Kate Middleton and Prince William's latest family photographs, released in April to mark their 15th wedding anniversary in Windsor, have reportedly reopened old wounds for Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, who, insiders claim, feel there is 'one set of rules' for the Prince and Princess of Wales and another for them.

According to a source quoted by Wonderwall.com, the contrasting public reaction has left Meghan frustrated that Kate remains the 'golden girl' while she is 'torn to shreds' by online critics.

Middleton showed her barefoot on the grass alongside Prince William and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, in what looked like an effortlessly warm domestic scene.

Days later, an 11th birthday photograph of Charlotte smiling in a field of daisies was released, followed by video clips of her playing with the family dogs and sprinting along a beach. The imagery was textbook royal branding: wholesome, controlled, reassuring. It is also the kind of carefully staged family content that has become politically fraught for the Sussexes.

Markle marked her son Prince Archie's seventh birthday in early May with her own Instagram posts. She shared a shot of Archie and his younger sister, Princess Lilibet, seen from behind, along with a previously unseen photograph of Archie as a newborn lying on Harry's chest. Commenters accused the couple of 'trying to stay relevant' and 'exploiting' their children for publicity, the kind of language that rarely attaches to the Waleses' output.

The source told Wonderwall.com that this is precisely what Meghan finds impossible to swallow. In their words, 'Kate and William are very clearly using their children as part of the royal image and the branding of the family. Yet Meghan's been criticised for even including the smallest glimpse of Archie and Lilibet.' From Meghan's perspective, the source said, she is judged by 'a completely different rulebook,' with Kate fixed in the public imagination as the golden girl and Meghan cast as the villain.

Markle argues that she and Harry are held to a far harsher standard than Middleton and Prince William, both by the palace machine and by segments of the British press. In the couple's 2021 CBS interview, Meghan addressed the endless comparisons to Kate directly, saying, 'If you love me, you don't have to hate her. And if you love her, you don't have to hate me.' It was one of the few moments she spoke openly about how the duelling narratives had hardened.

People close to her, speaking anonymously, paint the Duchesses as fundamentally mismatched. Kate is described as 'the quintessential Brit' who is 'terribly reserved and somewhat inward with her emotions,' whereas Meghan 'speaks her mind' and is 'not afraid to amend and improve the status quo'. That difference, while hardly a crime, has been weaponised into a morality tale, a dutiful English rose versus an outspoken American actress that suits certain commentators a little too neatly.

Meghaninitially hopedshe and Kate might form a joint bloc inside the institution, a 'positive and powerful force for change.' Instead, the relationship appears to have deteriorated in parallel with William and Harry's. Kate reportedly 'was always colouring inside the lines' and unwilling to risk breaking protocol. Meghan, chafing under those constraints, came to see caution as complicity.

The infamous row over bridesmaid dresses ahead of Harry and Meghan's 2018 wedding pushed their private tensions into public view. Early reports suggested Meghan made Kate cry. Meghan later told CBS 'the reverse happened,' adding that Kate had apologised with flowers and a handwritten note and that she had forgiven her sister-in-law, whom she called 'a good person.' Even so, the source insists, 'once the word was out that they didn't get along, the writing was on the wall.' In Meghan's mind, that narrative cemented her doomed future within 'The Firm' and, by extension, in the UK.

Source: International Business Times UK