Kate & Meghan ΜΑΚΕ ΡEACE

WITH THE QUEEN'S HEALTH DETERIORATING, KATE MIDDLETON SECRETLY MET WITH MEGHAN MARKLE TO TRY AND MEND THEIR HUSBANDS' RIFT BEFORE IT WAS TOO LATE.

Battling Brothers

The Queen's final wish, says a palace source, was for Prince William and Prince Harry "to make amends."

Final Goodbye

William and the Countess of Wessex arrived at Balmoral on Sept. 8. Kate stayed behind in Windsor for their kids' first day of school.

Sister Act

“Kate and Meghan are on the way to repairing the damage,” says an insider. Only the future will tell.

ON Sept. 8, members of the royal family rushed to Scotland's O 70-year reign is the world's longest, was, at 96, in rapid decline. The future of the royal family, racked by scandal and dissent, was in the balance, with her son Prince Andrew disgraced and heir to the throne Prince Charles distraught by the bitter feud between his sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. The time for reconciliation was quickly running out.

Just a few days earlier, a very different kind of royal gathering took place some 500 miles away at Kensington Palace. A royal source tells Star that Meghan Markle, 41, in London en route to the Invictus Games with Harry, secretly met with William's wife, Kate Middleton, 40, in an urgent bid to mend the couples' ugly and ongoing feud before the Queen's demise. "Kate texted Meghan just before Meghan and Harry arrived in the U.K. and suggested they get together for tea," the source reveals, noting that the estranged sisters-in-law "made a pact not to tell their husbands about it." Balmoral Castle to say their goodbyes to Queen Elizabeth II.

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