Prince Harry has slammed a British tabloid for claiming that Meghan Markle’s flowers at her 2018 wedding were “poisonous”.
In his upcoming memoir, Spare, Harry wrote about his and Meghan’s decision to sue the Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), after multiple tabloids made false allegations about the couple. While his peers discouraged him from filing the lawsuit, there was one particular article that he had a major issue with, according to an excerpt of the book shared by Us Weekly. However, it appears that the article he reportedly discussed was published by Express, a Reach PLC titled, so it was not published by ANL.
He noted that in this piece, the magazine accused him and Meghan of putting Princess Charlotte’s “life at risk” by having her wear an allegedly deadly flower crown. Along with Prince William and Kate Middleton’s daughter, several other young members of the royal family wore those flower crowns as bridesmaids at the wedding.
Harry recalled the “scandal” that followed in the wake of the article being published and clarified how the flowers aren’t poisonous. He acknowledged that while the flower crowns were designed with lilies of the valley, “which can be poisonous,” those plants can only be deadly if they are eaten.
“Even then, the reaction would be discomfort, conceding to parents, but only in the rarest cases would such a thing be fatal,” he wrote.
Us Weekly also reported that Harry explained how lilies of the valleys have been included in royal weddings throughout the years, so it wasn’t Meghan’s decision to have them at the nuptials.
“Never mind that previous royal brides, including Kate and my mother, had also used lilies of the valley,” the former military pilot added in his book.
He also claimed that the tabloid chose not to include this information about the flowers since “the story of Meghan the Murderess was just too good”. Additionally, he noted how the publication allegedly shared a picture of Charlotte with her face looking “contorted” next to another image of Meghan “looking sublimely unconcerned about the imminent death of this angelic child”.
Over the years, Harry has been locked in legal battles with ANL. He previously sued the organization over two articles which claimed that he had snubbed the Royal Marines after stepping down as a senior royal. In February 2021, he accepted an apology and damages in this libel suit.
In July, the High Court ruled that one of Mail on Sunday’s articles about Harry contained parts that were defamatory. The duke is now suing the the tabloid’s publisher over a story on a separate High Court case over the decision to remove his automatic granting of police protection in the UK.
His wife also won a front-page apology and payout from the Mail on Sunday publishers in December 2021 after her copyright win against the group.
Along with addressing how Meghan was treated by the British tabloids, Harry shared other revelations about his marriage in the memoir. In one excerpt, he candidly reflected on a fight that he had with Meghan where he got extremely angry.
“Maybe the wine went to my head. Maybe the weeks of battling the press had worn me down. For some reason, when the conversation took an unexpected turn, I became touchy,” he wrote in the book, according to Us Weekly. “Then angry. Disproportionately, sloppily angry.”
He also said the argument prompted them to have a discussion about therapy, with the duchess encouraging her husband to go to it.
“It came from somewhere deep inside, somewhere that needed to be excavated, and it was obvious that I could use some help with the job.” he continued. “I’ve tried therapy,’ I told her. ‘Willy [Prince William] told me to go. Never found the right person.’ [It] didn’t work. ‘No,’ she said softly. ‘Try again.’”
