One of People Magazine’s Finding Freedom excerpts was about the oft-told story of the Duchess of Sussex’s “wedding tiara drama.” Meghan ended up wearing Queen Mary’s bandeau tiara, a beautiful, delicate-looking tiara which suited Meghan perfectly. When the “tiara drama” stories first cropped up, the original gossip was that Meghan “demanded” a certain tiara, one with emeralds, and the Queen “put Meghan in her place” and said that no biracial American woman gets to ride into Buckingham Palace and demand a tiara. That story was so obviously fake, I was shocked that people even played around with the idea that some or all of it could be true.

Finding Freedom’s version of events was that Meghan merely requested – from Angela Kelly, the Queen’s dresser – a chance to have access to the Queen Mary bandeau tiara a few weeks before her wedding day so that she and her hairstylist could work out her wedding-day hairstyle. Angela Kelly apparently blocked Meghan from having access, which is when Prince Harry tried to act as a go-between, and he went to Angela Kelly and was like “this is what Meghan needs, please make it happen.” Now, big surprise, *someone* ran to the Mail on Sunday to change her story. That someone has a name which rhymes with Cangela Belly.

The Queen gave Prince Harry a dressing down for using offensive language about her closest aide, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The scolding came after Harry, 35, flew into a rage when the Queen’s dresser and confidante Angela Kelly was unable to meet Meghan’s sudden demand to visit Buckingham Palace with her hairdresser to try on a tiara that the couple had chosen for their wedding. When it was pointed out that protocol dictates an appointment must be made to access the Queen’s jewels, Harry is understood to have used offensive language about Ms Kelly as he heaped pressure on courtiers to persuade her to travel to London and unlock the cupboard where the tiara is kept.

Ms Kelly learned of the outburst and alerted the Queen to his bad language, prompting the monarch to summon her grandson to a private meeting. ‘He was put firmly in his place,’ said a Royal source. ‘He had been downright rude.’

A new biography of Duke and Duchess of Sussex accuses Ms Kelly of ‘deliberately dragging her feet’ when Meghan asked for access to the tiara before the couple’s wedding in May 2018. Last night a Royal source pointedly said: ‘The book’s version of what happened would not be everyone else’s recollection of events and certainly not those who were close to it.’

The ‘tiara row’ symbolised the frustration of the Sussexes with the so-called ‘vipers’ at the Palace. Harry saw it as a ‘huge snub’ that Ms Kelly did not organise for Meghan and her American hairdresser Serge Normant to get access to the glittering Queen Mary bandeau headpiece when they wished. A friend said: ‘Meg had flown her hairdresser over from Paris for a hair practice and they needed the tiara. Angela Kelly said she couldn’t come to London and Harry went ballistic. He was furious at the treatment of his then fiancee. Such a snub.’ But others insist the couple misinterpreted Ms Kelly’s reply.

A source said: ‘Meghan demanded access to the tiara. She didn’t make an appointment with Angela, but said, ‘We’re at Buckingham Palace, we want the tiara. Can we have it now please? Angela essentially said, ‘I’m very sorry, that’s not how it works.’ There’s protocol in place over these jewels. They’re kept under very tight lock and key. You can’t turn up and demand to have the tiara just because your hairdresser happens to be in town.’

Contrary to previous reports, Harry’s fury was not about which tiara Meghan was allowed to wear – but about access to it. ‘Harry was very quick to let everybody know of his anger and frustration,’ said another Royal source. ‘He let lots of people know that he was unhappy. He tried to get what Meghan wanted by ringing others to put pressure on Angela to bend the rules. He was insistent on getting his own way. There was never an appointment that Angela didn’t turn up to. Harry and Meghan may have wrongly interpreted being told she couldn’t have immediate access to the tiara as a snub, but Angela was following Palace protocol. It wasn’t a snub, it’s just the way the institution works.’

[From The Daily Mail]

First of all, if this was the real issue, why wasn’t *this* the story in 2018, when the “Meghan demanded emeralds directly from the Queen” story was being widely circulated? Strange, huh. It’s almost as if the point of the stories was never to provide an accurate, contextual account of why Meghan did this or that. The point was always to just abuse and smear Meghan. As for the new version coming from (what I can only assume) Angela Kelly, it sounds like Meghan and Harry both requested an appointment ahead of time and they were brushed off (or even lied to). When the wedding was getting closer, Meghan was just like “well, let’s try one more time” and Angela Kelly was still a mega-bitch to her, so Harry tried to intervene. And I have no doubt that Harry did call Angela Kelly a name. It sounds like he was merely properly identifying her as a C-U-Next-Tuesday. And she ran her ass to the Queen to “tell” on Harry, because of course she did. This whole thing is so juvenile.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.