Kate Stood Up Against Harry and Meghan's Accusations
Last week, The Times ran an excerpt from Valentine Low’s new book Courtiers. The majority of the excerpt focused on Harry’s feud with various members of the Palace staff, but the part that had everyone talking the last few days was the part of the excerpt that featured Kate.
Low revealed that after the Oprah interview, William and Kate were war-gaming a response with their own staff. This is his account:
A palace team had watched the interview overnight — it was screened in the US on the evening of Sunday, March 7, and was not due to be shown in the UK until the next day — and senior officials had spent the morning locked in conference calls as
they debated how to respond. A draft statement was ready by 2pm on Monday. Much to the frustration of the media, however, the palace remained silent. One insider said, “One of the reasons was that the late Queen was adamant that she was going to watch the programme first.” And she was going to watch it with the rest of the population, on ITV on Monday evening.
The next day, the serious negotiations began over the official response. William and Kate – the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as they were then — sat together on a sofa as they discussed with their officials how to deal with the Sussexes’ incendiary allegations. The draft statement they had at that point did not yet include the phrase that was to become famous, that “some recollections may vary”. The insider recalled, “It had a much milder version. The debate was, do you rise entirely above it and offer the olive branch of [Harry and Meghan being] ‘much loved members of the family’? Or is there some moment when you have to intervene and offer a view?”
While they were as concerned as anyone about not getting into a tit-for-tat with Harry and Meghan, William and Kate were clear which side of the debate they were on. “They wanted it toughened up a bit,” said the insider. “They were both of one mind that we needed something that said that the institution did not accept a lot of what had been said.
“He said, ‘It is really important that you guys come up with the right way of making sure that we are saying that this does not stand.’ She was certainly right behind him on it.”
While some have attributed “recollections may vary” to Alderton, more than one source has said that the author was in fact Jean-Christophe Gray, William’s new private secretary, who had been in post for less than three weeks. At least two senior officials in other households were against its inclusion, because they feared that it would rile Harry and Meghan. But once the phrase had been added to the draft, it was — according to another source — the Duchess of Cambridge who pressed home the argument that it should remain. “It was Kate who clearly made the point, ‘History will judge this statement and unless this phrase or a phrase like it is included, everything that they have said will be taken as true.’ ”
This was, said the source, yet another example of how Kate is often far steelier than she appears. “She does not get as much credit as she should, because she is so subtle about it. She is playing the long game. She has always got her eye on, ‘This is my life and my historic path and I am going to be the Queen one day.’ ” The toughened-up draft went to Buckingham Palace for approval, and came back a couple of hours later. The Queen had said yes.
The four-sentence statement was eventually released just before 5.30pm on Tuesday. It said, “The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.”
As well as Gray’s memorable phrase, the statement was notable for two other things. One was the informality and affection with which it referred to Harry and Meghan, rather than the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The other was the fact that it dared to confront the issue of race. A few days later, Prince William attacked the issue head on when, in response to a television reporter, he said, “We are very much not a racist family.”
Some reports erroneously claimed Kate came up with the phrase “recollections may vary,” which is clearly not the account Low provides in his book. But it does highlight what we were already able to observe, which is that Kate has strong opinions about the family split and that the feud is not just between the brothers.
When Harry returned to the U.K. for Prince Philip’s funeral, eagle-eyed observers saw the then-Duchess of Cambridge reaching across the divide between her husband and brother-and-law. She turned to chat with Harry as the royals walked away from St. George’s Chapel, and seemed to be trying to engage him in conversation and provide an opportunity for discussion between the brothers. Of course we didn’t and don’t know what she was saying, but the body language was warm, welcoming, and conciliatory. But something changed over the next year.
Some people seem to assume that it is mostly William’s anger that burns white hot and that Kate stands in the background as an almost neutral observer trying to soften William’s resentment and act as a peacemaker. But she has obviously taken a very clear side behind the scenes, and, of course, we saw that position taken publicly in a very stark way just this last year.
In September 2022, more than a year after the Oprah interview and Philip’s funeral, Harry and Meghan were in the U.K. for the Queens’s funeral. At the time, it was reported that William and Kate got word that Harry and Meghan were going to conduct a walkabout in Windsor on their own, so William reached out and proposed the joint walkabout. I am not sure to what extent that story has since been amended or massaged. I think now the official story is William reached out sua sponte, but the initial report was more complicated. In any case…
When the four exited their chauffeured Range Rovers at the castle gates to conduct the walkabout, the chill between them was palpable. Interestingly enough, the coldest aura was not emanating from either of the brothers, but from the newly minted Princess of Wales. William was suddenly cast in the role that Kate generally takes, appearing solicitous both toward his brother and sister-in-law. By contrast, Kate kept her distance physically and maintained an absolutely glacial expression toward the other couple.
When the walkabout was over, the four waved to the crowds. This photo below looks like the two women were smiling at each other, and was used by lots of media outlets, but they were not enjoying a warm moment. If you watch a video, Meghan is looking softly at Kate, but Kate is smiling at the crowds to the right behind Meghan. When she swivels and meets Meghan’s glance, Kate’s entire demeanor changes. Her face is suddenly blank and she turns away from Meghan and walks away.
In Robert Jobson’s book Our King, he reported “Catherine later admitted to a senior royal that, such was the ill feeling between the two couples, the joint walkabout was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do.”
So, it does not surprise me that Kate stood her ground during negotiations over the statement after the Oprah interview, and thank goodness she did. She was absolutely right to insist that the royals say something for themselves. Cowering in the face of unjust accusations of racism and abuse solves nothing. It was and remains critical for the royal family to continue to insist, as William did just a few days later, that they are “very much not a racist family.” I am very happy to know Kate is taking a leadership role in standing the royal ground.