MEGHAN Markle’s glamorous royal wedding to Prince Harry may have captivated nearly two billion viewers worldwide, but the days leading up to the ceremony were reportedly marked by major emotional turmoil behind the palace walls.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex celebrated their eighth wedding anniversary this week, reviving the public’s dazzle with a lavish 2018 ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, where guests, including Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney, watched the couple tie the knot.However, according to a RadarOnline report, the final days before the wedding were far from the fairytale picture presented to the world.
The pressures that Meghan Markle faced before her wedding day
A royal source told the outlet that the emotional pressure Meghan was under in the lead-up to the ceremony was significant.
“She was preparing to marry into one of the most highly scrutinized families on the planet, while every detail of her appearance, behavior and relationships was dissected globally,” the source said. “People close to the situation say there were moments when the emotional stress of trying to navigate royal expectations, family tensions and constant media attention became too overwhelming for her.
“The source added that the tensions that emerged in those final days were a symptom of deeper problems already quietly developing within the family dynamic. “The conflict over the dresses ended up representing deeper issues that had been quietly developing within the family dynamic long before the public became aware of the fractures between Harry and the rest of the royal family.”
the A dispute over the bride’s dress With Princess Catherine
According to Harry’s memoir “Spare,” Catherine called Meghan four days before the ceremony to raise concerns about Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress, describing it as “too big, too long and too loose.”
Catherine reportedly thought the dress needed to be completely redesigned rather than just altered, and said Charlotte cried after trying it on. Harry later wrote that he returned home to find Meghan crying on the bathroom floor after the exchange.The row became one of the most discussed wedding controversies after early reports suggested Meghan caused Catherine to cry. Meghan later disputed this account during her 2021 interview, insisting that “the opposite happened.”
She confirmed that the situation was tense, but said, “It was not confrontational,” adding that Catherine later apologized and sent flowers. “I don’t think it’s fair for her to go into detail about that, because she’s apologized,” Meghan told Oprah at the time.Royal author Tom Quinn later gave a more accurate account in his book Yes, Ma’am: The Secret Lives of Royal Butlers, writing that both women said things they later regretted but “it was all in the heat of the moment.”
Tailor Ajay Mirpuri, who worked on the bridesmaids’ dresses, said he had not witnessed any explosive confrontation firsthand. “They ran into trouble, like anyone attending a wedding, with last-minute hitches,” he said.
Eight years after the royal wedding
The tensions surrounding the 2018 wedding have remained a source of ongoing public fascination, especially given the Sussexes’ estrangement from the royal family since they stepped back from royal duties in 2020 and moved to Montecito, California, where they are raising their two children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, four. Eight years later, the anniversary seems to have brought those behind-the-scenes moments back into focus.