Kate Middleton friend contradicts Meghan Markle’s ‘hugging’ claims

A friend of the Princess of Wales has said that Princess Kate is a “big hugger”, despite claims made by Meghan Markle in the Netflix docuseries, Harry and Meghan.

In an interview with People for this week’s cover story, an unnamed friend of the princess confirmed that Kate Middleton is “quite affectionate” with friends and family.

“Kate’s a big hugger,” the friend told People. “She is warm and friendly and greets everyone with a big hug and kiss. It comes naturally to her to be like that.”

In the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new documentary series, Meghan Markle said she was “surprised” about the formality of the royal family, which continues even behind closed doors. Speaking in episode two, the duchess described the first time she met the now Prince and Princess of Wales.

“When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner,” she recalled. “I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot.”

“I was a hugger. I’ve always been a hugger, I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits,” she continued.

“I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside. There is a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go, ‘You can relax now,’ but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”

The first three episodes of the record-breaking Netflix docuseries premiered on Thursday 8 December, followed by the final three episodes debuting on 15 December. Ahead of the release of volume two, Prince Harry suggested there was a difference in the way he and Meghan were treated compared to his brother, Prince William.

“They were happy to lie to protect my brother,” Harry said in a trailer for volume two. “They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.”

Meghan then claimed in the trailer that she “wasn’t being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,” while Harry described their experience as “institutional gaslighting”.

Although Harry did not explicitly state who was “happy to lie” to protect his brother, many people speculated that he was referring to senior members of the royal family and royal aides, or the media. It is likely that volume two of Harry and Meghan will see the couple address the relationship between the press and the royal family, and their eventual departure from the royal family in 2020.

The first three episodes of Harry and Meghan focused heavily on the couple’s relationship and Meghan’s experiences of racism in the UK brought on by the British press, prior to their 2018 marriage. According to Harry, some members of his family saw the media’s treatment of Meghan as a “right of passage,” as he spoke about ‘pain and suffering’ that women face marrying into the royal family.

The final three episodes of Harry and Meghan will be released on Thursday 15 December.