Sharing what appeared to be an unbreakable bond with his brother, Prince William would have been keen to build a close relationship with his soon-to-be sister-in-law.
But in the build-up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s wedding in May 2018, William’s feelings towards the Suits star gradually began to sour, according to royal biographer Phil Dampier.
Indeed, the future King was said to have ‘seen right through’ Meghan’s plans to marry the British bachelor Prince, and feared she had zero plans of remaining in the Firm for the long haul.
The allegations by Dampier followed revelations by the late Queen’s cousin and eldest confidante, Lady Elizabeth Anson, that the Monarch was apprehensive about Meghan’s intentions.
Great-niece of the Queen Mother and a goddaughter of King George VI, Lady Elizabeth, who died on November 1, 2020, was also apparently suspicious of the former Suits star’s motives on the eve of the royal wedding.
Having served as her Majesty’s party-planner and confidant for many years, she allegedly said just days before Meghan and Harry walked down the aisle: ‘We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all.’
She also warned: ‘It’s worrying that so many people are questioning whether Meghan is right for Harry. The problem, bless his heart, is that Harry is neither bright nor strong, and she is both’.
‘Meghan is clearly brighter than Harry, but she has to be careful not to overshadow him’, she added.
William had already begun to have doubts about Meghan before she married Harry in May 2018
Lady Elizabeth Anson allegedly said days before the wedding, ‘We hope but don’t quite think she is in love. We think she engineered it all’
Lady Elizabeth’s words were revealed by journalist and royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith in her Substack ‘Royal Extras’, describing their private conversations.
Lady Elizabeth apparently told Ms Bedell Smith at the time: ‘I don’t trust Meghan an inch. Meghan could turn into nothing but trouble.’
And as the late Queen began to allegedly become increasingly wary of Meghan, it is claimed that William also shared similar reservations about Harry’s upcoming bride.
Describing the information as ‘very, very telling’, Mr Dampier told the Sun that Lady Elizabeth’s comments ‘confirms what I’ve been saying or thought for the last few years that, sadly, Meghan never really had any intention of staying in the Royal Family’.
He added: ‘She saw it as a stepping stone, getting married to Harry and to new fame and fortune.
‘And I think that’s what initially Prince William was concerned about. And that’s why they fell out. And no we are where we are. But to have this confirmed by somebody so close to the Queen is really dynamic’.
Indeed, William was said to have desperately attempted to caution his brother about the pace of his relationship with Meghan prior to their wedding, having felt ‘nervous’ about how fast the couple were moving.
In January 2023 Harry discussed William’s warning to take it slow in his memoir Spare, writing: ‘It’s too fast, he’d told me. Too soon. In fact, he’d actually been pretty discouraging about my even dating Meg.
Prince William acted as best man at his brother’s wedding, despite the growing tension between the pair
‘One day, sitting together in his garden, he’d predicted a host of difficulties I could expect if I hooked up with an “American actress”, a phrase he always managed to make sound like a “convicted felon”.
‘Are you sure about her Harold?
‘I am, Willy.’
‘But do you know how difficult it is going to be?
‘What do you want me to do? Fall out of love with her?’
However, Harry was said to have dismissed his brother’s concerns, with it claimed that he believed he had to marry her quickly because her ‘biological clock was ticking’ as she was almost 35 years old, according to royal author Tina Brown.
But the author claimed William’s unsaid biggest worry was for his younger brother’s ‘mental fragility’ and that he wouldn’t be able to cope with all the ‘scorching scrutiny and harassment’ that Meghan would come to endure.
William also had concerns Meghan would not have enough time to carve out a fulfilling life for herself in the UK and make new friends.
William was said to have attempted to caution his brother about the pace of his relationship with Meghan
According to Battle of the Brothers: William and Harry by historian Robert Lacey, William even called in Princess Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer to try to get Harry to slow down.
‘For his part, William was worried that his brother was going too fast in his courtship and he didn’t shrink from saying so when Harry started talking about getting hitched,’ Mr Lacey wrote.
‘William couldn’t understand how Harry could contemplate marrying this still unknown and untested quantity less than two years after their first meeting,’ the book continues.
But ‘the result of the Spencer intervention was an even more bitter explosion’, according to Mr Lacey, although Harry ‘understood why Diana’s brother should want to help’ and ‘didn’t blame his uncle’, who walked with the princes and their father behind Diana’s coffin at her funeral in 1997.
‘Yet he was furious with his elder brother for dragging other family members into the row,’ the author claims.
Shortly after Harry and Meghan started dating, the couple met the Queen at an informal drop by at Royal Lodge in Windsor after church.
According to Tina Brown, who was a confidante of Princess Diana’s, the Queen reserved judgment and was ‘just happy Harry was happy’.
However the author wrote in her bestselling book, The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor: ‘But William knew Harry all too well and feared he was heading for trouble. Every time his brother fell in love, it was an eruption of Vesuvius.
‘”You do realise this is the fourth girl you’ve taken to Botswana”, he couldn’t help but remark after Harry’s starry-eyed account of the trip.’
And indeed the Queen’s initial embrace of the future American Duchess were set to change.
As their wedding day grew gradually closer, Lady Elizabeth claimed that the couple upset the Queen, with Harry apparently ‘rude’ to his grandmother for ten minutes in one meeting, while Meghan allegedly refused to share details of her wedding dress with the monarch.
The late monarch was also said to have been left ‘very worried’ about her ‘besotted and weak’ grandson and had become increasingly aggravated by some of the decisions the couple had taken regarding their Windsor ceremony.
The ‘jury was out’ on whether the Queen really liked Meghan, and she felt ‘left out’ of the planning for the wedding by Harry, who tried to ‘patch up’ their relationship in the weeks before walking down the aisle.
Ms Bedell Smith wrote: ‘According to Liza [Lady Elizabeth], the Queen was dismayed that Harry had asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the wedding service in St. George’s Chapel without first requesting permission from the Dean of Windsor.
‘“Harry seems to think the Queen can do what she wants, but she can’t,” said Liza. “On the religious side, it is the Dean of Windsor’s jurisdiction.” As a result, Liza said that “Harry has blown his relationship with his grandmother”.’
Following these February rows, towards the end of April, Liza claimed that ‘the Queen and Harry have patched things up’.
The late Queen was said to have become increasingly aggravated by some of the decisions that Harry and Meghan had taken regarding their wedding
Harry was said to have visited her alone in a desperate bid to smooth things over and later wrote to her with more wedding details.
Despite his family’s concerns, Harry had proposed to his American girlfriend in November 2018, a little more than a year after they first met and began dating.
Describing his decision to propose during that time, the Prince wrote in Spare: ‘We both wanted to start a family straightaway. We were working crazy hours, our jobs were demanding, the timing wasn’t ideal, but too bad. This had always been our main priority.’
The couple were married in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle on May 19 2018.
The streets of the Berkshire town were engulfed by a sea of Union Jack and Stars and Stripes flags as visitors crowded the procession route to catch a glimpse of the beloved Prince and his bride.
But the duchess soon realised the cheering crowds and beautiful palace weren’t all they were made out to be in the books.
The Duke and Duchess had a strained relationship with the Firm, eventually prompting their high-profile decision to move to the US in 2020, dubbed ‘Megxit’, before later attacking the family in their tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey the following year.
The Queen was reportedly saddened at their choice, allegedly confiding to a close friend that she was exhausted by the turmoil of it all.
Despite his family’s concerns, Harry proposed to his American lover in November 2018, a little more than a year after they first met
The source told Nicholl: ‘The Queen was very hurt and told me, “I don’t know, I don’t care, and I don’t want to think about it any more”.’
Seward wrote of the situation: ‘At that point the Queen decided there was no longer any point in worrying about Harry as he wasn’t going to take notice of anyone but his wife.
‘However much she loved Harry – and she did – she couldn’t condone the way he was speaking about the institution of the monarchy she’d spent 70 years preserving.’
Meanwhile, William and Harry have barely spoken to each other since the Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK for the US and abandoned royal duties.
The rift was exacerbated by the publication of Harry’s memoir, which levelled accusations against his family.
Harry claimed that William branded Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’, and even accused him of pushing him into a dog bowl.
The pair have not been seen in public together since their uncle Lord Robert Fellowes’ funeral in August 2024 and are thought to be estranged.
In May 2023, they watched on as their father, King Charles III, was crowned, but Harry did not stand alongside his family during the post–ceremony balcony appearance.
Harry sat apart from his brother when their father, King Charles III, was crowned In May 2023. Meghan was not in attendance
Harry and William, with their wives, put on a rare united front during a procession following their grandmother’s death. It was to mark the last time to date that Meghan touched British soil
In the previous September, they had put on a rare united front during a procession following their grandmother’s death.
And the brothers seemingly put their differences aside to grieve the late Queen, with William even showing grace at the funeral when he let Harry and Meghan take their seats at Windsor Castle before him and Kate.
It was to mark the last time to date that Meghan touched British soil.
While forging a life for themselves in the US, the couple’s seeming rush to get married and beat the biological clock appears to have paid off – they now have two children, Prince Archie born in May 2019 and Princess Lilibet born in June 2021.
The Prince has since described America as ‘home’ and declared that it is ‘impossible’ to bring both Meghan Markle and his children back to the UK following the loss of his legal challenge over the withdrawal of his security.
In an interview with the BBC this year, Harry spoke poignantly of his desire for ‘reconciliation’ with the Royal Family, adding that he had ‘forgiven them’.
Yet questions appear to linger over the likelihood of such a reunion ever occurring, particularly between the two princes amid their ensuing feud.
Indeed, for royal author Tom Bower, any chance of reconciliation between Harry and his family would be, at present, ‘totally unrealistic’.
He said: ‘There is zero chance of reconciliation because there is irreconcilable anger on the part of William and Kate.’
One can’t help but wonder how Harry’s relationship with his now estranged brother may be today if he had heeded William’s warnings about Meghan all those years ago.
