Has Meghan Markle and Prince William’s relationship always been frosty ahead of Harry’s attending coronation?

As Harry prepares himself to attend the coronation of his father, King Charles III, next month, sources have been rampant with discussion about how “the firm” will handle the bad blood between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince William and Princess Catherine. The common belief is that both men will be separated throughout the event, even down to the timings that the pair will enter Westminster Abbey, with the possibility of Harry leaving earlier to try and make his way back to the US for Prince Archie’s fourth birthday.

Royal correspondent Kinsey Schofield has spoken to various news outlets across the United Kingdom regarding the idea that both Prince William and Princess Catherine will do their best to “tolerate” Harry during the occasion as the pair still feel betrayed by both Harry and Meghan’s withdrawal from Royal duties and the release of Harry’s bombshell memoir, Spare. However, speaking to GB News, Schofield stated that the attendance of Meghan would have been “a much harder time navigating.”

However it would appear that the issues between Meghan Markle and Prince William stem long before a withdrawal from Royal life and even before the tense wedding plans that surrounded the Sussexs. It may have also stemmed before Meghan and Harry became married, according to the Daily Express in 2019 - which claims that even before the proposition of marriage was on the table, Prince William was unsure about the suitability of Meghan Markle as a member of the Royal family. 

That may have started an unintentional rift between the brothers, with Harry once quoted during a particularly tense moment regarding the choice of tiara’s Meghan wished to wear at their wedding “what Meghan wants, Meghan gets.” Perhaps the source of tension between Prince William and Meghan comes from her continued support for Harry during his efforts to break from “the firm.” Something that maybe Prince William resented Harry for, given the Prince of Wales’ birthright to be the next King of England, leaving Harry to be the “spare.”

That evidently escalated throughout Meghan’s rocky time in the spotlight as a Royal; however those that have defended Prince William state that his frosty nature towards his sister-in-law boils down to her attitude ahead of her wedding in 2018. According to sources speaking to the Daily Mail, Prince William was unhappy with Meghan’s attitude towards royal aids and her disdain towards protocols and traditions that have been followed by the family throughout the history of the monarch. 

One source, speaking to The S*n, claimed that "Meghan and Kate were both going through a lot of stress at the same time, and William was quite concerned for Kate. But he and Harry are very close, so he didn't want to cause a rift between them." The same source went on to claim that William confronted Harry about Meghan's behaviour, leading to a heated exchange between the brothers - one of a few Harry detailed in his memoir.

So while the break from the Royal family evidently led to more bad blood between the couples, including allegations of systemic racism, antiquated concepts not suitable for modern life and various protocols that Meghan may have felt “limiting,” perhaps the frostiness came the moment Harry introduced Meghan to the family, and at that very moment the future King of England made up his mind that she was not someone cut for the Royal cloth.