LONDON – In a bombshell that threatens to reopen the deepest wounds inside the House of Windsor, former Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace staff have broken years of silence to reveal the explosive moment Meghan Markle allegedly dismissed Catherine, Princess of Wales, with icy contempt: “She’s not on my level.”According to multiple senior aides who worked closely with both duchesses between 2017 and 2020, the now-infamous rivalry between Meghan and Kate did not begin with the 2018 bridesmaid-dress fitting that left Kate in tears and Meghan accused of bullying.
It began, they say, months earlier — almost from the moment Harry introduced his American fiancée to the royal inner circle.“She walked into Kensington Palace like she already owned the place,” one former protection officer told this publication on condition of anonymity. “Within weeks she was letting everyone know — subtly at first, then not so subtly — that she saw herself as the star, and Catherine was just the dutiful wife who’d been warming the seat.”
The most devastating anecdote comes from a senior household staffer who claims to have personally overheard Meghan deliver the now-notorious line during a private planning meeting for the 2018 Royal Foundation Forum — the “Fab Four” event that was meant to showcase William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan working in harmony.
“Meghan was frustrated that Kate was being positioned as the more experienced royal woman on the panel,” the source said. “She turned to an aide and said, loud enough for several people to hear, ‘I don’t know why they keep treating her like she’s the main event. She’s not on my level — never has been, never will be.’ The room went completely silent. You could have heard a pin drop on the Axminster carpet.”
Another former communications staffer alleges Meghan repeatedly referred to Kate as “the Kensington Palace Barbie” in private briefings and mocked her “waity Katie” nickname from her pre-marriage days. “She thought it was hilarious,” the source said. “She’d say things like, ‘I waited for no man — and look where it got me.
She waited nearly a decade just to be a duchess. How very 1950s.’”The tension reportedly reached boiling point in late 2017 when Meghan discovered that Kate, not she, would be given precedence in the royal box at a Christmas concert at Westminster Abbey.“Meghan was furious,” claims a third insider. “She told Harry it was ‘racist and classist’ that Catherine was being elevated above her simply because she’d been around longer.
Harry tried to calm her down, but she kept saying, ‘I’m the one with the global profile. I’ve been on magazine covers. I have a humanitarian brand. What does she have? Perfect blow-dries and a degree in art history?’”Royal watchers have long speculated about the origins of the feud, but these new accounts paint a far more calculated picture than the “two strong women with different ideas” narrative promoted by the Sussex camp.
Even the infamous bridesmaid-dress incident — in which Kate was reportedly reduced to tears — now takes on a darker hue. Multiple sources say Meghan had been needling Kate for weeks about Charlotte’s fitting measurements, allegedly texting her at all hours with comments like, “Are you sure your daughter hasn’t put on weight?
We can’t have her looking chubby next to the other girls.”One former dresser claims Meghan told her directly: “Catherine may think she’s the perfect mother, but even her kids don’t measure up.”The revelations come just weeks after Prince Harry’s memoir Spare portrayed Kate as cold and unwelcoming toward Meghan from the start. Palace sources say William is “absolutely livid” at the new claims and is considering an unprecedented public response.“William always knew there was tension,” a close friend of the Prince of Wales told us. “But he had no idea Meghan was saying these things behind Kate’s back.
It’s one thing to feel out of place. It’s another to actively belittle the woman who tried hardest to make you feel welcome.”As the California-based Sussexes prepare to launch yet another Netflix project, royal aides say the Waleses have made a deliberate decision: no more pretending the rift can be papered over.
“This isn’t about dresses or lip gloss or who hugged whom,” one senior courtier said. “This was a sustained campaign to diminish Catherine from the moment Meghan arrived. And now the truth is finally coming out.”Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace declined to comment.
Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did not respond to requests for comment.But for those who witnessed the slow-motion car crash up close, one thing is painfully clear: the war between the two duchesses didn’t begin with a bridesmaid’s hemline.It began with a sneer — and a devastating six-word verdict that still echoes through the corridors of power:“She’s not on my level.”
