A bombshell new book exploring the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II has claimed the late monarch disapproved of once-divorced Meghan Markle's decision to wear a pure white gown for her nuptials to Prince Harry.
According to The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth's Legacy and the Future of the Crown - an explosive new book penned by Vanity Fair's royal correspondent and bestselling author Katie Nicholl - the Queen had "reservations" about Meghan's custom Givenchy "pure white" wedding gown.
An excerpt published in the Daily Mail claims the Queen had expected Meghan to wear an off-white gown as she had been married once before - a tradition that had been observed by also once-divorced Queen Consort Camilla during her nuptials to King Charles III in 2005.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, wed Prince Harry on May 19, 2018, roughly five years after her divorce from film producer Trevor Engelson was finalised.
Nicholl reported that the Queen had "reservations" about the "pure white of Meghan's Givenchy dress", with a source adding: "The Queen was surprised that Meghan wore pure white on her wedding day. Perhaps it's a generational thing, but she believes if you've been married before, you wear off-white on your wedding day, which is what the Duchess of Cornwall [Camilla] did."
According to the BBC, Meghan's gown and veil took 3900 hours and 50 people to create. The dress was also displayed at Windsor Castle in an exhibit called 'A Royal Wedding: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex'. In a recording featured at the exhibition, Meghan, now 41, discussed her vision for the gown, saying she had wanted a "very timeless, classic feeling" and "modest cut".
"I had a very clear vision of what I wanted for the day, and what I wanted the dress to look like. So what was amazing in working with Clare [Waight Keller, a British designer] is that sometimes you'll find designers try to push you in a different direction. But she just completely respected what I wanted to see for the day, and she wanted to bring that to life for me," Meghan said.
Another bombshell claim explored in Nicholl's book was Prince William's reported "reservations" about Meghan and how quickly her relationship with his brother had progressed.
"It's probably a bit strong to say he didn't like Meghan from the start, but William had reservations," one of the Prince's oldest friends told Nicholl. "He was obviously happy for Harry but he was also cautious, as he always is about people getting close very quickly to his family."
According to the book, Queen Elizabeth had also chastised Meghan for scolding a caterer during a menu-tasting ahead of the wedding - for supposedly adding egg to a vegan meal.
The New Royals explores the relationships between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince William and Princess Catherine - the new Prince and Princess of Wales - and King Charles III amid 'Megxit' and other pressures on the royal family. Harry and Meghan notoriously stepped down as senior royals in 2020 to pursue financial independence, relocating to California later that year.
