Prince Harry Slams Queen's Right-Hand Woman Angela Kelly Over 'Tiaragate'

Prince Harry issued an unforgiving assessment of Queen Elizabeth II's closest aide and right-hand woman, Angela Kelly, as part of his newly published memoir.

It comes after the royal and Kelly butted heads over the tiara worn by Meghan Markle on her wedding day in 2018, an incident dubbed "tiaragate" by the press.

Harry's memoir was released globally on Tuesday after excerpts were leaked in the press despite increased security measures from its publishers.

Members of the royal family face Harry's harshest mentions in the book, including allegations that Prince William attacked him in 2019 at Kensington Palace, that Queen Camilla "sacrificed" him on her "PR altar" and that Kate Middleton made Meghan "sob" four days before her wedding.

The prince also turned his critical gaze on the more private figures behind palace gates who he felt made his life as a working royal more difficult. Among them are senior advisors to the late queen who he nicknamed "the fly" and "the wasp."

The "fly" earned his nickname, Harry wrote in Spare, because he "spent much of his career adjacent to and, indeed drawn to, s***. The offal of government and media."

The "wasp" was dubbed so because "without warning, he'd give you such a stab with his outsized stinger that you'd cry in confusion. Where the f*** did that come from?"

Some of Harry's most unreserved grievances in the memoir are lodged against Angela Kelly, the courtier famous for her unparalleled closeness to Queen Elizabeth II.

So close was Kelly to the monarch, that she was granted personal permission to sign a reported three-book publishing deal to tell the story of her royal service. This was unheard of for royal staff, all of whom sign strict non-disclosure agreements to prevent them from profiting off of royal secrets.

Reports of a frosty relationship between Harry and Kelly surfaced in 2019 when stories were published in the tabloid press alleging a dispute arose within the palace at the time of the royal wedding over Meghan's tiara.

Kelly was the queen's dresser but also the curator of the monarch's wardrobe, jewelry and insignia. She held the keys to the vaults.

The 2019 stories claimed that Harry and Kelly had an argument over the tiara Meghan wanted to wear on her wedding day, one which was said to be denied to her, and that Kelly had made it difficult for Meghan to try on the tiara eventually loaned to her.

Harry settles the disputed accounts in Spare, giving his unvarnished account of Kelly and her alleged conduct.

After selecting the tiara that Meghan would wear on her May 18 wedding day with the queen and Kelly present at Buckingham Palace, Harry writes that the monarch told Meghan to make sure she practiced putting it on before the big day. "It's tricky," the queen told them. "You don't want to be doing it for the first time on your wedding day."

After this meeting, Harry says he reached out to Kelly multiple times to arrange for the tiara to be sent to him so that Meghan could practice with her French hairdresser. When he finally got hold of her, he wrote:

"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."

"To my mind," he continued, "Angela was a troublemaker, and I didn't need her as an enemy. Above all, she was still in possession of that tiara. She held all the cards."

Eventually, Harry recounts, Kelly "appeared out of thin air" at Kensington Palace with the tiara, making Harry sign a "release" form.

"I thanked her," he said. "Though I added that it would've made our lives so much easier to have had it sooner."

In response to this, the royal said Kelly's "eyes were fire" and an argument ensued. "Angela, you really want to do this now? Really? Now?" he claims was his response.

"She fixed me with a look that made me shiver. I could read in her face a clear warning. This isn't over."

Later in the book, Harry told readers that Kelly had a reputation for giving stories to the press, a damning allegation for one so personally close to the monarch.

"Among the many services she performed for granny," he explained, "she was said to be skilled at planting stories."

Kelly has not been seen publicly since she attended the queen's funeral in September. She was notably absent from the wider mourning events, seeing as her closeness to the monarch was so widely known.

Prince Harry's Spare is out now. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace have so far taken a blanket "no comment" stance in response.

Newsweek reached out to Angela Kelly via Buckingham Palace for comment.

James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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