Meghan Markle Was Reportedly "Disappointed" When Kate Middleton Missed Her Introduction to the Royal Family

Kate Middleton wasn't able to make it for Meghan Markle's first tea with the royal family and Meghan was disappointed, according to royal biography.

london, england february 28 l r prince harry, meghan markle and catherine, duchess of cambridge attend the first annual royal foundation forum held at aviva on february 28, 2018 in london, england under the theme making a difference together, the event will showcase the programmes run or initiated by the royal foundation photo by chris jackson wpa poolgetty images
(Image credit: Chris Jackson)
  • When she was preparing to join the royal family, Meghan Markle had a casual first meeting with members of the royal family, but one person she really wanted to meet was missing.
  • In Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, royal biographers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand revealed that Meghan was disappointed that her future sister-in-law, Kate Middleton, wasn't in attendance at her first royal family hangout.
  • Meghan still had a great first royal family experience though, at her informal tea with Prince Charles and Prince William.

An American girl falling in love with a dashing European prince and becoming a royal is literally the kind of thing that happens in fairytales and romantic comedies. So, when it happened IRL to Meghan Markle, we all just kind of instinctively expected her life to play out like a perfect story. Unfortunately, Meghan's time in the royal family hasn't played out like a fairytale.

Long before she and Prince Harry decided to step back from their duties as a working royals, there were bumps in the proverbial road, apparently. In their best-selling royal biography, Finding Freedom: Harry, Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand revealed that Meghan was faced with a let-down right away, when her future sister-in-law Kate Middleton wasn't there for her first introduction to the royal family.

Meghan's first royal intro was an informal tea with Harry's dad and older brother, Prince Charles and Prince William and Kate just couldn't make it, apparently. 

"Meghan was disappointed she didn’t get to meet Kate, who was with the children at Anmer Hall, the couple’s Norfolk estate home near Sandringham," Scobie and Durand wrote, according to Page Six. "But having gotten along so well with Harry’s brother, she didn’t think much more about that. William had made his feelings known to his brother when he shared how happy he was to see Harry smiling."

Of course, Meghan did eventually meet Kate and the women got along just fine. They even bonded over their shared love of tennis and attended matches together at Wimbledon.

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Kayleigh Roberts
Weekend Editor

Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.