Meghan Markle vowed never to wear a French designer friend’s clothes again after his fashion house asked for her freebie dresses back, a new memoir claimed today.
Roland Mouret said the Duchess of Sussex erupted after one of his staff mistakenly contacted the Princess of Wales‘s office at Kensington Palace to arrange their return.
Meghan allegedly told him the blunder had humiliated her and declared she could never wear his designs again.
The Duchess, who wore one of his dresses for an As Ever jam Instagram advert earlier this year, is said to have telephoned him in a rage.
He wrote: ‘Meghan was furious and called me. “You don’t realise what you’ve done! You’ve embarrassed me”.’
She allegedly refused to accept his apology and told him: ‘You know now I can never wear your clothes again.’
Meghan later wore what Mouret described as a ‘cheap high street copy’ of one of his designs, prompting him to text her and tell her she was being ‘ridiculous’.
In his memoir I Am Roland Mouret: The Butcher’s Boy Who Dressed the World, due to be released next week, he writes: ‘Meghan’s decision not to wear my clothes was hers, not the palace’s, not anybody else’s. I don’t think anyone else cared.’
Of her decision to shun his designs, he added: ‘I didn’t see the logic of that but I didn’t question it.’
Mouret then says of the Princess of Wales, who he has designed dresses for since 2011: ‘Many want to be famous but if Kate could do everything she does, and be married to the man she is married to, without the fame, you suspect she would choose it.’
Designer Roland Mouret and then actress Meghan Markle together in Canada in 2016, the period when she fell in love with Harry and confided him him
Meghan wearing a £1,450 dress by the designer the day before her wedding in May 2018
The Princess of Wales in a Mouret dress at this year’s women’s singles final. Roland, who has designed dresses for her for more than 15 years, says of Kate in his book that if she could avoid fame, she probably would
The Daily Mail has asked the Duchess of Sussex to comment.
Meghan and Mouret had been close friends since meeting while on holiday in Turkey in 2015, and he was among the first people she told after falling in love with Harry.
They met in a hotel lift as Meghan, wearing just a dressing gown, headed to the Soho House spa.
He wrote: ‘I said: “You don’t know me but you do know me in a way. I am Roland Mouret”.
‘She screamed and laughed and we chatted for a few moments. I told her that Suits was being very good to me’, explaining that the show’s makers had used his designs.
They arranged to meet again at a party that evening and became close.
When back in Canada filming Suits, she later texted him to say she had split from a boyfriend.
‘I’m coming to London soon. I’m going to travel in Europe this summer because I’m single and I want to have a change,’ she wrote.
Mouret claims that within months she had met Harry and told him about the relationship before the world knew she was dating a prince.
In his book, serialised in The Times, he recalled: ‘I got a call from her. “Roland, I met someone.”
“Your nice European guy?’
“Nice British guy.” She giggled.
“Even better”, I said. “What does he do?” She hesitated. “He’s a prince”.’
Mouret wrote: ‘I knew she was in love. It was the amount of breath mixed in with her words, finely balanced but revealing, just like a perfume.
‘There was only one British prince. We knew who we were talking about.’
The celebrated designer then offered to provide Meghan with clothes for her new life.
He told her: ‘You’ll go to a lot of functions, you’ll need clothes. Do you want me to send you some now so that you’ll be ready?’
She replied: ‘Yes, please.’
Mouret and Meghan in a post-lunch selfie in a series of social media posts about him when they were close
Meghan wore another dress by Mouret when she met President Michael D Higgins during her tour of Dublin in July 2018
But Mouret claims their friendship soured when a member of his team asked for the clothes back.
The mistake, he says, was that the request was made through Kate’s team rather than directly to Meghan and her aides.
He wrote: ‘Meghan and Harry’s relationship became public. Then the same team member who had sent the clothes for Meghan decided, in an honest attempt to be efficient, to call Kate’s stylist at the palace and ask for Meghan’s dresses to be returned.
‘Meghan was furious and called me.’
Mouret said his apology was not accepted.
He told her: ‘Meghan, it was just a mistake by someone who didn’t know. My apologies. I know it’s not good for you and you want to do things privately.’
But she replied: ‘You know now I can never wear your clothes again.’
Mouret claims Meghan subsequently began wearing at least one ‘cheap high street copy’ of his designs.
‘The following year, I saw a photo of her out in a cheap high street copy of one of my designs. I messaged her: ‘I can understand if you don’t wear my stuff, but if it’s to wear a cheap copy then that’s ridiculous. Come back’.’
Meghan Markle dusted off a favourite Mouret dress for an Instagram post, teasing the launch of a new As Ever jam earlier this year
She texted back: ‘I think I should come and see you.’
This year Meghan donned a plunging Roland Mouret number as part of an As Ever product launch.
Meghan has herself spoken of the close bond she shared with the French designer.
She wore his dresses for red carpet appearances and gave him a string of social media shout-outs.
The Duchess also confirmed that they first met in a hotel lift in Istanbul.
‘This man in a bathrobe said, ‘I’d love to dress you’, I thought ‘whaaat?’ Then he told me who he was and we’ve been friends ever since,’ she said.
She later wrote on social media: ‘Love your dresses to the moon and back, but love you even more #favouritedesigner.’
The pair also posed for a series of cosy selfies together.
Mouret was among the designers tipped to make Meghan’s royal wedding dress, although she eventually chose Givenchy.
In his book, he does not appear to say whether he and Meghan remain on good terms.
But he writes warmly of the Princess of Wales, who wore a Roland Mouret dress to the Wimbledon ladies’ singles final in July.
He recalled: ‘Kate Middleton came to my studio to try on some clothes. Later, I went to the palace with clothes for her. Many want to be famous but if Kate could do everything she does, and be married to the man she is married to, without the fame, you suspect she would choose it.’
The Sussexes looked very happy to be in Nottingham, with Harry putting a protective arm around his wife on their first UK appearance for four years on Thursday
The fashionista’s claims came hours after Meghan and Harry made their first public appearance together since their extraordinary return to the UK.
The Duke of Sussex repeatedly put a protective arm around his wife as they were cheered by crowds and stopped for selfies during a series of royal-style engagements in Nottingham on Thursday.
When a supporter welcomed her back to the UK, Meghan smiled and replied: ‘It’s wonderful to be back.’
Their royal-style charity engagements in the East Midlands, just six weeks after returning to live in Britain, came after the King described the Sussexes as ‘private citizens’.
Critics have called the visits, organised by Team Sussex, a ‘cynical’ attempt to return to royal duties ‘by stealth’. Harry was in playful mood and was pictured tickling a man’s ginger beard.