By Marisa Laudadio
3:13pm PST, Feb 23, 2026
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A new royal biography told from Prince William and Kate Middleton’s point of view reveals exactly when the Princess of Wales’ feelings about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shifted amid their estrangement from Britain’s royal family, with trust at the center of the fallout.
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In the new book William and Catherine: The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story, author Russell Myers claims tensions escalated after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey aired on CBS. That was the headline-making sit-down where the couple alleged that an unnamed member of the royal family made racist remarks about the skin color of their future children. According to the book, both Prince William and Kate Middleton were deeply hurt by claims the Duke and Duchess of Sussex publicly made about them, too.
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In the aftermath of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Oprah Winfrey interview, “The Sussexes’ version of how the family and the institution had conspired against them had created a siege mentality in the palace,” author Russell Myers — who’s also the royal editor for Britain’s Daily Mirror, writes in William and Catherine: The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story. “Harry’s presence at [Prince Philip’s] funeral [weeks later] just ensured these feelings stayed fresh in everyone’s minds.”
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The book reveals the subjects discussed in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview that most deeply affected Prince William and Kate Middleton. “William and Catherine were both wounded by the numerous accusations and the presentation of Harry and Meghan’s ‘truth,'” writes author Russell Myers. “William was most aggrieved by Harry’s assertion that [William] was ‘trapped’ in the system, while Catherine felt deeply let down over Meghan’s disclosure of a private exchange…”
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That private exchange centered on the fit of Princess Charlotte’s flower girl dress ahead of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2018 royal wedding. In the 2021 sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, Markle corrected a widely disseminated U.K. media report claiming she’d made Kate Middleton cry over an issue with the dress, revealing it was the Princess of Wales who’d made her cry. The Duchess of Sussex said her sister-in-law apologized. Markle also called the Princess of Wales a “good person.” But discussing it at all “compounded, in Catherine’s mind, a key difference between her and Meghan, who she no longer believed she could trust,” author Russell Myers writes.
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That loss of trust altered how Kate Middleton approached any future interactions with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a source told author Russell Myers. The Princess of Wales “was very clear that any engagement with Harry or Meghan should be with the utmost of caution because it was obvious that they weren’t to be trusted,” the source claimed.