Meghan Markle’s response when asked about meeting Kate Middleton for the first time

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton’s relationship is back in the spotlight this week with the publication of a book detailing the apparent bridesmaid dress clash.

Yes, Ma’am: The Secret Life Of Royal Servants by Tom Quinn claims that ahead of Meghan and Prince Harry’s royal wedding in 2018, the two women were reportedly both left ‘crying their eyes out’.

A former member of staff told the author: ‘The truth is that during the discussions about the bridesmaid’s dress Meghan said a few things she regretted and Kate said a few things she later regretted but it was all in the heat of the moment.’

It is a far cry from the gushing description Meghan and Harry gave of Kate months earlier during their engagement interview with BBC’s Mishal Husain in 2017.

It was before any hint of what was to come with plenty of optimism about the couple’s future as senior royals.

Harry said that his older brother and Kate were ‘longing to meet’ Meghan and that the first time Harry introduced her went swimmingly.

Thanks to the fact that they were neighbours within the Kensington Palace estate, Harry said they were able to meet ‘quite a few times’.

The couple in 2017 when they spoke to the BBC about their engagement. The lovestruck Prince declared his late mother Diana would have been ‘jumping up and down’ with excitement at the news he was to marry Meghan

At this point in the interview, Meghan chimed in and described Kate as ‘wonderful’.

‘She’s been wonderful,’ she said.

Harry added: ‘Amazing, as has William as well, you know, fantastic support.’

As for meeting his father King Charles, then Prince Charles, Harry said there had been a ‘handful of teas and meetings and all sorts of gatherings over at his place as well’.

He continued: ‘But now the whole family have come together and have been a huge amount of support.’

During the interview, Meghan was also asked if her parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland had been worried about the scale of what the ex-actress was getting into.

Meghan and Kate speak on stage at the First Annual Royal Foundation Forum in February 2018

The pair in the Royal Box on Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2019, a year after the alleged bridesmaid dress row

She replied: ‘Well I’m sure the onset, both my parents and my close friends were concerned, because we got very quickly swept up in a media storm that, as I shared, was not part of my life before that, but they also had never seen me so happy.’

Meghan added that the whole royal family had ‘been amazing’.

The couple stepped down as senior royals in 2020 and moved to California, where they now reside in their Montecito home with their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

In the couple’s now-infamous bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, which took place after they left the UK, Meghan spoke of the disagreement between her and Kate.

She explained that Kate had been upset about something but later apologised and even brought her flowers.

The sisters-in-law at the Commonwealth Service at Westminster Abbey, London, in 2019

‘It wasn’t a confrontation,’ Meghan said. ‘I don’t think it’s fair to her to get into the details of that, because she apologised.

‘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’.’

Earlier this month, Harry gave an emotional BBC interview following his loss in court of appeal over his and his family’s security arrangements on May 2.

He claimed that the King ‘won’t speak to him’ and that he doesn’t ‘know how much longer he has left’ – but added it would be ‘nice to reconcile’ because ‘life is precious’.

However, he said he will not bring Meghan or his children back to the UK and claimed his family is at greater risk in the wake of the court decision.