Even if you don’t know much about the Royal Family, you probably know about the unspoken feud between Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton. It all started with reports that Meghan made Kate cry while shopping for wedding attire, with Meghan later saying it was actually the older woman who made her cry. Later, after Harry and Meghan stepped down from most of their royal responsibilities and fled to America, rumors blossomed that the two had developed an extended rivalry, one made worse by the alleged bad blood between Harry and William.
Because of that rivalry, many perceive Meghan as always trying to escape Kate’s shadow and distinguish herself…something that’s hard because, well, Kate did almost everything first and she’s the future Queen of England. Now, though, Meghan has shocked us all and finally done something that her sister-in-law could never do.
Just what did Meghan accomplish, and how does it set her apart from Kate? Keep reading to find out!
Meghan has always been in Kate’s shadow
As we said before, Meghan Markle has been in Kate Middleton’s shadow for what feels like forever. On paper, both women are very similar…after all, each one fell in love with a prince and ended up marrying into the world’s most famous family. However, Kate got there first, which is one of many reasons why Meghan’s critics saw her (a previously divorced American actress) as a kind of outsider.
To hear Meghan tell the story, that outsider status continued long after her marriage to William. In fact, feeling like an outcast among the Royal Family is one of the reasons (albeit one of many) that she and Harry eventually moved to America. Since then, Meghan has been trying to rebrand herself as a celebrity lifestyle brand in an effort to distinguish herself from other royals, Kate included.
Those efforts have achieved (to put it mildly) mixed success. Now, though, it seems the Duchess of Sussex has finally done something that Kate Middleton could never do.
RELATED: How Meghan Markle Gave a Terrible First Impression to Kate Middleton
The Duchess goes make-up free
Part of Meghan Markle’s brand makeover is that she makes media appearances in the most unexpected places. For example, in April of 2025, she made an appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show. Their conversation was all over the place in the best possible way, but it wasn’t what they said that really kept our attention. Instead, it was how they said it: without wearing any makeup!
Some of the women reading this might scoff at that…after all, for regular folks, going a day, a week, or even a lifetime without makeup is not necessarily a big deal. However, this conversation involved a major media personality and a member of the Royal Family, so both of them typically rely on makeup to enhance their beauty. This time, though, each of them embraced the all-natural look.
What Meghan said about her all-natural look
It was a big deal for Meghan Markle to make a public appearance without makeup. Nobody is more aware of that than the Duchess herself, of course. And during her appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, she commented on what it was like to go without makeup after spending so many years as both an actor and a member of the Royal Family.
Meghan got unexpectedly emotional about seeing their natural appearance, saying that being so openly vulnerable was “so great.” Elaborating further, she acknowledged the open secret of why so many women rely on makeup in the first place: “We spend so much of our life trying to prove something. To prove that you’re enough,” she said. “You have to prove that you’re pretty enough. You have to prove that you’re smart enough.”
In other words, makeup is just one more way that women must prove that they are “pretty enough,” which is important because being “smart enough” isn’t always enough in a male-dominated world. This is something that her sister-in-law Kate Middleton knows all about, though there’s a simple reason the older woman will never be making a public appearance without any makeup.
RELATED: Before They Were Royals: Shocking Photos Reveal How Meghan Markle & Kate Middleton Have Changed
Meghan is flouting royal regulations?
It may not shock you to learn that the Royal Family has rules for just about everything, including how its members look in public. This doesn’t just extend to clothing, either, as female royals are expected to wear makeup to various engagements. The rules for makeup are relatively simple: while royal women must wear makeup out in public, it shouldn’t be anything that stands out due to its color, style, or (worst case) its gaudiness.
As someone who has stepped down from many royal responsibilities and now lives in America, Meghan is free to go without makeup more or less whenever she wants. The same can’t be said for Kate Middleton, who is married to the future King and is expected to set the tone for the rest of her famous family. That means, though, that Meghan is free to do at least one thing that Kate can never do.
Considering that Kate will one day be Queen, though, we think that tradeoff is very much worth it!
