Prince William Was Worried About Meghan Markle Pre-Royal Life

TOPSHOT-BRITAIN-ANZAC-HISTORY-WWI-GALLIPOLI-AUSTRALIA-NZEALAND — (Image credit: Getty/EDDIE MULHOLLAND)

Royal author Tina Brown is back with new book The Palace Papers, and it's packed with revelation after revelation (BTW, Marie Claire interviewed Brown, and she told us some pretty juicy tidbits).

Back in October, we reported that said book could change how we see the royals, and those predictions seem to be coming true.

In one excerpt, we learned that Prince William felt things between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were going too fast, and that it would be really hard for the future Duchess of Sussex to adapt to royal life under the circumstances at the time. His concerns, of course, turned out to be well-founded, as the Sussexes retired from their royal duties in large part to protect their mental health.

"A person close to the Duke of Cambridge told me that William thought she should have more time to build up a life in the U.K. and make friends who didn’t always have to be brought in confidence to the Palace," Brown writes in The Palace Papers (via Town & Country).

"It had been hard enough for Kate, but Meghan was a glamorous actress who would be the first woman of color to join the Royal Family, factors that would add enormously to the pressure."

Brown also addressed Prince William's concern for Harry more specifically. "Unspoken to Harry, the person said, was the older brother’s fear that Harry’s mental fragility was such that he wouldn’t be strong enough to handle all of that on her behalf, as well as his own issues," she wrote.

But the Duke of Sussex was far from agreeing with his older brother. "To his brother's concerns, Harry's riposte can be summarized as, I am told, 'Well, actually the best way that I can protect her is to marry her as quickly as possible, because as soon as I marry her she will then get police protection,'" Brown added.

These days, the once extremely close brothers sadly still don't see eye to eye.

TOPICS

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.