Prince William and Kate Middleton were reportedly left gobsmacked when Prince Harry first let slip that he was dating Meghan Markle.
In his 2023 memoir Spare, Harry recalls the dinner where he broke the news to his brother and sister-in-law about his new romance. It was 2016, and according to Harry, the reaction was more dramatic than he expected.
New details from a forthcoming royal biography about the Prince and Princess of Wales have now shed more light on the moment.
Prince William and Kate’s jaw-dropping reaction
According to The Mirror’s royal editor Russell Myers’ upcoming book, William and Catherine: The Intimate Inside Story, William had a short and sharp response when Harry told him about dating Suits actress Meghan.
The book reports, via the Mirror, that William’s immediate reaction was: “F*** off!”
Harry recounted the moment in Spare: “Their mouths fell open. They turned to each other. Then Willy turned to me and said: ‘F–k off?'”
Now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.
“I was baffled until Willy and Kate explained that they were regular — nay, religious — viewers of Suits. ‘Great,’ I thought, laughing. I’ve been worrying about the wrong thing.
“All this time I’d thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph.”
Harry and Meghan’s romance soon flourished. They were engaged just over a year later and married in a royal wedding at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in May 2018.
The couple welcomed Prince Archie in 2019 and Princess Lilibet in 2021, before stepping back from royal duties and moving to California in 2020.
Meghan spills on first impressions
Elsewhere, the Duchess of Sussex has shared her take on meeting William and Kate for the first time.
In the 2022 Netflix series Harry & Meghan, she said: “When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.
“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”
Read more: Prince William ‘felt let down’ by Tom Bradby following Harry and Meghan documentary
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