Harry and William’s 2018 ‘Clear the Air’ Meeting Included Friction About Easter Presents: ‘Was That a Thing?’
They’ve given Christmas gifts to each other’s kids, but Easter gifts are something of a sore subject for Prince William and Prince Harry. The Duke of Sussex claimed in Spare not getting Easter presents from him and Meghan Markle “upset” his brother and Kate Middleton back in 2018.
Meghan Markle ‘acknowledged the tension’ between her, Harry, William, and Kate over tea in June 2018
In his Spare memoir, Harry detailed a June 2018 conversation between himself, the Duchess of Sussex, and the Prince and Princess of Wales. William and Kate invited him and Meghan to Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace to “clear the air” over tea.
Harry and Meghan walked over from their then-home of Nottingham Cottage. After 10 minutes of small talk — “How are the kids? How was your honeymoon?” — Meghan got to the reason why they were all there.
Meghan, Harry recalled, “acknowledged the tension among the four of us.” She “ventured that it might go back to those early days when she’d first joined the family.” Specifically, a “misunderstanding that had almost passed without notice” involving her and Kate’s “fashion contacts.”
“They’d got off on the wrong foot perhaps? And then, Meg added, everything got magnified by the wedding, and those infernal bridesmaids’ dresses,” Harry continued.
‘Other things’ had ‘upset’ William and Kate including no Easter presents from Harry and Meghan
In his recollection of the “clear the air” session, Harry claimed his brother and sister-in-law were “upset” by things that hadn’t even occurred to him or Meghan. Among them, Easter gifts.
“It turned out there were other things … about which we’d been unaware,” Harry said in Spare. “Willy and Kate were apparently upset we hadn’t given them Easter presents.”
The now-38-year-old recalled being somewhat baffled the admission as it wasn’t typical for him and William.
“Easter presents? Was that a thing? WIlly and I had never exchanged Easter presents,” Harry recalled. “Pa,” he said in reference to King Charles III, “always made a big deal about Easter, sure, but that was Pa.”
“Still,” he continued, “if Willy and Kate were upset, we apologized.”
Per Harry’s account, the “airing of grievances” also included William pointing a finger at Meghan in relation to a “baby brain” comment. It ended with Harry and Meghan hugging William and Kate awkwardly, followed by another “clear the air” session six months later.
How are William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan spending Easter 2023?
There’s no official word on how Harry and Meghan or William and Kate will be spending the holiday. Royal expert Ingrid Seward thinks it’s likely the latter will be at Windsor Castle for the royal family’s annual celebration.
“Obviously Prince William and Kate and their three children will be there unless they are away skiing,” Seward said (via The Sun).
Since moving stateside, Harry and Meghan have had decidedly more private — and less royal — Easter celebrations. A scene in their 2022 Netflix docuseries showed them, along with Meghan’s mom Doria Ragland, prepping for an Easter egg hunt at their Montecito, California, home.
At the time, in spring 2021, Meghan was pregnant with their daughter, Princess Lilibet. Meaning the Easter egg hunt, complete with a cardboard bunny, was for the now-1-year-old’s older brother, 3-year-old Prince Archie.
