The late Queen Elizabeth II was allegedly so fed up with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s demands leading up to their May 2018 royal wedding that the monarch ordered one request specifically be denied, Wonderwall.com can report.
According to a new book, the Duke of Sussex insisted his grandmother’s personal aide and dresser, Angela Kelly, obtain and deliver a priceless tiara for his bride-to-be with almost no notice — a demand the sovereign instructed her assistant to “ignore.”
While much has been discussed surrounding “Tiara-gate” over the years, author Robert Hardman is sharing new details in his upcoming book, Elizabeth II, about the queen’s scathing response after learning about drama with Harry and Meghan in the run-up to their nuptials.
New ‘Tiara-gate’ details
Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau Tiara, which was crafted from diamonds and platinum in 1932, was bequeathed to Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. By: MEGA
The former Suits actress was lent Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau Tiara for the nuptials but seemingly didn’t realize that such a pricey piece would take time to access when she asked to borrow it the same day she’d scheduled a hair-test session with stylist Serge Normant.
Hardman writes that the “mood turned sour” when “the couple rang the palace to ask the queen’s dresser and curator, Angela Kelly, to send over the tiara,” as Meghan wanted to “practice” with it before walking down the aisle.
The queen was allegedly quite miffed, as Prince William‘s wife, Kate Middleton, reportedly had used a plastic tiara from the accessories chain Claire’s to practice her wedding-day hairstyle in 2011, and couldn’t understand why Meghan couldn’t do the same.
The queen’s instructions
Prince Harry reportedly complained about Meghan Markle not getting the queen’s tiara for a day-of hair test session. By: MEGA
After learning Harry was pressuring Kelly to deliver the tiara, the queen was “not pleased,” Hardman’s book claims. “It’s not a toy,” the monarch told an insider. According to the author, the monarch “told Kelly to ignore the phone calls.”
A source who spoke to Hardman for the book explained, “Harry had been on to everyone about this. We thought Angela was like the fairy godmother who had delivered. But when she called Kensington Palace, she was put through to Prince Harry, who just said, ‘Get it here now.’ And that was the end of the conversation.”
Another palace source told the author that the Duchess of Sussex was late for her hair appointment, leaving a fuming Harry to chastise Kelly for telling the queen about his requests.
“There was already an atmosphere before Angela arrived. Meghan was nowhere to be seen. Harry poked the box and said ‘Is that it?’ Then he stood over Angela and said he did not like her whining to his grandmother,” the source claimed.
“Angela gave it straight back. She said that she did not like him getting all these people to push her when she was just doing her job. She tried to tell him about the history and how it was for their own sake, but he walked out,” the source added. Hardman explained that palace staff were researching the tiara’s full history to ensure there wasn’t anything controversial about it that could surface and be used against the couple.
The queen’s aide tried to move on and “decided to put it down to pre-wedding nerves. All Angela did was to try to protect them,” a former colleague said.
Harry branded Kelly ‘obstructive’
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle faced plenty of drama leading up to their May 2018 wedding in Windsor, England. By: MEGA
In his 2023 memoir, Spare, Harry claimed Kelly “was being obstructive.”
According to the prince, Meghan was originally going to wear the Spencer tiara — the same one worn by his late mother, Princess Diana, when she wed King Charles III in 1981 — but his grandmother stepped in and offered Meghan the chance to choose one of hers instead.
“She offered us access to her collection of tiaras,” Harry wrote. “She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. ‘Do come over,’ I remember her saying.”
As Harry told it, the queen suggested Meghan rehearse wearing the tiara ahead of the wedding, noting, “It’s tricky and you don’t want to be doing it for the first time on the wedding day.”
However, he claimed the process became complicated due to Kelly’s antics. She was allegedly unresponsive at first, then later insisted the tiara would require a “police escort” to leave the palace. But even after he agreed to arrange security, she “inexplicably” told him, “can’t be done.”
“I considered going to Granny, but that would probably mean sparking an all-out confrontation, and I wasn’t quite sure with whom Granny would side,” Harry wrote. “Also, to my mind, Angela was a troublemaker, and I didn’t need her as an enemy.”
In the 2020 biography Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal Family, co-authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that Harry felt Kelly “deliberately dragged her feet” in getting Meghan the tiara for the hair test.