The Duke and Duchess of Sussex officially quit royal duties in March and have been living in California since then. A new book is about to be released that puts the spotlight on their lives in the royal family together including their relationships with everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Prince William and Kate. The relationship or lack thereof with Meghan and Kate interest a lot of royal fans since it appeared that the two have never really bonded. In January 2017, Harry introduced his then-girlfriend to Kate at her and William’s Kensington Palace apartment a few months after Meghan met William.
The future Duke and Duchess of Sussex opened up about getting together with the Cambridges during their post-engagement interview. “William was longing to meet her and so was Catherine, so you know being our neighbours we managed to get that in a couple of — well, quite a few times now,” Harry said. Meghan then injected and described Kate as “wonderful.” “Amazing, as has William as well, you know, fantastic support,” Harry added.
It did not go as well behind the scenes. It was reported that William was concerned that his brother was moving too quickly in his relationship with Meghan. When Kate met Meghan, biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand write in the book Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, that the Suits star gave Kate a leather-bound dream journal.
Meghan had chosen to give Kate a gift since they met right around her 35th birthday. However, a number of royal watchers feel that the gift is inappropriate for the future queen consort. Vanity Fair writers Josh Duboff and Julie Miller opined in their In the Limelight podcast, that the gift was questionable and seemed more like something Meghan would purchase for herself since she enjoys writing and ran a blog. The hosts called the present “bohemian.”
The Daily Mirror’s Polly Hudson also disagreed with Meghan giving Kate such a gift because of how much work logging a dream journal can be.
“Dreams are just the worst,” Hudson said. “The only way (the gift) could be more dull is if she had to document other people’s dreams, because there’s nothing on earth more boring than them.” She added that Meghan’s present which is intended to give one a “better understanding your waking life emotions, stresses, victories, and mental well-being,” was “passive-aggressive.”
It is not certain if Kate used the gift that Meghan gave her but it is clear that the sisters-in-law never bonded. Finding Freedom confirms that and claims that Meghan was “disappointed” she and sister-in-law didn’t connect over their unique experience of marrying into the royal family.
“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,” Scobie and Durand wrote as noted in an excerpt published by The Times. “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.”
It is believed that since Harry and Meghan are close to Scobie and Durand, a majority of the information in the book comes directly from the couple and that it will read like their “tell-all.” However, a spokesperson for the pair denied that they had any involvement.
Finding Freedom is set to be released on Aug. 11.