Meghan Markle’s Remembrance Sunday Appearance Marked as Moment She “Lost Her Spark” Amid Royal Tensions
Meghan Markle’s attendance at a Remembrance Sunday event has been pointed to as the moment she “lost her spark,” coinciding with growing public tensions within the royal family.
In 2018, after Meghan returned from a successful tour of Australia and the South Pacific, a royal biography titled Charles at 70 portrayed her as a demanding figure. The book suggested that Prince Harry had told palace staff, “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.”
Around the same time, media reports claimed that Queen Elizabeth II had warned Harry about Meghan’s behavior, particularly regarding a tiara issue before their wedding that May.
It was the start of an era which Meghan would later say was the turning point at which her royal experience soured and within days of the stories emerging she attended Britain’s national service of remembrance at The Cenotaph, in London, on November 11, 2018.
A clip of her watching the moving event went viral on TikTok after the U.K.-based working royals, including Princess Kate, turned out at this year’s Remembrance Sunday service on November 10.
The footage was liked 8,000 times and viewed 180,000 times after it was posted with the message: “Once Upon A Time when Remembrance Service was something to look forward to.🖤
“And this when i knew my Princess Meghan lost her spark i could see it in her eyes.
“But Thank God she made it out now she and her beautiful family is blossoming.”
One reply read, “Bless her. she looks so frightened,” while another said: “Meghan was not in the room with us. You can see the sadness 🥺 thank God she has the light back in her eyes.”
A third person wrote: “One day the Royal family will beg them 2 come back, ❤❤this two.”
Meghan, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Kate all watched the service from a balcony, though Meghan was positioned on a separate balcony with Elke Budenbender, the first lady of Germany.
The stories in the British press were the public expression of a royal rift that had already taken shape behind closed doors.
That October, Jason Knauf, communications secretary at Kensington Palace, had privately emailed a superior to accuse the duchess of bullying two PAs out of the royal household.
And as early as June 2018 the Sussexes sat down with Prince William and Princess Kate to try to work out problems between the two couples.
Harry wrote in Spare that Kate told Meghan that her comment that she had “baby brain” soon after Prince Louis was born “hurt my feelings.”
“That’s rude, Meghan.” “That’s not how things are done in Britain,” William responded. Then Meghan said, “Please take your finger off my face.”
“Was this really going on?” Harry sent it. “Had things really come to this? Getting mad at each other over place cards and hormones?
Meg promised Kate that she would never do anything bad to hurt her, and if she did, Kate should tell her so it doesn’t happen again.
Jack Royston is the chief royal reporter for Newsweek and is based in London. Twitter users can find him at @jack_royston on X, and Newsweek’s The Royals Facebook group has his stories.