It seems like so long ago now before Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as working royals, before they even got married, when they stood in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace following the announcement that they were engaged.

After sharing their happy news with the world, the couple sat down for their first joint interview together and were asked about how they met, the proposal, and even what Meghan thought of Harry’s family.

What she said about her future sister-in-law stuck out to a lot of people as royal fans across the globe thought the women would become so close and the Princess of Wales (formerly known as Kate Middleton) might even show Meghan the royal ropes. But that never happened.

Here’s the three-word comment Meghan made then that proves just how bad things had gotten over the years with everything that’s happened.

What Meghan said about Kate in the engagement interview

Meghan and Harry were interviewed by BBC reporter Mishal Husain for their first interview together in 2017.

At one point, Husain asked Harry about marrying someone from a different background, and the two of them representing something new for the royal family. The duke explained that Meghan would be an added member of the family and another player on the larger team.

Fans immediately thought of Prince William and Kate, who everyone expected them to work with for their causes. Harry also shared that his brother and sister-in-law were keen to meet Meghan. The former Suits star then added three words about Kate, saying: “She’s been wonderful.”

But as we learned years later, things weren’t ever that warm and fuzzy between the ladies from the beginning. In fact, when the duchess recounted their first meeting again in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan, she made it sound awkward and said Kate “wasn’t a hugger.”

Meghan and Harry later said the whole interview was rehearsed and ‘not their story’

But that’s not the only story the Sussexes changed during their Netflix doc. The couple also slammed the post-engagement interview, claiming that they “weren’t allowed to tell our story” and called the whole thing an “orchestrated reality show.”

When Husian heard that, she fired back and insisted that was not the case.

She countered Meghan and Harry’s claim with some words borrowed directly from the late Queen Elizabeth II, telling BBC World at One (per Variety): “We know recollections may vary on this particular subject but my recollection is definitely very much, asked to do an interview, and do said interview.”

Husian added: “We went and had a conversation with Harry and Meghan and two members of their team beforehand, and we talked about what the interview would cover, what they felt comfortable sharing. After that, we went and set up our cameras. They went away for a bit and did their photocall, and when they came back we recorded a 20-minute interview.” 

Tony Hall, who was the BBC director-general at that time also said it was “simply untrue” for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to claim the interview had been “rehearsed.”