Queen Camilla’s Secret Role in Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton’s Feud: They ‘Never Had a Chance’

They were pitted against each other almost from the start. Not long after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement, the British press stepped up its racially tinged coverage of the American actress by comparing her to the last “commoner” to join the royal family: Prince William’s wife, Kate.

Multiple headlines attacked Meghan over supposed egregious breaches of protocol — from eating avocados to wearing wedge heels — for which Kate had once been applauded. Then, in November 2018, the press got wind of an actual feud.

After The Sun reported, “Meghan Made Kate Cry,” on its cover, the Fab Four had a crisis meeting. “Kate got things rolling straightaway by acknowledging that the stories in the papers about Meg making her cry were totally false,” Harry wrote in Spare, noting that the opposite was true. “We shifted from what to do about the story to where it came from. Who could have planted such a thing? Who could have leaked it to the press in the first place?” Finally, he wrote, William “conceded” that “he and Kate had gone to dinner with Pa and Camilla … and alas, he said sheepishly, he might’ve let it slip … So now we knew.”

It was far from the first time Harry had suspected his father — and to a greater extent, his stepmother — of pulling strings to sway public opinion.

“Camilla is always looking out for herself first,” says an insider, revealing shocking new details behind the queen’s “twisted” plots against her perceived rivals. “Kate and Meghan made good targets. Quite simply, if the princesses were constantly at war, then anything negative out there about her and Charles would be of limited interest,” adds the insider. “Kate and Meghan never had a chance.”

Prince Harry Referred to Queen Camilla as the ‘Villian’ Amid Their Family Feud

Once labeled “the most hated woman in Britain,” because of her role as the beloved Princess Diana’s archnemesis, Camilla has come a long way. “She was the villain,” Harry, 40, told 60 Minutes in 2023, adding that his stepmother was “dangerous” because she “needed to revamp her image.” She did it, he alleged in Spare, by leveraging information about other members of the royal family for positive stories written about her. Camilla, 77, was playing “the long game,” he wrote. “A campaign aimed at marriage, and eventually the Crown. (With Pa’s blessing we presumed.)” Camilla, he added, “sacrificed me on her personal PR altar.”

William and Kate were victims as well, Harry has claimed. Camilla “wasn’t very keen on Catherine” when she joined the family, royal expert Tom Quinn reveals in the new British documentary The Middletons: Modern Royal In-Laws. And because they were seen as “stealing the limelight,” Harry pointed out in a 2023 ITV interview, William, 42, and Kate, 43, “went through a large portion of the same things that Meg and I went through.”

Negative Reports Fueled the Tension Between Prince Harry and Prince William

So, why didn’t they see through her machinations? The entire family reads the newspapers every day, Harry explained on 60 Minutes. “So, whether you walk around saying you believe it or not, it’s still leaving an imprint in your mind,” said Harry, who wrote in Spare that William “parroted the press narrative” about Meghan, 43, “all that bulls–t. Rumors, lies.”

Within no time, the Fab Four had turned against each other. “They definitely had their issues, but the animosity snowballed because of all the negative stories out there. Harry started accusing William of leaking things as well,” says the insider. Harry and Meghan, hurt that William and Kate and the rest of the palace staff often refused to set the record straight, “took it to the next level,” the insider adds, by leaving the royal family and telling all in a series of barn-burning interviews and Spare.

In the middle of all the strife, Camilla was crowned queen in 2023. “And now, she’s almost universally beloved,” the insider points out. “She finally achieved her goal.” But as Harry said on 60 Minutes, there were “bodies left in the street.”

Kate and Meghan’s friendship was among the casualties. “It’s a shame,” says the insider, “because they have a lot in common. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t get along, even if they were never destined to be BFFs.” These days, contact between Kate and Meghan, who once giggled together at Wimbledon, is “extremely limited,” says a source, “though Kate was genuinely touched when Meghan sent her well-wishes during her cancer battle.”

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton Are Starting Over After Their Royal Rift

Kate’s health scare had an impact, says the source. “She’s so full of gratitude these days, and in her view, no one should waste time holding grudges. She is more than willing to make peace with Meghan — and Meghan is very much on the same page.” The pair exchange gifts for each other’s children, “who would love to get to know their cousins,” says the source.

William and Harry will take some convincing. “Kate has been quietly trying to chip away at the tension, hoping to bring them back together, but so far, nothing has worked,” says the insider. “The feeling among those close to them is that the only way the brothers will ever reconcile is if both Meghan and Kate want it to happen.”