Prince William and Harry's cousin claims late Queen was wrong on key Meghan decision

A distant cousin of Prince William and Prince Harry has spoken out in defence of Meghan Markle, and a decision she made on her wedding day. Maddison May Brudenell followed in the Duchess of Sussex’s footsteps on her own wedding day, in particular, her dress.

Maddison - the great-granddaughter of Lord Mountbatten, who is a third cousin to the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex - married her husband in November 2024, opting to wear a white dress on her big day, just as Meghan did when she married Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018, despite being married once before.

Sources have long claimed that the late Queen Elizabeth wasn’t happy with Meghan’s dress choice for the royal wedding, claiming that it “too white” for a divorcee to wear for a second wedding.

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Maddison, who previously married DJ Olaoluwa Modupe-Ojo in 2015, claimed she received stern words from her own mother when choosing her wedding dress, and despite the protests, opted for a bespoke white gown to marry Canadian welder Bret Kapetanov.

Writing in a lengthy post on Instagram, Brudenell repeated royal commentator Ingrid Seward's famous quote about Meghan: "In the monarch’s view, it was not appropriate for a divorcée getting remarried in church to look quite so flamboyantly virginal."

Brudenell explained: "Not written about me but about Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, needless to say when this article was flung in my face last week, I didn’t bat an eyelid.

"Seward wrote how the late Queen only revealed her opinion to her closest confidantes and the Queen’s cousin Lady Elizabeth Anson, who is said to have been among those confidantes, apparently shared that Meghan’s dress was improper – considering she had been married prior to Prince Harry.

"Why was I unsurprised by reading this article? Because my mother, our late queen’s god daughter, had said exactly the same to me. Other family members would agree, she said." Brudenell continued: "As I told my mother, we may as well just splash some muddy water, drip some blood, sweat and tears on it for good measure.

"As it happens my dress did have a lot of unique components to it but these were because of what I chose and not in any way what I felt I must choose. My mother listened to my wisdom and respected my style. I am blessed to have had that freedom, the pressures on the immediate Royal family are extreme and we must pray for them."

White wedding dresses first became popular during the reign of Queen Victoria, when in 1840, she was one of the first women to wear white on her special day.

On May 19, 2018, Meghan wore a beautiful gown designed by Givenchy's Clare Waight Keller for her Windsor church wedding, before changing into a halter-neck dress that featured a daring open back by Stella McCartney for the reception.

The royal wedding was Meghan’s second marriage, as she was previously married to film producer Trevor Engelson between 2011 and 2014, with the pair separating two years before Meghan met Prince Harry.