'Dueling duchesses' Meghan and Kate were never friends as they barely got together after wedding to Harry
An explosive new biography has claimed that Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle were never friends and "struggled to move past distance politeness" and had "nothing in common other than the fact that they lived at Kensington Palace."
'Finding Freedom' by co-authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand claims that Duchess of Sussex was "disappointed" that Kate never reached out to her or visited and as a result, the Sussexes announced they wanted to base their family at Windsor in 2018. Despite the lack of desire to heal the emotional distance between them, the former 'Suits' star reportedly felt hurt at stories of the "dueling duchesses'' circulating in the media and at the same time was angry at the failure of the palace press office to correct them.
The book also recounted one particularly awkward encounter between the two when Meghan was dating Harry. Kate went alone in her Range Rover on a shopping trip, despite the fact Meghan was also going to the same street. While the sisters-in-law might have "talked and texted regularly" before Meghan's official entry into the family, by the time of her wedding with Harry, they barely spent any time together.
Meghan also felt reported hurt by some of the depicted commentary and tabloid stories that branded her "sexist" and "prejudiced." Apparently she was labeled "demanding and aggressive" because she was an ambitious women of color. A close friend of Meghan also told the authors that she was looked upon by people at the Firm as 'Duchess Different.'
"It was open season on Meghan, with many looking for anything and everything to criticize," an extract from the book read as serialized by The Sunday Times. "Duchess Different. That's what people have a problem with. She's the easiest person in the world to work with. Certain people just don't like the fact she stands out."
Despite the biography receiving hype as fans of the couple, Scobie and Durand, have previously claimed that through the book they had set out to "correct the record" and shift the spotlight on to the royal family's charitable ventures, a spokesman for Harry and Meghan has made it clear that they ''were not interviewed and did not contribute to Finding Freedom." In fact, ''The book is based on the authors' own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.''
Although the authors have claimed that "all information in this book has at least two sources" Scobie appeared to choose his words carefully when he was asked in an interview with The Times about the level of access if any into the Sussexes' lives that was granted to him and Durand. "The book doesn't claim to have any interviews with Harry and Meghan. And nor do we," he said.
When he was pressed on whether there had been an "off-the-record" discussion about the book with the couple, he said: "You've read the book. There's no on-the-record interviews with the couple... I think that you can tell from the reporting, my time around the couple is enough for me to know my subjects."