© Provided by The Independent A senior royal aide ignored Meghan Markle when she sought to "set the record straight," after tabloids reported she made the Duchess of Cambridge cry in 2018. Meghan said in her interview with Oprah on Sunday that the reverse occurred, and Kate made her cry.
According to a biographer, after her attempt to put out her version of events, Meghan was told Kate shouldn't be dragged into "idle gossip," even as the royal family weighed in on other tabloid speculation and knew the truth of what happened, revealing to her a perceived double standard.
According to Omid Scobie, co-author ofFinding Freedom, a biography of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as the couple prepared to step away from senior duties in the royal family last year, Kensington Palace asked Harry to sign a statement denying "offensive" newspaper reports his brother was bullying him ahead of the decision.
Meghan tells Oprah that Kate made her cry before wedding
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This request reportedly struck a chord with the Duchess of Sussex.
"Well, if we're just throwing any statement out there now, then perhaps KP can finally set the record straight about me [not making Kate cry]," Meghan emailed an aide, according to the biographer. She was reportedly met with an admonishment that the Duchess of Cambridge wouldn't be dragged into "idle gossip."
The royal family often declines to comment on media speculation, but occasionally does so, such as when it denied Kate Middleton had Botox.
During her widely viewed interview over the weekend with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan said the tabloids had gotten things completely backwards when they reported that in November 2018, she had made the Duchess of Cambridge cry during a dress fitting ahead of her wedding.
"What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn't do but what happened to me and the people that were a part of my wedding going to my comms team, saying, I know this didn't happen," Meghan told Oprah on Sunday. "Everyone in the institution knew it wasn't true..."
So much so, according to Meghan, that Kate apologised with a note and flowers later on. But the Duchess argued the alleged incident revealed differential treatment between her and other members of the royal family.
"They really seemed to want a narrative of a hero and a villain," she said.
Elsewhere in the interview, Meghan Markle implied her mixed-race heritage led the royal family to deny her future children a title and full security protection. Taken together, Meghan said the way she was treated led to a serious decline in her mental health.
The Duchess of Sussex and the royal family did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
Following the release of the interview, Buckingham Palace responded on Tuesday, saying the comments made in the interview will be "taken very seriously."
"The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan," the statement reads.