French fashion designer Roland Mouret reflects on his friendship with the Duchess of Sussex and a mistake that caused tension between them in his new memoir

NEED TO KNOW

• French fashion designer Roland Mouret reflects on his friendship with Meghan Markle and an unexpected disagreement in his new memoir
• Mouret recalls how a mistake involving Kate Middleton’s stylist prompted a phone call from Meghan, who allegedly told him, “You’ve embarrassed me!”
• According to Mouret, who first met Meghan in 2015, she said she could “never” wear his designs again, though he later reached out in an attempt to reconnect.

Meghan Markle allegedly told designer friend Roland Mouret that she could never wear his clothes again after a mistake involving Kate Middleton‘s stylist, according to his new memoir.

The French designer — whose looks have been worn by Victoria Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Michelle Obama and many more celebrities — reflects on his relationship with the Duchess of Sussex in his new book, I Am Roland Mouret: The Butcher’s Boy Who Dressed the World.

In an excerpt published by The Times on Friday, Oct. 16, Mouret recalls offering to send Meghan a selection of clothes after she began dating Prince Harry in 2016, knowing she would have “a lot of functions” to attend. According to Mouret, Meghan replied, “Yes, please.”

“I asked a member of my team to send a selection I had put aside to the palace,” Mouret writes. “Leave them there as long as she wants them. Don’t follow up on it and do not talk about it to anyone at all, here or outside.”

Mouret says a member of his team later contacted Kate’s stylist at Kensington Palace to arrange for the return of the clothes he had sent Meghan.

“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,” Mouret writes.

“Meghan was furious and called me,” he continues, recalling her telling him, “You don’t realize what you’ve done! You’ve embarrassed me!”

Mouret says he apologized, telling Meghan, “No, 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.”

According to Mouret, Meghan replied, “You know now I can never wear your clothes again.”

“I didn’t see the logic of that, but I didn’t question it,” Mouret 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.”

Mouret recalled reaching out to Meghan the following year after seeing a photo of her wearing what he described as a “cheap high street copy” of one of his designs.

“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,” he recalled messaging her.

According to Mouret, Meghan replied, “I think I should come and see you.”

Mouret does not specify exactly when the reported disagreement took place, only that it happened after Meghan and Harry’s relationship became public.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Duchess of Sussex for comment.

Meghan appeared in promotional photos for her As ever lifestyle brand released earlier this year wearing a strapless navy dress by the French designer. The dress was one she had previously worn to the Royal Foundation Dinner in November 2018, which she attended alongside Harry, William and Kate.

In his memoir, Mouret also recalls how he first met Meghan in an elevator at the 2015 opening of Soho House in Istanbul, and the two kept in touch.

After Meghan started dating Harry the following year, she revealed to Mouret during a phone call that she had met a “nice British guy.”

“I said, ‘What does he do?’ “ Mouret writes. “She hesitated. ‘He’s a prince.’ 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.”

Meghan has publicly worn many of Mouret’s designs, including a navy dress that she wore on the eve of her May 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.

Meghan previously spoke about her friendship with the designer, telling Fashion Magazine in 2016, “This man in a bathrobe said, ‘I love to dress you.’ I thought, ‘Whaaat?’ Then he told me who he was, and we’ve been friends ever since.”

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Kate has also worn Mouret’s brand, including at the Wimbledon ladies’ singles final this summer.

Since Prince Harry and Meghan’s move back to the U.K. in August, she has focused on highlighting British designers. For the pair’s outing in Nottingham on Thursday, Oct. 15, she wore a burgundy coat, matching turtleneck and earrings by British luxury brand Joseph — the same designer she sported at the couple’s 2017 visit to the same city. She finished the look with a skirt by The Fold London and heels by Jennifer Chamandi.

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