The moment between Prince William and Meghan Markle on Christmas Day in 2018 ‘really did make royal watchers sit up and take notice.
Prince Harry alluded to fall Out with Prince William in 2019 (he described them as taking “space”). But things between him, his brother, Meghan Markle, and Kate Middleton had been bad for a while at that point. The fractures in the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s relationship with the Prince and Princess of Wales had already started to show. That’s where Christmas 2018 comes in. A commentator says an awkward moment between William and Meghan showed the “split was terminal” even then.
Not unlike 2017, the two couples were shoulder to shoulder come Dec. 25, 2018. They made their way inside St. Mary Magdalene Church, past cameras and well-wishers, only to do the same thing on their way out.
That alone produced a flurry of photos and videos. They showed Harry, Meghan, William, and Kate walking next to each other and smiling at a time when reports of friction had started to gather steam in the British tabloids (more on that later).
It marked the second—and last—time Harry and Meghan would walk with Kate, William, and the rest of the British royal family to church on Christmas Day. In 2019, the couple spent the holidays in Canada before announcing their decision to leave royal life in early 2020.
The Daily Mail’s royal expert, Richard Eden, discussed the moment between William and Meghan on an episode of “Reading the Royals,” noting how it appeared to show the now-Prince of Wales snubbing his sister-in-law.
“By Christmas 2018, the split [between the Wales and Sussex couples] was terminal,” he said. “And the footage we’re about to see really did make royal watchers sit up and take notice.”
Look at the body language as they’re leaving church on Christmas Day in Sandringham. Meghan looks as if she wants to talk to Prince William, but he sort of turns away awkwardly and fiddles with his scarf. [It] looks like he just doesn’t want to speak to Meghan at all.”
“And then, at that point, it seems Catherine intervenes. You know, as we’ve seen so often with her, she seems to be sort of the peacemaker. And trying to make a bit of small talk, knowing full well that the cameras are all on them.”
Despite the awkwardness on camera, Eden noted how newspapers at the time were filled with photos of the couples’ “apparently united front.”
Harry revealed in his 2023 memoir, Spare, that things had indeed been tense between him and Meghan and William and Kate at the time. Barely two weeks before going to church together on Christmas Day, they had their second “summit” of the year. (They’d previously had a “clear the air” in June 2018.)
It was Dec. 10, 2018, and Harry, Meghan, William, and Kate gathered in Nottingham Cottage’s “little annex.” The main topic of discussion? Tabloid stories about Meghan supposedly making Kate cry ahead of the Sussex royal wedding.
“I know, Meghan, that I was the one who made you cry,” Kate said. While the former Suits star “appreciated the apology,” she had questions. Specifically, “why the papers had said this, and what was being done to correct them?”
“In other words,” according to Harry, she was asking, “Why isn’t your office standing up for me? Why haven’t they phoned this execrable woman who wrote this story, and demanded a retraction?”
Meghan’s questions I “flustered” Kate, who “didn’t answer,” while William offered “very supportive-sounding evasions.”
Harry, for his part, “already knew the truth.” A call from the palace about the story would lead to questions of “What’s the real story?” That “door,” he explained, “must never be opened because it would embarrass the future queen. The monarchy, always, at all costs, had to be protected.”
From there, they “went around and around,” discussing how it could’ve ended up in the tabloids. “Finally,” William admitted he “might’ve let it slip that there’d been strife between the two couples” while having dinner with King Charles and Queen Camilla on a royal tour of Australia.
A “heavy silence” fell, which Harry broke by telling his brother: “You…of all people…should’ve known…”
