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For months following Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry’s May 2018 wedding, rumors spread that Meghan and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge were locked in an ugly feud. Though we now know the issue was really between Prince Harry and Prince William, the women never did have a warm relationship.

When Meghan and Prince Harry got engaged, the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant with her youngest son, Prince Louis. She was focused on raising her other two children and her royal duties. It also didn’t help that the pair had vastly different upbringings and opposing approaches to royal life.

Though there were some gestures to bond here and there, things between Meghan and Kate broke down after a very awkward shopping trip when they were both still living a Kensington Palace.

Kate Middleton was suspicious of Meghan Markle

In her years of dating Prince William and subsequently marrying him, Kate became extremely close to Prince Harry. The pair hung out together, did royal engagements as a trio, and the prince always called his sister-in-law the sister he never had.

Therefore, when Prince Harry was so eager to introduce Meghan to his family after knowing her for only a few months, Kate was polite but she also urged her brother-in-law to proceed with caution.

“[Kate] gently reminded him that he was dating someone with a completely different life, past, and career and it would take time, care and attention for them to integrate,” investigative journalists Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett write in Royals at War: The Untold Story of Harry and Meghan’s Shocking Split with the House of Windsor reported the Daily Mail.

The prince, who was already heated from his brother referring to Meghan as “that girl” did not heed Kate’s advice.

Meghan Marke and Kate Middleton have nothing in common

The outspoken former actor has always been known to speak her mind. Meghan did not understand the royal rules, nor could she continue to exist in a world where she felt she was muzzled.

Kate, on the other hand, grew up in the U.K. and had been in the royal fold for nearly two decades. In the end, the women simply could not bridge the gap. It didn’t help that at the height of Meghan’s bullying, she felt Kate did not reach out to her. Royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write in their book Finding Freedom,

Meghan would agree with the assessment that the duchesses were not the best of friends. Their relationship hadn’t progressed much since she was Harry’s girlfriend. Meghan envisioned Kate would reach out and help her understand everything an outsider to the Firm needed to know. That didn’t happen. Meghan was disappointed that she and Kate hadn’t bonded over the position they shared, but she wasn’t losing sleep over it.

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Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle had a very awkward shopping trip

It appears that both of the women decided to focus on themselves following an awkward shopping trip. In 2017, prior to the Sussexes marriage, Meghan was living with Prince Harry at Kensington Palace, right next to Prince William and Kate.

According to Finding Freedom, Palace security informed them they had plans to shop on the same street. However, instead of leaving together, Kate reportedly began driving her Range Rover in the opposite direction leaving Meghan behind.

In the documentary, Meghan & Harry: The New Revelations, royal expert Katie Nicholl says,

By the time Harry and Meghan’s final royal engagement came around in March this year the tension was clear for everyone to see. At the Commonwealth event, Meghan appeared to wave at Kate but the gesture wasn’t acknowledged.

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