Kate Middleton’s friend slams Meghan Markle’s ‘hugger’ comment

Kate Middleton’s friend has refuted Meghan Markle’s claims that the Princess of Wales isn’t a “hugger”, revealing what she is really like.

Kate Middleton’s friend has rubbished Meghan Markle’s suggestion that the Princess of Wales didn’t respond warmly to her “hug” when they first met.

In a not-so-veiled snub at Kate, 40, the Duchess of Sussex, 41, claimed in the first instalment of Netflix’s Harry & Meghan that she was surprised when she realised William and Kate’s “formality” continued away from cameras.

“[I’ve] always been a hugger. I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits,” Meghan said of her first meeting with Kate. “I guess I’d start to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside.”

However, an unnamed friend of the mother-of-three told People that Kate was incredibly affectionate.

“Kate’s a big hugger,” the friend told the publication. “She is warm and friendly and greets everyone with a big hug and kiss. It comes naturally to her to be like that.”

Stay up to date with the latest news on the British Royals with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer available for a limited time only >

Kate Middleton’s friend has refuted Meghan Markle’s claims the Princess wasn’t a “hugger”. Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage

Signs the royal pair had a frosty relationship first emerged publicly in the months after Meghan and Prince Harry’s 2018 royal wedding, when tabloids ran wild with a story about the former actress making Kate cry over Princess Charlotte’s flower girl dress.

However, Meghan claimed in her televised interview with Oprah Winfrey last year that it was actually Kate who made her cry.

“She [Kate] was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she brought me flowers,” Meghan said at the time.

“A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.

“What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do, but that happened to me.

“And the people who were part of our wedding were going to our comms team and saying: ‘I know this didn’t happen. I don’t have to tell them what actually happened.’”

In a book released later in 2021, titled Revenge, author Tom Bower refuted Meghan’s claims, citing unnamed sources who told him that Kate “burst into tears” when Meghan “compared Princess Charlotte unfavourably to her best friend Jessica Mulroney’s daughter.”

Meghan and Kate have long been rumoured to have frosty relations. Picture: Phil Noble/WPA Pool/Getty Images

While the first three episodes of Meghan and Harry’s groundbreaking Netflix docuseries were largely centred on the couple’s love story, and how press intrusion drove them to moving overseas, the final three – dropping tonight – will put a laser focus on their fractious relations with the royal family.

In a new trailer ahead of the final instalment, released today, Meghan accused the palace of planting stories about her to protect other members of the monarchy.

Harry & Meghan. Volume II: December 15. Only on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/ZfCcsieTHx

— Netflix (@netflix) December 14, 2022

“You would just see it play out,” Meghan says. “A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute and they’d go: ‘We’ve gotta make that go away.’

“But there’s real estate on a website homepage, there is real estate there on a newspaper front cover. And something has to be filled in there about someone royal.”

Harry, 38, went as far as singling out his brother Prince William, 40, adding: “They were happy to lie to protect my brother, but they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”

Originally published as Kate Middleton’s friend slams Meghan Markle’s ‘hugger’ comment