Meghan Markle’s One-Word Joke Sparked an Awkward Moment with Kate Middleton at Trooping the Colour

Prince Harry has recalled an awkward moment between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton during Meghan’s first Trooping the Colour appearance in 2018, shortly after Meghan and Harry’s May 2018 wedding. In his memoir Spare, Harry said the atmosphere at the royal event was initially upbeat, but changed after Kate asked Meghan what she thought of her first Trooping the Colour. Meghan reportedly replied with a one-word joke: “Colorful.” Harry wrote that the response was met with a silence so heavy it seemed to “swallow” everyone present.

The annual Trooping the Colour ceremony, which marks the British monarch’s official birthday, was one of Meghan’s earliest major public appearances as a new member of the royal family. Harry later wrote that Meghan appeared to settle into royal life more comfortably just days afterward, when she joined the late Queen Elizabeth II on her first solo royal trip. He said the two “got on famously,” suggesting a much easier dynamic between Meghan and the Queen than the one she experienced at Trooping the Colour.

Harry also described a later private meeting that month involving himself, Meghan, Kate Middleton and Prince William, amid growing tensions between the couples. According to Harry’s account, several grievances were raised during the discussion. He said Kate was upset over Meghan’s remarks about “baby brain” during Kate’s pregnancy, while there were also disputes about bridesmaids’ dresses from the Sussexes’ wedding. William and Kate were reportedly frustrated about not receiving Easter gifts from the couple, while Harry and Meghan objected to issues including seating arrangements at their wedding. Harry wrote that the conversation did not resolve the tension and that the group was “not getting anywhere.”

The reported strain between the two couples continued in the years that followed. Harry and Meghan last attended Trooping the Colour together in 2019, before stepping back from royal duties in early 2020 and moving to the United States. They have not returned for the annual ceremony in recent years. The 2026 Trooping the Colour took place without them, continuing a pattern of absence as the relationship between the Sussexes and the rest of the royal family remains widely viewed as strained.