Apparently, Meghan Markle’s one-word response to Kate Middleton sparked an awkward silence between the two during the former’s first Trooping the Colour appearance in 2018.
In his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry recalled the uncomfortable exchange, which came just weeks after his May 2018 wedding to Meghan. The couple had just returned from their Mediterranean honeymoon and were stepping into one of their earliest public appearances as newlyweds.
Harry described the atmosphere at the royal gathering as initially positive. “Everyone present was in a good mood, upbeat,” he wrote. However, according to Fox News Digital, that was quick to change when “Kate asked Meg what she thought of her first Trooping the Colour.”
Meghan’s reply was a light and brief one-word joke: “Colorful.” What followed, Harry recalled, was “a yawning silence [that] threatened to swallow us all whole.” He offered no further detail about how the moment unfolded or why it felt so awkward.
The 2018 Trooping the Colour, the annual celebration of the British monarch’s official birthday, might have been awkward for Meghan, but Harry noted that she found her footing just days later. It was when Meghan went on her first royal trip with the late Queen Elizabeth II and they “got on famously.”
Later that same month, Harry said he and Meghan met with Kate and Prince William to try to address the growing friction between them. According to the Duke of Sussex, several issues were raised during the discussion.
Kate was reportedly upset over comments Meghan had made about her “baby brain” while she was pregnant, and there were disagreements about bridesmaids’ dresses from the Sussexes’ wedding. William and Kate were also said to be annoyed at not receiving Easter gifts from the couple.
Harry and Meghan, in turn, expressed frustration over other matters, including seating arrangements at their wedding. “None of this airing of grievances was doing any good. We weren’t getting anywhere,” Harry wrote of the discussion.
Their strained dynamics remained the same in the years that followed. Harry and Meghan last attended Trooping the Colour in 2019 before stepping back from royal duties in early 2020 and relocating to the United States. The couple, who remained absent from the 2026 Trooping the Colour ceremony, have reportedly not been invited to the annual event in the last few years.