Prince Harry's Claim Kate 'Grimaced' Over Meghan's Lip Gloss Ask Goes Viral

Prince Harry's account of a tense moment between wife, Meghan Markle, and sister-in-law, Kate, the Princess of Wales, has gone viral after an excerpt from his memoir's audiobook resurfaced on social media site TikTok.

Harry's relationships with his brother Prince William, as well as Kate, King Charles, Queen Camilla and other members of the royal family, were one of the key focuses of his memoir, titled Spare, which was published in January.

The prince's inclusion of behind-palace-walls revelations about his family, including the contents of private conversations and messages between them, earned the prince criticism, despite his insistence that: "None of anything I've written, anything that I've included is ever intended to hurt my family."

In interviews promoting the book, which went on to become the fastest-selling non-fiction book of all time, Harry explained the desire to present a true and accurate account of his life story, including the factors that went into his decision to leave the monarchy in 2020.

One of the key relationships explored in the memoir was that which he shared with brother, William. In it, he confirmed tabloid speculation that a rift had developed between them, going as far as to say that the brothers had never been as close as it had appeared to the public.

By extension, Harry revealed a number of details about William's wife, Kate, who had also been in a widely publicized tense relationship with Meghan since the latter's marriage into the royal family in 2018. To illustrate this, Harry included smaller events that appeared to contribute to a larger misunderstanding between his wife and sister-in-law, one notably concerning lip gloss.

Uploaded to TikTok by user, royalfamilyvideos_, on July 1, the new viral video shows clips of Meghan and Kate as an excerpt from Spare, describing the lip gloss incident, which took place in 2017 plays overtop.

The awkward interaction occurred as a newly engaged Harry and Meghan prepared to sit down with William and Kate for the first Royal Foundation summit. An event that set out the future goals for the foundation which, at the time, was run jointly by the three royals (soon to be joined by Meghan).

The event was noted later for uniting the four family members being described as the "fab four," however, Harry noted that there had been tense moments too, including criticism launched at Kate, who hadn't acknowledged the MeToo movement at the time, despite Meghan doing so at the summit.

In the TikTok video, Harry is heard reading: "All this came on the heels of an awkward moment backstage. Meg asked to borrow Kate's lip gloss. An American thing. Meg forgot hers, worried she needed some, and turned to Kate for help."

At this, he described Kate's reluctance to lend her the makeup item, signifying the beginning of the trouble between them.

"Kate, taken aback, went into her handbag and reluctantly pulled out a small tube," he wrote. "Meg squeezed some onto her finger and applied it to her lips. Kate grimaced. Small clash of styles, maybe? Something we should've been able to laugh about soon after. But it left a little mark. And then the press sensed something was up and tried to turn it into something bigger. Here we go, I thought sorrowfully."

For her part, Kate has not publicly responded to the claims made in Harry's memoir, in line with a "no comment" approach adopted by King Charles and Queen Camilla at Buckingham Palace.

The viral video has received in excess of 4,000 likes and 500 comments so far, many of which have discussed whether it was right to ask to borrow such a personal item of makeup.

"I only ever share lip gloss with my absolute bestest friend of over 30 years. Cheek of her!," wrote one user.

"My daughter and I don't even share lip products 😬," said another, with a further comment reading: "You're gunna tell me THE royal family doesn't have extra lip gloss?"

Meghan provided her own insight into the formality she was met with when she was first introduced to Kate, as part of her Netflix show with Harry that debuted in December 2022.

Discussing her early relationship with Harry, Meghan told series viewers: "It's so funny if I look back at it now, because now I know so much and I'm so glad I didn't then. Because I could just authentically be myself without so much preparedness."

She then described how this unpreparedness came into play when meeting Kate. "Even when Will and Kate came over and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner and I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot," she said.

"It's like I was a hugger, I've always been a hugger," she explained in reference to Kate. "I didn't realize that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."

Meghan then continued: "I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through to the inside...that there is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door, and you go 'Oh...ok we can relax now.' But that formality carries over on both sides and that was surprising to me."

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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