Meghan Markle ‘genuinely worried’, tries ‘reaching out’ to Kate Middleton

They’ve been estranged for years, but Meghan has reportedly been attempting to get in touch with Kate amid the frenzied speculation.

Meghan Markle has reportedly “reached out” to Kate Middleton “several times” and is “genuinely worried” in the wake of her sister-in-law’s Photoshop bungle and frenzied public speculation about her welfare and personal life.

Some of the rumours online allude to trouble within Kate’s marriage to Prince William, which a source told the Daily Mail has left both of them “shaken and devastated”.

With the saga continuing to unfold, Scandals of the Royal Palaces author Tom Quinn has now claimed to the UK’s Mirror that the Duchess of Sussex has been attempting to contact Kensington Palace via back channels.

“She is genuinely worried about Kate’s health,” he claimed to the publication.

The duchesses’ relationship was reportedly frosty from the outset, with Meghan revealing in her Netflix docu-series that their first meeting had been unexpectedly “formal”, and they’ve been largely estranged since she and Harry quit royal duties and moved to the US in 2020.

Kate and Meghan last saw each other after Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

But she’s now reportedly concerned about her brother’s wife, with the Princess of Wales having not been seen in public since Christmas Day apart from two blurry paparazzi pictures of her travelling in a car.

It comes after Kensington Palace announced in January that Kate had undergone abdominal surgery, requiring two weeks’ hospitalisation and a break from public duties until at least after Easter - with no other specific details provided.

As increasingly wild rumours about her health and personal life hit fever pitch recently, the Palace released an image of Kate surrounded by her three children in honour of Mother’s Day. However, the princess herself was forced to release an awkward apology statement, admitting she’d digitally altered it after the world’s biggest photo agencies took the extraordinary step of issuing a mandatory kill notice.

The picture that sparked all the drama. Picture: Kensington Palace/Instagram

Unsurprisingly, the whole saga has led many to believe the usually impeccably-oiled palace PR machine is severely malfunctioning.

But the chances of Meghan’s offer of support providing an opportunity to reconcile with Kate amid the unprecedented chaos are slim, according to Quinn.

“The feeling in Kensington Palace is that if Meghan’s attempts to extend an olive branch are welcomed, it will just re-open old wounds,” he told The Mirror.

It’s still unclear when Kate will be back on deck for royal duties, with her own staffers reportedly unable to contact her.

“A few of Kate’s senior staffers haven’t been able to see or speak to her, and they didn’t even know about the surgery until it was announced, so it’s caught them off guard,” a source told Us Weekly.

“Only a few people know what’s really going on, and they’re tight-lipped.”

Meanwhile, Meghan also made headlines last week with the surprise launch of her new lifestyle brand, American Riviera Orchard, on Instagram.

Back in 2017, she shut down her previous lifestyle blog, The Tig, after she and Harry went public with their romance.

According to Page Six, a trademark application for her latest foray into the sector reveals American Riviera Orchard will sell a wide range of home goods, including edible treats like jellies, jams and spreads and tableware staples such as cutlery, table linens, cookbooks and drinkware.