An upcoming biography centered on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to step down from the royal family explains why the Duchess of Sussex never really hit it off with her sister-in-law Kate Middleton. Finding Freedom, which was penned by royal reporters Amid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, claims Meghan hoped Kate would become a close confidante after her wedding to Prince Harry back in 2018. Kate, however, felt the pair didn't have much in common and never pursues a friendship with the royal newbie. Their relationship further soured after Kate failed to reach out to Meghan during her fight against the tabloid press.
"Meghan would agree with the assessment that the duchesses were not the best of friends," Scobie and Durand write in Finding Freedom. "Their relationship hadn’t progressed much since she was Harry’s girlfriend."
"Although Meghan might have understood Kate’s wariness to strike up a meaningful friendship, they were still no closer by the time she was a fellow senior working member of the royal family and the wife of William’s brother," the book continues. "Flowers for her birthday were nice, but Meghan would far rather have had Kate check in on her during the most difficult times with the press."
While the biography confirms speculation that Meghan and Kate were not the best of friends, it also disproves rumors of a feud between the two women. The duchesses “were not at war with each other either” as some gossip outlets claimed, however, Meghan was ultimately "disappointed that she and Kate hadn’t bonded over the position they shared, but she wasn’t losing sleep over it.”
One of the reasons Scobie and Durand believe Kate wasn't more welcoming to Meghan is the estranged relationship between Prince William and Prince Harry. “Though it was not necessarily her responsibility, Kated id little to bridge the divide. She was fiercely loyal to her husband and his family,” the book claims. According to their reporting, “the gap between the brothers only widened” after Harry and Meghan tied the knot.“William and Kate’s feelings seemed obvious to the Sussexes that summer and beyond. Among all the friends and family Harry and Meghan hosted at their house in Oxfordshire between May 2018 and March 2019, the Cambridges failed to visit.”
Harry and Meghan released a statement clarifying whether they provided off the record interviews for Finding Freedom. “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom. This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting," a spokesperson for the couple said.
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