Will Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton Ever Bury the Hatchet?

Inside the Royal Women's World

The world watched as Queen Elizabeth's body was brought into Westminster Hall on Wednesday to lie in state, with the four spouses of Windsor standing side by side.

The coffin was placed gently atop the raised catafalque by the eight young Grenadier guards, who had been tasked with conveying the monarch's remains into the Palace of Westminster.

The Imperial State Crown was perched on the coffin, which was covered in the Royal Standard flag that stands for the Sovereign in the UK.

Following the coronation of her husband as King Charles III, Camilla, the new Queen consort, stood next to Kate, the new Princess of Wales.

The Queen's favourite and Prince Edward's wife, Sophie Wessex, acted as a mediator between Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, whose relationship is best characterised as tense.

The sisters-in-law had not actually spoken to one another in over two years, not even when the Sussex family visited the UK in June to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

This was due to the Megxit fallout from Meghan and Prince Harry leaving the Royal family.

The two women on Saturday barely exchanged glances as they welcomed mourners in front of Windsor Castle.

There are several obstacles to overcome, according to a reliable royal source.

If both were inclined, Meghan and Kate might become friends someday.

It's simpler to do when one is feeling positive and on the winning side of things.

So it would make sense that on Wednesday, as Meghan and Kate stood side by side in quiet while they waited for their husbands to arrive after escorting the Queen on her final voyage from Buckingham Palace, nerves and anguish were present.

We got a fascinating sight of all four royal women during those brief intervals.

Kate, 40, appeared distraught, while Camilla, wearing a black hat with a wide brim, looked straight ahead.

Body language expert Judy James told the Daily Mail that while Meghan, a former actress, had a pitch-perfect look, Sophie, 57, appeared to be fighting back tears.

All the dynamics of the royal family, sometimes known as the Firm, have shifted since the Queen's passing a week ago.

For starters, Camilla, 75, now requires the others to bow before her.

Additionally, Meghan, 40, is anticipated to bow to Kate, though royal observers doubt it will actually occur.

Hugo Vickers, a royal biographer who frequently interacted with the Queen, said to Page Six that although technically Meghan Markle should bow to Catherine because she is no longer an HRH, the monarch always made it clear that she did not anticipate it.

While individuals in the official system, such as ambassadors, are expected to behave properly, the Queen truly didn't care a who to if others didn't curtsy on seeing her.

The royal family's strong-willed women hadn't experienced such a change in authority in a very long time.

Christopher Warwick, a royal biographer, claims that the Queen Mother was displeased with being sidelined in her prime after her husband King George's passing in 1952.

And once her daughter Elizabeth was crowned Queen, she grew jealous of her daughter's position of authority over her.

In the 2020 Smithsonian Channel documentary The Private Lives of the Windsors, Warwick remarked, she enjoyed the position of being Queen, and suddenly all that was gone from her.

Being the Queen Mother caused the Queen Mother great discomfort.

She was envious of her daughter's success as Queen, he claimed.

There are new minefields that everyone must navigate right now.

The decision to have Sophie drive Meghan to Westminster Hall for Wednesday's moving-lying-in state service was significant.

The two women will also travel together to Monday's funeral service at Westminster Abbey, with their husbands following the late Queen's coffin on foot.

Meghan would have once been anticipated to accompany her sister-in-law Kate to such a state event.

While William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan were once referred to as the Fab Four and shared a charitable organization that supported causes like mental health, the women did not appear to be as close as pictures might have us believe.

Meghan would concur that the Duchesses were not the best of friends, according to royal reporters Armid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, in their 2020 Sussex biography, Finding Freedom.