Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Really Annoyed Prince William With 1 Word Earlier This Year: Report

A word Prince Harry and Meghan Markle used in their get-well message to Kate Middleton 'seemed an entirely unnecessary and deliberate irritation.'

Prince William’s list of grievances with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle just seems to keep getting longer. (And that’s despite not having seen each other in years.) The Prince of Wales, 42, reportedly got irritated with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they publicly referred to his wife, Kate Middleton, as “Kate” instead of “Catherine.”

Harry and Meghan sent Kate Middleton a get-well message in March

Just hours after Kate’s cancer March 2024 diagnosis announcement—her treatment is ongoing—Harry and Meghan issued a short statement. It read: “We wish health and healing for Kate and the family, and hope they are able to do so privately and in peace.”

At the time, the couple was understood to have also reached out to William and Kate privately. But even then, referring to her as “Kate” didn’t go unnoticed by royal commentators. Apparently, it didn’t go by William unnoticed either. Harry and Meghan calling his wife by her school nickname, a moniker she’s long since moved away from, reportedly annoyed the Prince of Wales.

William ‘noted’ that they didn’t call her Catherine

“The fact that Harry and Meghan were unable to bring themselves to use her chosen name,” a friend of William and Kate’s told The Daily Beast, “even when they were sending her get-well-soon messages after her cancer diagnosis, was noted.”

“William takes offence [sic] at people calling Catherine ‘Kate’ because she has asked to be known as Catherine,” they continued. “It’s a fairly simple wish to respect. I’m sure Meghan wouldn’t like it if William started publicly calling her ‘Meghan Markle.’”

“Of course it’s an utterly trivial thing,” the friend went on. “But those of us who know William know that it is one of the things that pushes his buttons. Pushing his buttons while he was going through his wife’s cancer seemed an entirely unnecessary and deliberate irritation.”

“I wonder if the private card began, ‘Dear Kate…’” they added.

While Kate is often called Kate Middleton by American media outlets, she’s preferred to be called Catherine for years. (She instituted the change before joining the British royal family in 2011.) Furthermore, it’s what her friends and family know her as and what William calls her in private.

Referring to her as ‘Kate’ might’ve contributed to the lack of response

A friend claimed part of the reason William and Kate didn’t reportedly respond to Harry and Meghan’s get-well message may have been because they didn’t refer to the future queen as Catherine.

“No-one’s saying it’s responsible for all the trouble,” another friend of the Prince and Princess of Wales said. “But deliberately calling someone by a name they don’t like is just bloody rude. If Harry and Meghan were serious about healing their issue, a good first step would be to call her Catherine.”

However, as the publication noted, Harry referred to his sister-in-law as Kate throughout Spare. He even remembered having “flinched” when King Charles III called her Catherine.