Prince Harry explains Meghan Markle’s wedding tiara drama in ‘Spare’ memoir

Meghan Markle’s “diva behaviour” was a hot topic ahead of her wedding. Now, Prince Harry has revealed what really happened.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding produced drama from start to finish.

One well-documented point of contention was the tiara the former Suits actress wore for her walk down the aisle in 2018.

In his forthcoming memoir, Spare, which has since been leaked in Spain, Prince Harry wrote that while he and Meghan were “touched” by the idea of the Duchess donning one of Princess Diana’s tiaras on the big day, Queen Elizabeth II begged them to select something from her private collection of jewellery at Buckingham Palace instead, New York Post reports.

The Queen and her royal dresser, Angela Kelly, presented five tiaras from which the bride-to-be could choose, with the offerings including one of all emeralds and another with aquamarine stones.

Prince Harry said everyone agreed that one “stood out from the others” and “looked like it was made for Meg,” though he didn’t describe the winning design.

Meghan wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau – but it was not her first choice. Picture: Andrew Milligan – WPA/Getty Images

But one week later, when the couple inquired with Ms Kelly about borrowing the tiara for Meghan’s trial with her hairstylist – which Kate Middleton had advised was an arduous process involving sewing the veil to the headpiece and placing it in the exact right location on her head – Harry claims the dressser went silent.

When they finally got in touch with her, she said that the tiara could not leave the palace without “an ordinance and police escort,” Harry wrote. “That seemed to us a little exaggerated,” he said, but he agreed to the protocol as “time was running out”.

“It was obvious they were putting up obstacles, but why? It didn’t occur to us what motives they might have,” he said.

Harry’s book has made a string of allegations against the royal family. Picture: Ben STANSALL – WPA Pool/Getty Images

According to Prince Harry, there were also “heated debates” on whether or not Meghan should wear a veil for their ceremony as a divorced woman.

It was previously reported that the Duchess of Sussex’s first-choice tiara was actually the emerald piece, but that the Queen “felt she had” to deny the request, as the crown had “scandal attached”.

“[The green tiara] was one of those that had found its way into Windsor hands through ‘undefined’ not to say dodgy channels – and for an undisclosed price – in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution,” Robert Lacey wrote in his book Battle of Brothers.

Battle of Brothers claims that Prince Harry flew into a rage when he was told Meghan could not borrow the emerald tiara.

Instead, Meghan wore Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau, which is worth a reported $3.55 million, the centrepiece of which is a 10-diamond brooch Mary of Teck received as a wedding gift from the County of Lincoln in 1893.

Interestingly, just five months later, Princess Eugenie married her husband Jack Brooksbank in Windsor wearing the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara – which was rumoured to be the one Meghan had wanted.

Princess Eugenie wearing the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara – rumoured to be the tiara Meghan Markle initially chose. Picture: Steve Parsons – WPA Pool/Getty Images

It is said to be the most expensive royal wedding tiara in the collection, estimated to be valued at a whopping $17.63 million.

Royal jewellery expert Lauren Kiehna of The Court Jeweller previously told The Post that the public will “never really know exactly how the process of choosing the tiara played out, because so much of the information around the royal jewels is kept private”.

Contemplating the unknown green-hued piece in question, the royal blogger wrote in a 2020 article: “It’s ultimately quite possible that there’s an emerald tiara in the vaults that we don’t know about.”

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission