A close friend of Catherine, Princess of Wales has rubbished Meghan, Duchess of Sussex's claim she's not a "hugger".

Meghan, 41, claimed on her and husband Prince Harry's Netflix docuseries 'Harry and Meghan' that the first time she met her spouse's sibling Prince William, 40, and his wife, she was shocked by how the "formality" of greetings by the royals was the same behind closed doors, and suggested she had an awkward experience when going in for a "hug".

Meghan said: “[I’ve] always been a hugger. I didn’t realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.

“I guess I’d start to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside.”

However, a pal of Catherine, 40, finds that hard to believe as the mother-of-three - who has Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four, with William - is also a "hugger".

They told People magazine: “Kate’s a big hugger.

“She is warm and friendly and greets everyone with a big hug and kiss. It comes naturally to her to be like that.”

Whispers of a feud between Catherine and Meghan began circulating leading up to the former 'Suits' star's nuptials to Harry, 38, in 2018.

It was reported that Meghan made her sister-in-law cry over something relating to the flower girls' dresses, but the former claimed it was the over way around.

During Harry and Meghan's tell-all interview on their decision to step down as senior royals with Oprah Winfrey last year, Meghan - who has Archie, three, and 18-month-old Lilibet with Harry - claimed: “She [Kate] was upset about something, but she owned it, and she apologised. And she brought me flowers.

“A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings.

“What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do, but that happened to me.

“And the people who were part of our wedding were going to our comms team and saying: ‘I know this didn’t happen. I don’t have to tell them what actually happened.’”