Meghan Markle allegedly left Camilla ‘furious’ after insisting on posting snaps of her during a visit to London’s National Theatre on the same day as the now-Queen’s domestic violence speech
Meghan during her visit to the National Theatre in 2020
A set of photos of Meghan Markle allegedly sparked a feud with Queen Camilla who was “furious”, it has been claimed.
The Duchess of Sussex, 42, was snapped during a trip to London’s National Theatre in March 2020 as part of her role as patron, just weeks before officially stepping down from her duties. It’s understood she insisted on having the photos published immediately – despite requests to delay them and avoid potentially overshadowing Camilla’s long-planned speech on domestic violence.
The four photos were then hastily posted to Prince Harry, 38, and Meghan’s Sussex Royal Instagram page the same day. They showed the duchess and mum-of-two in a white blouse and pencil skirt inspecting the venue’s Immersive Storytelling Studio. An insider claimed Meghan was to blame for uploading the photos the same day as Camilla’s speech.
Meghan is said to have insisted on publishing the snaps immediately (
Duke and Duchess of Sussex/Chris Allerton)
They told the Daily Star at the time she was accused of trying to “steal Camilla’s limelight” with the now-Queen “very upset”. They added senior royals asked Meghan to delay the release so she didn’t “overshadow” the then-Princess of Wales, 76, but she “refused to listen”.
Royal expert Duncan Larcombe said on Friday that it’s understandable why Camilla would have been “miffed” over the photos. He told The Sun Online: “The ‘men in grey suits’ are at pains to avoid diary clashes and the prospect of one member of the family outshining the other on the same day. Camilla would be justified at being miffed to say the least. But as Harry and Meghan continue their work without any regard for the rest of the work of the Royal family, these kinds of ‘clashes’ are inevitable.”
The photos allegedly caused a rift with Camilla (
Instagram / The Duke and Duchess of Sussex / Chris Allerton)
The post – which is now unavailable since Harry and Meghan closed the account – was captioned: “Yesterday, The Duchess of Sussex, Royal patron of the National Theatre, visited the Immersive Storytelling Studio in London, where emerging technology like Virtual Reality is being used to develop new forms of emotive storytelling. “Recently, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also visited Stanford University where part of their learning journey included a virtual reality presentation that allows the user to experience life through another person’s point of view.
The incident came weeks before Meghan and Harry officially stepped down as working royals (
“The goal of this method of virtual reality is to enable us to better connect and empathise with each other as people, regardless of race, age or nationality. The Duchess is pictured here with Nubiya Brandon and her hologram, featured in the National’s exhibition ‘All Kinds of Limbo’, which is currently being presented at the Tate Modern.”
Despite attracting more than 500,000 “likes” at the time, the post drew a mixed response from followers. One blasted the duchess for having “a bad vibe” while others described her as “cringey”. The incident came a time when Harry and Meghan had returned to the UK for a string of engagements before officially stepping down as working royals.