Meghan Markle’s 1-Word Response to Kate Middleton Led to Awkward Tension Between Them

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton never did become best friends; the two women didn’t click, and, according to Prince Harry, Kate didn’t understand Meghan’s sense of humor.

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton were never the best of friends, though the women did at least try to keep up appearances for a while. They occasionally attended events together, including Wimbledon, though as Prince Harry revealed in his “Spare” memoir, much of Kate and Meghan’s relationship was forced.

And at one point, Meghan made a joke to the then-Duchess of Cambridge, but it did not go over quite as well as Meghan had hoped.

Meghan Markle’s Trooping the Colour joke led to ‘awkward’ interaction with Kate Middleton

Sometimes, people meet for the first time and just don’t get along all that well; not everybody clicks, and that’s alright. Such was the case, apparently, for Meghan and Kate, who just didn’t quite understand each other and couldn’t build on a relationship as much as they might have liked. But Kate did try, including starting conversation with Meghan when she found something to talk about.

Harry once revealed in “Spare” that after Meghan’s first Trooping the Colour experience, Kate asked Meghan what she thought of the whole event. Hoping to make a light joke, Meghan replied with “colorful” — and while she thought it was funny, Kate supposedly didn’t.

According to Harry, Meghan’s joke led to a “yawning silence” that “threatened to swallow us all whole.” It was just one of a number of instances where Meghan and Kate didn’t exactly click, but it was one of those behind-the-scenes moments that the public was never privy to until Harry revealed it in his book. Harry and Meghan attended their last Trooping the Colour in 2022; they did not attend in 2023 and reportedly were not invited in 2024.

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton had potential to be friends

Although Meghan and Kate didn’t instantly click, there were areas where they could have found common ground and just never expanded on it. The two women attended Wimbledon together in 2018 and 2019, and on both occasions, they seemed to enjoy pleasant conversation with plenty of smiles. Both of them love tennis, and that was an area that they could have connected over.

Beyond that, nobody understands the life of a duchess, but Meghan and Kate shared a bond through that. Although they could have found comfort in navigating that role with each other, they just … didn’t.

It’s hard to say if there will ever come a time when Meghan and Kate actually get along. It seems like the high-society version of a Bravo reality show, based on the backstabbing and lack of relationship described by Harry in “Spare” regarding many of the royals, including Meghan and Kate. Time will tell if the two women ever do find something to be friendly over.