Five key moments Kate Middleton & Meghan Markle’s relationship fell apart – from nickname controversy to wedding drama

There are five key moments that seemed to mark a point of no return for Kate, 41, and 42-year-old Meghan, who once made up half of the infamous – but short-lived – ‘Fab Four’. 

Speaking about the two couples’ first and last joint appearance – February 2018’s the Royal Foundation Forum – Camilla explained: “The quartet would never appear together again, except in the context of larger royal engagements, such as Trooping the Colour, the Platinum Jubilee, and of course, the late Queen's funeral.

“But the awkwardness on display that frosty day provides an insight into the many reasons why Meghan appears never to have taken to Kate – and vice versa,” she continued in The Telegraph. 

Here, we take a look at the alleged root of their rift – and how it only seemed to go from bad to worse… 

1. PLAYING ‘SECOND FIDDLE’ 

the Royal Foundation Forum is said to be a “significant pinch point” in Kate and Meghan’s relationship for not one, but two reasons. 

The public event was one of the first times that both William and Harry themselves confessed that working with family had its “challenges”.

And they were in full display on the day when former actress and philanthropist Meghan took centre stage with a passionate monologue about women’s empowerment – a slight tangent from the Forum’s focus on mental health.

In Tina Brown’s book The Palace Papers she writes: “With blithe proprietorship, [Meghan] deployed an issue that was not even on the foundation's docket – women's empowerment, then at its fervid height with the acceleration of the #MeToo movement.”

Camilla continued in : “The event was supposed to be about promoting better mental health, and here was the Duchess, seemingly politicising it.” 

Meanwhile, according to a Royal insider, “Meghan seemed uncomfortable having to so publicly play ‘second fiddle’ to William and Kate as the superior royals in the palace hierarchy.”

They claim that Meghan could have found “it difficult that the Royal Foundation was already a well-oiled machine by the time she got there.” 

2. LUKEWARM RECEPTION 

However, it seems there were already seeds of a rift between the two Royal women dating back to their very first meeting two years previously. 

It's claimed that when Kate and William first met Meghan back in 2016, they didn’t get off to the best start.

: “In truth, there had been a degree of frisson almost as soon as Meghan officially arrived on the royal scene in 2016 to a lukewarm reception from "formal" William and Kate, who as well as finding her "a little full on", had no idea she would be a keeper, having met a succession of Harry's girlfriends.”

While Harry wrote in his memoir Spare that when he brought Meghan round to meet his brother and sister-in-law, Kate remained in the garden playing with the children instead of greeting her.