Meghan Markle Melts Down Over Princess Catherine Rivalry

Barefoot in the grass beside Prince William, 43, and their three children, Princess Kate, 44, looked every inch the picture-perfect future queen in an intimate family portrait released to mark the couple’s 15th wedding anniversary on April 29, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Days later, the Prince and Princess of Wales shared another joyful image – a glowing 11th birthday portrait of daughter Princess Charlotte, smiling in a field of daisies, followed by a video of the tween cuddling the family’s cocker spaniels and running along a beach.

While the heartwarming images of Charlotte and brothers Prince George, 12, and Prince Louis, 8, delighted royal watchers, they may have reopened a deep wound for Kate [Middleton]’s estranged sister-in-law, Meghan Markle, 44, and husband Prince Harry, 41, feel like “there’s one set of rules for William and Kate and another for them,” a source told RadarOnline.com. “All the resentment over the double standard is bubbling up again.”

Days after Charlotte’s birthday images were released, Markle shared her own Instagram posts marking son Prince Archie’s 7th birthday on May 6, including a snapshot of him and sister Princess Lilibet, who turns 5 in June, from behind, and a never-before-seen photo of him as a newborn lying on Harry’s chest.

But the post sparked criticism online, with commenters accusing the couple of everything from “trying to stay relevant” to “pimping their children to stay in [the] media spotlight.”

“Kate and William are very clearly using their children as part of the royal image and the branding of the family,” said the source.

“Yet Meghan’s been criticized for even including the smallest glimpse of Archie and Lilibet. She feels like she’s constantly being judged by a completely different rulebook, and no matter what she does, Kate will be the golden girl and she will be the villain.”

The renewed scrutiny has hit a nerve because Markle has long argued she and Harry are held to a harsher standard than the Prince and Princess of Wales – by both the palace and the public.

In a bombshell 2021 CBS interview, the former Suits actress blasted the constant comparisons between herself and Middleton. “If you love me, you don’t have to hate her. And if you love her, you don’t have to hate me,” she said at the time.

Markle believes she entered royal life already fighting an uphill battle. “Kate’s the quintessential Brit who’s terribly reserved and somewhat inward with her emotions,” said the source, while Markle “speaks her mind,” and “is not afraid to amend and improve the status quo. They’ve always been poles apart and Meghan just wishes people would stop comparing them.”

She once hoped she and Middleton together could become “a positive and powerful force for change,” the source added, but tensions steadily worsened as William and Harry’s relationship disintegrated amid the Sussexes’ growing belief they were being treated unfairly.

“Why would I give the very people that are calling my children the N-word a photo of my child before I can share it with the people that love my child?” she asked.

Still, according to the source, part of Markle wishes she could share more openly. “In an ideal world Meghan would be showing the kids’ faces,” said the source. “Seeing the Waleses get away with it so brazenly when she’d be torn to shreds is really tough to take.”

Adding to the tension, the couples are finding themselves compared on the world stage once again.

After Harry and Markle wrapped a high-profile trip to Australia in April that mixed charity appearances and business opportunities, Middleton announced a mid-May solo trip to Italy focused on her early childhood initiatives.

“There’s definitely a sense in royal circles that the competition stakes have been reignited again,” said the source.

Harry, meanwhile, may be carrying his own lingering resentment after years of public feuding with William and the royal establishment. In the couple’s 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, the British army veteran accused palace officials of protecting his brother at his expense.

“They were happy to lie to protect my brother,” Harry claimed. “They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.” Even after all the dirty laundry he aired in his bestselling 2023 memoir, Spare, the source said Harry still believes there is more of “his truth” left to tell.

“Harry feels similarly resentful of the Waleses,” said the source, noting his belief that “William and Kate’s secrets won’t stay buried forever.”

The tensions may soon become impossible to avoid. Harry is expected back in the U.K. in July for the one-year countdown celebrations ahead of the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham, England.

As RadarOnline.com has previously reported, he would love to have Markle and the children by his side.

But after years of acrimony and ongoing security fears, Markle is reluctant to join him.

According to the source, “She’s dreading facing more of the same,” if she were to return for what would be her first visit since the late Queen Elizabeth II’s 2022 funeral.

Despite the smiling photos, carefully choreographed videos and polished public appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, the emotional wounds clearly remain as raw as ever.

“It’s already the most epic couple feud in royal history,” said the source, “and now it seems poised to go up yet another level.”