And we all saw some glimpses of it through circulating footage as the gloomy Duke and Duchess of Sussex were barely given any attention by Prince William and Kate Middleton at the Commonwealth Day Service back in March 2020.
While the tension was evident on the face of Prince Harry, particularly, Robert Lacey’s new book, Battle of Brothers, gives some additional detail about the Sussex’s final royal engagement and what went down behind-the-scenes.
The author wrote that Harry and Meghan’s snub in the programming during the procession had been distributed to everyone in the building before they arrived.
And while Meghan channeled her former profession as an actor to put on her best smile, it was harder for Prince Harry to hold back his inner feelings from showing outside.
Lacey even revealed that Harry was “fighting back tears” at that exact moment.
“The only problem was that 2,000 orders of service had already been distributed round the Abbey, explaining that William and Kate would enter and process with the main royal party—and making no mention at all of Harry and Meghan,” he wrote.
“So there was the snub in black and white—set out for all to see. Observers also noted that Harry’s face was ‘quite tense and unsmiling’—and that when William sat down close to him, he barely greeted his brother,” he said further.
“Throughout the service, Meghan megawatted away with her best TV smile but, as the ceremony progressed, Harry appeared to grow gloomier. According to one observer, ‘his accelerated blinking even suggested he might have been fighting back tears’,” he added.