Pool / Contributor
Kate Middleton Didn’t Like ‘Confident’ Meghan Markle From the Start, Experienced ‘Intense Jealousy’
Princess Kate was jealous of Meghan Markle and threatened by her popularity from the start, Omid Scobie claimed in his new royals tell-all book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival.
“Meghan’s confidence alarmed some at Buckingham Palace, who found it intimidating or obnoxious at times,” Omid wrote in the book, which was released on Tuesday, November 28. “Before it all went wrong, the Firm’s American outsider underdog was becoming the star of the show. Meghan got things done fast. It was Princess Diana all over again.”
Prince William and Kate were not happy with the attention surrounding the new couple, the veteran royal author further alleged in his pages, noting that the Sussexes were the shiny new toy for the press and public.
“Harry and Meghan had introduced the world to a new, more modern-looking royal, and it suddenly made the Cambridges — who for years had been the monarchy’s hot young couple — appear a little dull in comparison,” Omid wrote.
The journalist added that, as a result, Kate, 41, “spent more time talking about Meghan than talking to her.”
After Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, got married in 2018, “Their popularity grew so big that, according to several Palace Staffers, there was intense jealousy over the couple’s growing star power among their senior courtiers and other family members,” Omid wrote in the explosive book.
“It’s a tricky place to be when you’re sixth in line but up there with number one [the Queen] in terms of popularity,” one of the couples’ press secretaries told Harper’s Bazaar’s royal editor at large that summer.
As a result, William, 41, and Kate wanted to bring Harry and Meghan “down a peg,” according to Omid, and the royal rota behaved accordingly.
“A few months after the couple returned to England, negative stories trickled out,” Omid added of the media storm surrounding Harry and Meghan — stories that Meghan’s team believed were fed to the British press by Buckingham Palace.
“There was a real kind of war against Meghan, and I’ve certainly seen evidence that there was negative briefing from the palace against Harry and Meghan to suit other people’s agendas,” the royal couple’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, said on an episode of Harry & Meghan, a six-part Netflix documentary series about the duo released in December 2022.
“Meg became this scapegoat for the palace, and so they would feed stories on her, whether they were true or not, to avoid other less favorable stories being printed,” Meghan’s friend Lucy Fraser further explained.
Lucy added that the overwhelmingly negative press, as well as the breakdown of Meghan’s relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, eventually prompted Harry and Meghan to step down from their roles as senior royals in January 2020.
After they settled in California, Harry was said to have “cooperated” alongside Omid during the Endgame writing process in order to seek a level of “revenge” against his sister-in-law, an insider previously told In Touch.
“They used to be incredibly close, but Harry feels Kate betrayed him by shunning his wife,” the source told In Touch on November 24. “Meghan admitted to helping him with the last book, so insiders suspect Harry secretly cooperated with the new one as well,” the insider added.
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