Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
The extraordinary story of how two powerful women fell out, apparently terminally, over a fitting for a child’s bridesmaid’s dress once again transfixed the world this week.
The women in question, of course, are Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, and the tale blew up again with investigative journalist Tom Bower writing in his new book, Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, once again about the saga, and once again pinning the blame firmly on Meghan. That this story never appears to end neatly encapsulates the exhausting levels of dysfunction at the heart of the royal family—and the media fascination that attends it.
As a reminder, the initial version of the story, that appeared in U.K. papers via the Daily Telegraph’s respected royal correspondent Camilla Tominey, was that during a bridesmaid fitting ahead of Meghan and Prince Harry’s wedding in 2018, Meghan made Kate cry in a heated argument over whether or not the bridesmaids, one of whom included Kate’s daughter Charlotte, should wear tights. Kate thought they should, as per royal convention; Meghan did not want them to.