The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was the social event of 2018, but guests quickly noticed a royal faux pas in the making. Kate Middleton, Meghan’s future sister-in-law and future Queen of England, was not chosen as one of Meghan’s bridesmaids.
Did the two come to an amicable decision behind the scenes or was this a royal snub? And is this one of the reasons behind the rumors of the royal rift between Prince Harry and Prince William?
We’ve got the full scoop below on why Kate wasn’t a bridesmaid at Meghan’s wedding.
A Notable Absence
Royal weddings don’t happen all that often. Therefore, royal aficionados looked to Kate Middleton’s own wedding for precedence on this matter.
Kate actually had her sister Pippa serve as a bridesmaid for her big day. That meant Pippa was right there to hold up Kate’s train (and also stun us all with her own really killer dress). That’s why fans thought it likely that Meghan Markle would extend a bridesmaid invitation to Kate Middleton.
That didn’t happen, and Kate was notably absent from the bridesmaids. And ever since then, the whole world has been wondering why.
Proper Protocol?
Sometimes, the simplest explanations are the likeliest answer. And if that holds true, there may be a pretty straightforward explanation as to why Kate wasn’t a bridesmaid.
Simply put, the bridesmaids in royal weddings tend to be children instead of adults. And most of Meghan’s bridesmaids were only about three or four years old.
That means that Kate Middleton inviting her own sister Pippa to be a bridesmaid was the exception, not the rule. And as a perceived American outsider to the royal family, Meghan may very well have wanted to stick very close to tradition.
But is there more to it than that?
Kate Keeps a Low Profile
Most people assume that it was Meghan that snubbed Kate when it comes to bridesmaid status. This would be perfectly in line with her alleged Bridezilla behavior, including reportedly fighting with the queen over the right to wear a certain tiara at her wedding.
Another possibility, though, is that it was actually Kate that declined the opportunity. Why would she do that? Simple: to avoid upstaging Meghan Markle at her own wedding.
Because Kate Middleton is the future Queen of England, she has tremendous celebrity and influence. Almost any event (such as an evening gala) that she takes part in eventually becomes all about her, whether she wants that to happen or not.
If she declined Meghan’s invitation, Kate could ensure that all eyes remained on Meghan and Harry during the ceremony.
Baby on Board
Kate may or may not have been doing Meghan any favors if she declined the offer to be a bridesmaid. Regardless, Kate had a pretty good excuse for not taking part in the ceremony!
Kate had given birth to her third child (Prince Louis) just one month before Meghan’s wedding. And regardless of how much money and assistance someone has, handling a newborn child remains a full-time job.
Heck, Kate was wrangling her other kiddos during Pippa’s wedding. It’s not that surprising she might give a bridesmaid offer from Meghan a hard pass. But there’s another reason why Kate might not have wanted to participate in the wedding.
Dodging Drama
Another reason why Kate might decline such an offer is pretty simple: maybe she wanted to avoid the potential drama!
Meghan Markle has a legendarily problematic family. Her dad caused a photo scandal before the wedding, threatened to boycott the ceremony, and then claimed he couldn’t come for medical reasons. And the man is currently in the middle of Meghan’s lawsuit against Associated Newspapers after he sent them a letter she wrote and The Mail on Sunday published excerpts from it.
Meghan also has a half-sister trying to profit off of royal gossip with a tell-all book and a half-brother who keeps getting arrested for things like drunken fighting and driving. Given all of this info, it’s possible Kate wanted to stay very far away!
Clash of Personalities
Then again, it might not be royal protocol or family drama that kept Kate out of the wedding. It might be as simple as clashing personalities!
There are rumors of a feud between the duchesses. And evidence of such a feud may have been seen recently when Meghan and Kate were reunited on Commonwealth Day in March 2020. Attendees and the press were quick to note that the two seemed to ignore each other as much as they could throughout the entire event.
This event was far removed from the wedding day, and it may speak to a larger and more intense rift between these two duchesses.
Megxit, Stage Right
They say that hindsight is always 50/50. Similarly, we may be able to take some of the information we learned later on and use it to make sense of Meghan’s wedding.
For example, Meghan and Harry have now left the royal family behind, first settling in Canada and now Los Angeles, possibly for good. It’s unlikely that this dramatic event (labeled “Megxit” by the press) was a spur-of-the-moment plan.
If Meghan was already creating an exit strategy as far back as her wedding day, she may not have wanted the future Queen of England as part of her ceremony. That might have made it harder for her to distance herself from the royal family after the wedding.
Leaving It All Behind
For better or for worse, Meghan and Harry are far from the rest of the royal family now. We don’t know what their future holds, and we certainly don’t know if we’ll ever get a complete answer about why Kate Middleton didn’t serve as her bridesmaid.
In the meantime, Markle herself isn’t focusing on the past. Now that they’re in Los Angeles, Meghan and Harry have been focusing on helping out with coronavirus relief efforts. With any luck, coming back to America means she can leave royal drama behind forever.