Prince Harry has described an uncomfortable encounter between his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and the Princess of Wales, centred on a tube of lip gloss. In his memoir, Spare, Harry recounts the moment backstage at an event when Meghan, having forgotten her own lip gloss, asked to borrow Catherine's. According to Harry, Catherine was taken aback but reluctantly handed over the tube, only to grimace as Meghan squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips.
Harry wrote that the exchange left 'a little mark' on their relationship, describing it as a 'small clash of styles' that should have been laughable but instead lingered. The incident, he suggested, was later seized upon by the press, to his dismay. The disclosure adds to a catalogue of tensions between the two households that Harry has detailed in his memoir, including disputes over bridesmaid dresses and staffing arrangements.
The couples, once dubbed the 'Fab Four' for their joint appearances, initially appeared close. After Harry and Meghan announced their engagement in 2017, Catherine and Prince William said they were 'absolutely thrilled', and Catherine later expressed delight at the news of Meghan's pregnancy with Prince Archie. However, reports later emerged of a falling-out over alterations to Princess Charlotte's bridesmaid dress before the 2018 wedding, with Meghan insisting the reverse of claims that she left Catherine in tears had occurred.
Tensions reportedly came to a head in June 2018, when Catherine was said to have been offended after Meghan suggested she might be suffering from 'baby brain' following the birth of Prince Louis. Catherine allegedly told Meghan they were not close enough to discuss her hormones. The Sussexes stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and have since aired grievances publicly. A recent report indicated that Catherine has given up trying to persuade William to reconcile with Harry and did not push him to meet during Harry's latest visit to the UK, following what one author described as her 'final straw' with Harry over his remarks about King Charles's cancer.
