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Five years ago, tabloid reports emerged in Britain alleging that a behind-palace-walls battle had broken out at the time of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's 2018 wedding over which tiara the soon-to-be-royal bride would wear on her big day.
Dubbed "tiaragate" by the press, the story was first broken by The Sun newspaper, which cited a "royal insider" claiming that Harry "hit the roof" in anger when Meghan's first choice of an emerald tiara from Queen Elizabeth II's collection had been rejected by her staff.
The story claimed that after a heated exchange, Elizabeth told Harry: "Meghan cannot have whatever she wants."
The story was first published in November 2018, six months after the royal wedding and after Harry and Meghan had returned from a successful tour of the South Pacific. Meghan was also pregnant with the couple's first child at the time.
Within weeks, the British tabloids published fresh claims about the couple, including most famously the allegation that Meghan had made sister-in-law Kate Middleton cry before the wedding and saw her labeled "Duchess Difficult."
In her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan revealed that this time period marked a shift in the way she was treated by the media, which eventually had such a negative impact on her mental health she considered ending her own life.
In his January 2023 memoir, Spare, Harry took the opportunity to present his own side of the tabloid stories from this time, including those about "tiaragate."
In some cases, the prince confirmed the basis of the reporting, attributing them to authorized leaks from within the monarchy in an attempt to discredit his wife. However, in other cases he claimed that a different version of events had taken place.
Here, Newsweek looks at everything Prince Harry has said about the "tiaragate" conflict.
Tiara Trials
When writing in Spare about the behind-the-scenes discussions over which tiara Meghan would wear at their St. George's Chapel wedding in May 2018, Harry revealed that far from demanding one of his grandmother's, originally his wife was meant to wear the Spencer tiara, formerly worn by Princess Diana.
Diana was born a member of the aristocratic Spencer family and was loaned her ancestral tiara by her father to marry in and continued to use it throughout her marriage at state and official events.
"My aunts asked if Meg would like to wear my mother's. We were both touched. Meg then spent hours and hours with her dress designer, getting the veil to match the tiara, giving it a similar scalloped edge," the prince wrote.
It was then, Harry said, that Elizabeth asked if Meghan would like to wear one of her tiaras, echoing a similar loan she had made when Kate married Prince William in 2011.
"She offered us access to her collection of tiaras," he wrote. "She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. 'Do come over,' I remember her saying."
After trying a collection on at the palace with the queen, Harry wrote that "everyone agreed" on one example which the queen said would be placed in a safe for them.
"'Make sure,' she added, 'that you practice putting it on. With your hairdresser,'" Harry wrote that his grandmother advised the couple. "'It's tricky and you don't want to be doing it for the first time on the wedding day.'"
'Obstructive' Royal Aide
Following their meeting with the queen, Harry wrote that the couple attempted to reach out to her close aide, Angela Kelly, to arrange for the tiara to be brought to them for Meghan's hairdresser to perform a pre-wedding hair trial with, however, this proved difficult.
"Angela didn't respond to any of our messages. We kept trying. No response," he wrote.
"When we finally reached her, she said the tiara would require an orderly and a police escort to leave the palace. That sounded...a bit much. But all right, I said, if that's protocol, let's find an orderly and a police officer and get the ball rolling. Time was running out.
"Inexplicably, she replied: 'Can't be done,'" he continued.
"Her schedule was too busy. She was being obstructive, obviously, but for what reason? We couldn't even hazard a guess.
"I considered going to Granny, but that would probably mean sparking an all-out confrontation, and I wasn't quite sure with whom Granny would side. Also, to my mind, Angela was a troublemaker, and I didn't need her as an enemy."
The Tiara Arrives
As the wedding day drew near, Harry told readers that his repeated attempts to procure the tiara were unsuccessful, until one day, Kelly appeared at Kensington Palace with a release form.
"I signed, and then she handed me the tiara," he said. "I thanked her, though I added that it would've made our lives so much easier to have had it sooner.
"Her eyes were fire. She started having a go at me.
"'Angela, you really want to do this now? Really? Now?
"She fixed me with a look that made me shiver. I could read in her face a clear warning. 'This isn't over.'"
Wedding Day Result and Aftermath
Despite the behind-the-scenes drama, Meghan appeared beautifully on the day of the royal wedding wearing an art deco diamond tiara loaned by Elizabeth which had been made in the 1920s for her grandmother, Queen Mary.
When, six months later, the tabloid interpretations of the fallout were published, the palace did not comment.
This is in line with the palace's eventual position on the comments made by Harry in Spare. Kelly has also not publicly responded to the prince's allegations.
Since leaving the monarchy, Harry and Meghan have both discussed their experiences of life within the monarchy, including the issues and tensions that inspired their 2020 split from the institution and move to the U.S.
At the time of their 2021 interview with Winfrey, the palace made a rare statement about the couple's claims about royal life, outlining that the royals were "saddened" by the revelations and that "some recollections may vary."
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more