Stereotyping caused a “bit of a barrier” to the Prince and Princess of Wales welcoming Meghan, despite Prince Harry having high hopes that the four of them would get along.
Prince Harry shared his recollection with ITV’s Tom Bradby in the first of four prime-time shows about his controversial memoir Spare, to be launched on Tuesday.
Bradby said the impression was that the Duke of Sussex's brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate did not get on “almost from the get-go” with Meghan, to which Prince Harry replied: “Yeah, fair.”
“[There were] lots of different reasons … I had put a lot of hope in the idea that it’d be Prince William and Kate and me and whoever.
“I thought the four of us would bring me and William closer together. We could go out and do work together, which I did a lot as the third wheel to them, which was fun at times but also, I guess, slightly awkward at times as well.
“I don’t think they were ever expecting me to get … into a relationship with someone like Meghan who had a very successful career.”
The Princess of Wales is celebrating her 41st birthday on Monday, a day before her brother-in-law’s bombshell memoir goes on sale.
Her birthday comes after intimate details about Harry's life and family, including claims about his sister-in-law, emerged in the book.
They include an “awkward moment” when his wife asked Kate to borrow some lip gloss ahead of their Royal Foundation Forum appearance in 2018.
“Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube,” Harry writes.
“Meg squeezed some on to her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced.”
The duke wrote that the four “should've been able to laugh” about the moment but the press “sensed” it was “something bigger” and so Kate was “on edge” that she was now “going to be compared to, and forced to compete with, Meg”.
Before meeting Prince Harry, Meghan starred in US legal drama series Suits, in which she played paralegal-turned-lawyer Rachel Zane.
Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, through the years — in pictures
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Doria Ragland, Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, attend the Ms Foundation Women of Vision Awards in New York City. Getty -
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan attend a basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies in Los Angeles in April. Getty -
The royal couple speak onstage at the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala in New York in December 2022. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan watch as the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II is placed into the hearse following the state funeral service at Westminster Abbey in central London in September 2022. AP -
Prince Harry and Meghan pay their respects at the Palace of Westminster. Getty -
Prince Harry, Meghan and Kate, Princess of Wales, attend a service for the reception of Queen Elizabeth's coffin at Westminster Hall. AFP -
The Princess of Wales, Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan meet members of the public outside Windsor Castle. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan leave after a service of thanksgiving for the queen. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York in September 2021. AP -
Prince Harry and Meghan on the cover of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world edition, in September 2021. Reuters -
Prince Harry and Meghan are interviewed by Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. Reuters -
Prince Harry and Meghan shared this image on social media in February 2021 to announce they were expecting their second child. AFP -
Prince Harry and Meghan visit Canada House, London, in January 2020. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan visit Auwal Mosque on Heritage Day during their royal tour of South Africa in September 2019. Getty -
Prince Harry, Meghan and their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor in South Africa in September 2019. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan meet Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Jay-Z at the European Premiere of Disney's The Lion King at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, in July 2019. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan pose for a photo with the New York Yankees before their baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at London Stadium in June 2019. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan pose with their newborn son Archie in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle in May 2019. Getty -
Meghan, joined by her mother Ms Ragland, shows her new son to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Windsor Castle in May 2019. AP -
Prince Harry and Meghan officially open Number 7, a Feeding Birkenhead citizen’s supermarket and community cafe in Merseyside in January 2019. Getty -
Prince William, the Princess of Wales, Meghan and Prince Harry attend a Christmas Day church service at the Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham estate in December 2018. Getty -
Prince William, Prince Harry, Meghan and the Duchess of Cambridge attend a service marking the centenary of the First World War armistice at Westminster Abbey in November 2018. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan visit Redwoods Tree Walk in October 2018 in Rotorua, New Zealand. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan visit an exhibition of Tongan handicrafts at the Fa'onelua Convention Centre in October 2018 in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan visit the University of the South Pacific in October 2018 in Suva, Fiji. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan address the public during a Community Event at Victoria Park in October 2018 in Dubbo, Australia. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan meet a koala during a visit to Taronga Zoo in October 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan arrive at the University of Chichester's Engineering and Digital Technology Park during an official visit to West Sussex in October 2018. Getty -
The queen, Meghan, Prince Harry, Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge watch the RAF 100th anniversary fly-past from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in July 2018. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan on their wedding day in May 2018. Getty -
Prince Harry places a wedding ring on his new wife's finger. Getty -
Meghan and Prince Harry head to their evening wedding reception at Frogmore House. Getty -
Prince Harry and Meghan walk through the corridors of the Palace of Holyroodhouse on their way to a reception for young people at the Palace in February 2018 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Getty -
Prince Harry and his then-fiancee Meghan visit Nottingham for their first official public engagement together in December 2017. Getty
Harry laughed when he was told that the Prince and Princess of Wales were Suits “fans”.
“Who would’ve thought? I never knew that,” he said.
Prince Harry suggested there was a lot of “stereotyping” about his wife that even he was “guilty of” at the beginning.
“The fact that I had that in the back of my mind, and some of the things that my brother and sister-in-law, some of the way that they were acting or behaving definitely felt to me as though unfortunately that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really sort of introducing or welcoming her in,” he said.
When asked what exactly he meant by stereotyping, Harry said: “American actress, divorced, biracial.
“There’s all different parts to that and what that can mean but if you are, like a lot of my family do, if you are reading the press, the British tabloids at the same time as living the life, then there is a tendency where you could actually end up living in the tabloid bubble rather than the actual reality."
Anticipation builds ahead of the release of Prince Harry's book — in pictures
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A poster advertising Prince Harry's memoir 'Spare' in a shop window in London. Getty -
The book will be released on January 10 -
Prince Harry during an interview with ITV's Tom Bradby. AP -
Watching the interview in Edinburgh. AP -
British daily newspapers with stories about the publication of the book. AFP -
A woman reads a Spanish language copy of Prince Harry's memoir in Barcelona, Spain. AP -
A promotional poster of the new book in London. AP -
Newspapers leading with stories about Prince Harry's relationship with Prince William in London. AFP
Prince Harry said the idea of himself, his wife and the Prince and Princess of Wales being the “fab four” was “something the British press created” and it “creates competition”.
“The idea of the four of us being together was always a hope for me,” he said.
“Before it was Meghan, whoever it was going to be, I always hoped that the four of us would get on.
“But very quickly it became Meghan versus Kate.
“And that, when it plays out so publicly, you can’t hide from that, right? Especially when within my family you have the newspapers laid out pretty much in every single palace and house that is around.”
Prince Harry said his brother “raised some concerns” about his marriage to Meghan before their wedding in May 2018.
“He never tried to dissuade me from marrying Meghan, but he aired some concerns very early, and said ‘this is going to be really hard for you’ and I still to this day don’t truly understand which part of what he was talking about,” he said.
“Maybe he predicted what the British press’s reaction was going to be.”
Harry: The Interview is available to view on ITVX.
