Princess Kate Had to "Put on a Brave Face" During Sussex Reunion

Prince William, Prince of Wales, Catherine, Princess of Wales, Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive as the coffin bearing the body of Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II completes its Journey from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall accompanied by King Charles III and other members of the Royal Family, on September 14, 2022 in London, England. — (Image credit: Photo by WPA Pool / Getty)

Just days ago, it emerged that Princess Kate allegedly called a certain public reunion with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle "one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do."

The comment referred to the joint walkabout the Waleses and the Sussexes did in Windsor just days after the Queen's sad passing.

But one royal expert reminds us that the difficulty of this wasn't just about the fractured relationship between the two couples, but about the loss all four of them had just suffered.

"It was probably so awkward but also they were mourning themselves," Christine Ross pointed out on Us Weekly's Royally Us podcast (via Express).

"The Queen was William's grandmother. We heard they had a great relationship—William, Kate and Her late Majesty the Queen.

"They were very close and I'm sure that was a devastating loss."

For Ross, this aspect of it all was a major factor in the challenging undertaking.

"They had to go out in the public, put on a brave face and smile, meet these crowds of people which, if you've ever been to a royal event, if you've ever seen the amount of flash photography going on, that's overwhelming," the expert continued.

"And then you add this additional element of personal discourse between the two couples, I imagine—again, it wasn't the most difficult thing, but it was so difficult.

"Just the emotional toll, the emotional weight of that must've been really overwhelming."

This comes just as Robert Jobson's new book Our King is released, in which the author writes, "Catherine later admitted to a senior royal that, such was the ill feeling between the two couples, the joint walkabout was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do."

Le sigh.

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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.