08 January 2023 , 21:55
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Prince Harry has shared details of a clear-the-air chat he and Meghan Markle had with Prince William and Princess Kate, saying his sister-in-law "gripped her chair so tightly her fingers went white".
Sitting down with ITV's Tom Bradby, he admits Kate and William didn't get on with his then-girlfriend from day one. He accuses them of "stereotyping" her as an American actress, saying their views changed their behaviours and created a "barrier".
But after tensions grew high, he claims the four sat down to talk things through. Harry details the meeting in his book Spare, which is released on Tuesday, but Bradby quotes sections during the interview.
He says: "At one stage, Harry recounts a clear-the-air meeting involving him, William, Kate, and Meghan. It seems to have gone so badly wrong that he describes Kate as gripping the edges of the leather chair so tightly that her fingers were white.
Royal fans hoped Kate and Meghan would become close friends (Getty Images)
They attended Wimbledon together on several occasions (PA)"Kate says she's owed an apology from Meghan who previously put a moment of Kate’s forgetfulness down to so-called baby brain. According to Harry, Kate tells Meghan they're not close enough to talk that way and William says, ‘That’s not what's done here in Britain’. The meeting ends awkwardly, with a hug of sorts."
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Asked about the meeting in the interview, Harry says: "I don’t think they were ever expecting me to get into a relationship with someone like Meghan, who had, you know, a very successful career.
"There was a lot of stereotyping that was happening, that I was guilty of as well, at the beginning."
Pushed on what he meant by that, Harry continues: "American actress, and that was playing out in the British press in the media at the time as well.
"I had that in the back of my mind, and some of the things that my brother and sister-in-law – some of the way that they were acting or behaving definitely felt to me as though unfortunately that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really sort of, you know, introducing or welcoming her in."
Asked specifically what he means. Harry adds: "Well, American actress, divorced, biracial, there's all different parts to that and what that can mean but if you are, like a lot of my family do, if you are reading the press, the British tabloids, [Yeah] at the same time as living the life, then there is a tendency where you could actually end up living in the tabloid bubble rather than the actual reality."