Meghan Markle took aim at her sister-in-law the Princess of Wales during her Netflix docuseries, claiming she was "surprised" by the behind the scenes formality of members of the royal family.
She recalls a dinner party with Prince William and Kate during the early days of her relationship with Harry, when the two couples lived just a few doors apart in Kensington Palace.
Speaking in episode two of the six-part Harry & Meghan Netflix, she said: "When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, 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.
"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."
It's one of a series of bombshell allegations Meghan and Harry made during the first three episodes of the show, which dropped on the steaming service today.
All filming was completed in August 2022, before the Queen died, and the introduction to the first episode states the royal family declined to comment on the contents of the show.
Harry also recalls Meghan's first meeting with his grandmother in the programme, describing it as a "shock to the system".
He said: "My grandmother was the first senior member of the family that Meghan met. She had no idea what it all consisted of so it was a bit of a shock to the system for her."
Meghan said: "There wasn't like some big moment of 'Now you're going to meet my grandmother'. I didn't know I was going to meet her until moments before.
"We were in the car and we were going to Royal Lodge for lunch, and he's like 'Oh, my grandmother's here, we're going to meet her after church'. And I remember we were in the car driving up and he's like .You know how to curtsy, right? And I just thought it was a joke."
Harry said: "How do you explain that to people? How do you explain that you bow to your grandmother? And that you will need to curtsy. Especially to an American. That's weird.'
Meghan added: 'Now I'm starting to realise 'This is a big deal'. I mean, Americans will understand this We have medieval times, dinner and tournament. It was like that"
The interviews in Harry & Meghan are far from the first time Meghan has criticised Kate, using her bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview to claim the then Duchess of Cambridge made her cry.
She recalled the incident as an alleged example of the family refusing to correct what she claims were fake stories in press. Back in 2019, a newspaper claimed Meghan made Kate cry at a bridesmaid dress fitting ahead of their 2018 royal wedding.
She said the incident "didn't happen", describing it was a turning point in her time in the royal family.
She told Oprah: "The reverse happened. And I don' say that to be disparaging to anyone, because it was a really hard week of the wedding. And she was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she brought me flowers and a note, apologising. And she did what I would do if I knew that I hurt someone, right, to just take accountability for it.
"What was shocking was . . . what was that, six, seven months after our wedding? That the reverse of that would be out in the world. I would have never wanted that to come out about her ever, even though it had happened. I protected that from ever being out in the world."
Oprah asked her to expand on the point, so Meghan continued: "A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining yes, the issue was correct about flower-girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings. And I thought, in the context of everything else that was going on in those days leading to the wedding, that it didn't make sense to not be just doing whatever everyone else was doing, which was trying to be supportive, knowing what was going on with my dad and whatnot."
Asked if there was a confrontation, Meghan said she didn't want to go into details but said Kate apologised and all was forgiven.
Meghan also spoke about Kate in her engagement interview after Prince Harry got down on one knee, but she was far more complimentary of her sister-in-law-to-be.
At the time the two couples were living a few doors down from each other at Kensington Palace, spending a lot of time together as Harry got to know his future wife.
Meghan said Kate had been "wonderful" at welcoming her into the family.
Tensions between the Waleses and the Sussexes have been tough since Meghan and Harry quit their royal roles in 2020, going from bad to worse when they hit out at The Firm in their Oprah interview.
They were reunited in Windsor in September following the Queen's death, making a support joint outing to view floral tributes left by mourners.
Insiders said William invited his brother along at the last minute.
