New Book Reveals Prince Harry Clashed With Palace Staff Over Meghan Markle's Wedding Tiara
Robert Hardman’s new biography exposes a starkly different narrative of the 'Bandeau' tiara drama than the one told in Spare.
Eight years after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle tied the knot, new details are emerging regarding the friction that occurred behind the scenes of their 2018 wedding. While royal watchers saw a fairy-tale ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, Robert Hardman’s new book, Elizabeth II, reveals a starkly different narrative regarding the selection of the Duchess’s wedding tiara — the Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau — a moment that allegedly led to the Duke clashing with Palace staff.
Traditionally reserved for the bride and the monarch, the process of choosing a headpiece became a source of tension when Harry decided to tag along with Markle, as Hardman noted in his column for the Daily Mail. He quoted a former staffer who told him that the late Queen Elizabeth used these moments for “bonding with the bride,” something she had done with Princess Sophie and Princess Catherine, but the atmosphere shifted completely when the Duchess “turned up with Prince Harry.” In his memoir Spare, however, the Prince shared a different perspective of events, noting that the monarch had explicitly invited both of them.
“She offered us access to her collection of tiaras,” the Duke wrote in his tell-all, highlighting, “She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. 'Do come over,' I remember her saying.” At the center of the primary conflict was Angela Kelly, the late Queen’s trusted dresser and confidante. Allegedly, when the Duke requested the tiara for hair rehearsals, Kelly became obstructive, telling Harry, as he claims, that a " police escort " is required for the tiara to even leave the palace. Despite his offer to arrange security, she apparently told him it simply “can’t be done.”
Prince Harry’s frustration peaked as the wedding neared. “I considered going to Granny, but that would probably mean sparking an all-out confrontation,” he wrote, adding that he saw Kelly as a ‘troublemaker.’ But according to Hardman’s book, Queen Elizabeth was firmly on her dresser’s side — with insiders claiming that she was “not pleased” by the Prince’s demands and allegedly told an aide, “It’s not a toy.” Beyond the personal friction, Palace staff cited logistical hurdles, noting that the tiara’s complex provenance and the hectic ‘Easter Court’ schedule made transporting the piece nearly impossible.
The tension boiled over when the tiara was finally delivered to Kensington Palace. The Duke described the cold exchange with Kelly, writing, “Her eyes were fire. She started having a go at me…She fixed me with a look that made me shiver,” Harry wrote. Hardman’s sources describe a defensive Prince, who reportedly “poked the box and said ‘Is that it?” before berating Kelly for complaining to the Queen. While the Duke saw an aide being difficult, Palace staffers insist the dresser was “just doing her job” and trying to protect Harry and Markle from potential historical or security oversight.
