you guys,’ Meghan concluded with a big smile on her face.
In the caption of her video, the Duchess shared a heartfelt message to her followers. ‘Let’s keep supporting those affected by the California wildfires,’ she wrote.
‘Thanks to everyone who made this possible but most importantly, thank you to our first responders who are the community’s real heroes.’
She signed the note with, ‘As ever, Meghan.’
