Meghan Markle’s staff broke their silence with Us Weekly to counter bullying allegations but the fightback has an awkward background relating to a past lawsuit.
The Hollywood Reporter this month quoted an anonymous source saying Meghan marches around like “a dictator in high heels” and belittles staff.
Sussex employees past and present countered that narrative with a series of comments published Tuesday by Us Weekly, which is edited by Dan Wakeford.
The move appears to have raised eyebrows at the Daily Mail because of Wakeford’s role in a previous media fightback on Meghan’s behalf in February 2019 by People magazine, where he was the deputy editor at the time, though he went on to become editor-in-chief.
Meghan Markle is seen in a composite image alongside Dan Wakeford, editor of Us Weekly. Meghan’s staff spoke to Us to defend her against bullying allegations.
Diego Cuevas/Getty Images and Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images For The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
In 2020, Meghan’s lawyers told the High Court in London she did not authorize that story during a case she brought against Associated Newspapers, publisher of The Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail.
Richard Eden, diary columnist at the Daily Mail, wrote on Twitter: “By coincidence, the editor behind the new Us Weekly article, Dan Wakeford, was also behind this memorable piece for People magazine, which Meghan testified in court that she played absolutely no part in.”
The fact that Wakeford has been linked to two similar fight backstories does not necessarily mean Meghan authorized them, or by implication that she misled the court.
But some might think Us Weekly an awkward choice through which to take on The Hollywood Reporter given her staff, including her current press secretary, could hypothetically have taken their testimonies to any outlet.
Meghan Markle’s Five Anonymous Friends
The duchess was first accused of being difficult to work for in a Sunday Times article from December 2018, one of several stories that Meghan has suggested turned the tide of public opinion against her.
In February 2019, five of her friends spoke anonymously to People to offer a defense against the negative headlines.
One of the friends mentioned Meghan’s relationship with Thomas Markle, which had disintegrated, and suggested she had sent her father a letter as an olive branch.
Markle Snr. then leaked the letter to The Mail on Sunday, which published substantial extracts, in turn sparking a privacy lawsuit by Meghan.
The reason the saga is relevant now is because Meghan was accused at the time of authorizing her friends to speak to People, thereby eroding her own privacy, according to the Mail‘s lawyers. She denied doing so.
A court filing by Meghan’s legal team from July 2020, seen by Newsweek, read: “The Mail on Sunday expressly purported to justify its decision to publish the Letter—which it admits it did without approaching [Meghan] for her consent—on the basis that [Meghan] was ‘said to have authorised five of her closest friends to speak to US People magazine to correct the falsehoods.’ As she has repeatedly made clear, she did not.”
And in a witness statement to the Court of Appeal in November 2021 Meghan wrote: “I did not read the People article when it first came out. When I was informed that it contained quotations from a third party (known in this litigation as ‘Friend A’) that included a passing reference to the Letter which was inaccurate in certain respects, I was upset and surprised, because I had not known in advance that ‘Friend A’ would refer to the Letter much less inaccurately.
“I did not cause or permit my Letter to my father, or its contents, to be published in People magazine.”
The saga was emotionally traumatic for Meghan as The Mail on Sunday in July 2020 attempted to force the publication of the names of Meghan’s five anonymous friends. People maintained their anonymity.
In fact, during their Netflix show, Harry blamed the newspaper for Meghan miscarrying that same month: “I believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what The Mail did. I watched the whole thing.
“Now, do we absolutely know that the miscarriage was created, caused by that? Course we don’t. But bearing in mind the stress that that caused, the lack of sleep, and the timing of the pregnancy, how many weeks in she was, I can say from what I saw, that miscarriage was created by what they were trying to do to her.”
Meghan’s Latest Fightback
One notable dimension of the current fightback is that it includes on the record quotes from Meghan’s current communications chief Ashley Hansen.
Nothing in the Us Weekly coverage specifically states whether the staff were authorized by Meghan to speak in her defense, though it would no doubt be a strange decision for a serving press secretary to speak so freely without permission.
Wakeford discussed the story in a YouTube video: “It’s rare that people who work for celebrities and notable figures in the public eye talk on the record about their jobs behind the scenes.
“So when we got the opportunity to talk to the current and former employees of the Duchess of Sussex and her husband Prince Harry, I felt it was compelling enough to do a cover story.
“We talked to five staff on the record and another two off the record and they say that the previous anonymous allegations made are wildly inaccurate and damaging. They reveal an unprecedented look into Megan and Harry’s work world and also their private world behind the scenes.”
He added: “‘We’re here for a reason’, says one of the current team members, ‘if you come for our bosses we’re coming for you. We’re just trying to do good.'”
At the time of the original People article in February 2019, Wakeford was interviewed about it on Good Morning America.
“Meghan’s friends say she’s not like she’s been portrayed in the British press and that she is a really kind and selfless and caring individual, the sort of person who puts other people first all of the time,” he said.
“They feel she had been portrayed as an uncaring daughter, as somebody who was a demanding bride.”
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
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