Pippa Middleton's Wedding Had A Rule That Likely Made Things Awkward For Meghan Markle

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It goes without saying that the love story of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has come with a smorgasbord of awkward moments. Since their 2020 exit from the royal family and relocation to the United States, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have had many ups and downs play out before the media, but details from the era when they were still dating in secret suggest that the challenges may have started well before Megxit. At the 2017 nuptials of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews, the newlyweds enforced one rule that may not have sat well with the Sussexes: Couples were not to be seated next to each other at the reception. 

"Sitting together in the custom glass marquee that had been erected on the 18-acre property should have been a fun night for the couple, but, per Pippa's request, no couples sat together," Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote in their 2020 biography "Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family," which was reportedly written with input from Meghan, per the Daily Mail. Rather than sitting next to her partner at the time (as anyone would want when attending an event with their partner's family), Meghan was sat next to Roger Federer's wife, Mirka Federer, while Harry sat with news presenter Tom Bradby.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though: When the meal of trout and lamb was finished, the future Sussexes shared a rendezvous on the dance floor. Understandably, they were looking forward to spending time together since they were also separated for most of the day. Meghan didn't attend the ceremony at St. Mark's Church in Englefield, West Berkshire, reportedly due to fears that the press attention would shift the focus of the day. Whether or not Harry and Meghan were truly upset by Pippa's rule, they certainly went for a different seating strategy at their own wedding.

Pippa Middleton, who had a stunning style transformation up to her wedding and beyond, didn't split the Duke and Duchess of Sussex up deliberately. Separating couples for dinner is an established tradition in high society, upheld so that guests will be more likely to have conversations with new people. Still, Prince Harry later admitted in his 2022 autobiography, "Spare," that he purposely went with an American-style seating chart at his wedding the following year. (Wanting to sit together certainly isn't one of the red flags in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's relationship, though those do exist.) "We'd been separated by a huge flower arrangement between us, and though we'd desperately wanted to sit together, we hadn't done a thing about it," he wrote (via Brides), while detailing a reported disagreement between the Sussexes and William and Catherine, the Prince and Princess of Wales. " ... we weren't too pleased when Willy and Kate switched place cards and changed seats at our wedding," he penned, adding, "... their table was the only one where spouses were apart."

The evidence suggests that Meghan Markle might have felt awkward being separated from Harry at Pippa's reception, but this was before things became hostile between the Sussexes and the royal family. In March 2021, Harry and Meghan's viral interview with Oprah Winfrey preceded notable tension between the two royal couples at Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebration and her funeral the following year, but before that (and the release of the loaded Netflix series "Harry & Meghan"), Team Sussex seemed to be in a reasonably good space with his family. While it may have pushed Meghan out of her comfort zone to sit away from Harry at the 2017 reception, it would have been much worse if the event had taken place post-Megxit. Speaking of awkward, at least Meghan wasn't one of these celebs who wore inappropriate outfits to other people's weddings.