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Kate Middleton "understood" why Meghan Markle "would feel compelled" to visit Uvalde, Texas, after the Robb Elementary School shooting, according to a biography.
The Duchess of Sussex was criticized in the media and by her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. for a PR stunt after she was photographed laying flowers for victims.
However, the Princess of Wales had herself made a similar effort to express support for a woman murdered by a police officer in London—only Kate was not criticized in the same way for doing it, according to author Christopher Andersen.
New royal biography, The King: The Life of Charles III, says Kate privately expressed some sympathy for Meghan's motivations.
Andersen wrote: "As strained as relations may have been between the Sussexes and the rest of the family, none of the senior royals stepped forward to criticize Meghan's decision to visit Uvalde.
"Charles and the Cambridges in particular were shaken by what had happened—a stark reminder that thousands of Americans were losing their lives to senseless gun violence every year.
"At one point Kate told a friend that she understood why Meghan, as an American and the mother of two young children, would feel compelled to show up in person.
"It was, in fact, something Kate herself had done when she showed up unannounced the previous year at a candlelight vigil in London for a young woman who had been murdered by a police officer.
"The glaring difference was that Kate had not been subjected to the sort of blistering criticism now aimed at her American sister-in-law."
Wayne Couzens was a serving police officer when he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, in London, in March 2021 and was jailed for life that September.
After the 33-year-old marketing executive's death, Kate was pictured at a vigil for Everard in Clapham Common, in London, where she laid flowers on March 13, 2021.
Meghan's visit to Uvalde in May 2022 sparked a debate about whether she was exploiting the tragedy for a PR stunt.
At the time, her father, Thomas Markle, was in hospital after a stroke and Meghan had not gone to visit him.
Journalist Dan Wootton wrote in a column for MailOnline: "Family comes before anything else for me. So, like many others, I find it unimaginable that Meghan Markle the length of the country for a tacky photo opportunity at the site of the Uvalde school shooting, possibly with Netflix reality show cameras in tow, but not drive three-and-a-half hours down the road to see her stricken dad in hospital, who is recovering from a life-threatening stroke that has cruelly stolen his speech."
Meghan's half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. told Wootton's GB News TV show: "It probably most likely was a PR stunt judging by the cameras there and the little walk she did like she was on a stage. It just didn't make any sense. If she wanted to reach out to my father she's had every opportunity."
Andersen wrote: "Critics wasted no time suggesting that Meghan should have visited her seriously ill father rather than travel to Uvalde to stage what Meghan's half-brother Thomas Jr. slammed as a 'PR stunt.'
"As strained as relations may have been between the Sussexes and the rest of the family, none of the senior royals stepped forward to criticize Meghan's decision to visit Uvalde.
"Charles and the Cambridges in particular were shaken by what had happened—a stark reminder that thousands of Americans were losing their lives to senseless gun violence every year."
About the writer
Jack Royston is Newsweek's Chief Royal Correspondent based in London, U.K. He reports on the British royal family—including King Charles ... Read more