New accusations against Meghan Markle have “glaring and fascinating echoes” of her time at the palace, according to the journalist who first broke the story that the royal had been accused of bullying.
The Duchess of Sussex was described as terrifying by an unnamed source speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. Newsweek has reached out to representatives of the Sussexes for comment.
The magazine’s contact suggested the royal belittles people while Prince Harry was described as “charming” but an “enabler.”
It follows a string of departures from their U.S.-based foundation, Archewell, including most recently Josh Kettler, who was chief of staff for several months before leaving by mutual consent having been hired on a trial basis.
Meghan Markle at Centro Nacional de las Artes Delia Zapata during a visit to Bogota, Colombia, on August 15, 2024. The duchess faces new allegations she is difficult to work for, this time in The Hollywood Reporter.
Diego Cuevas/Getty Images
The accusations are difficult to assess as they are based on unnamed sources but are particularly awkward for Meghan because they do not arise from her old enemy, the British media, who the Sussexes have previously accused of being hand in glove with the monarchy.
And there appears to be a striking resemblance to an internal email suggesting she had bullied two PAs out of Kensington Palace, first published by the U.K. broadsheet The Times.
Valentine Low, author of Courtiers, broke the original story and told Newsweek: “It does have some glaring and fascinating echoes of everything I wrote, and that others have written before, about Meghan.
“I don’t know about the truth of The Hollywood Reporter article but it seems to be a pattern that she is, depending on your point of view, either a demanding boss or a difficult one.
“She clearly has certain standards but, on the other hand, the demands she makes of people may not always reflect what’s possible—she may demand too much.”
Jason Knauf, then Kensington Palace press secretary, wrote in an internal email in 2018: “I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X [name removed] was totally unacceptable.”
“The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights,” the email continued. “She is bullying Y [name removed] and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behavior towards Y [name removed].”
Low published that email through The Times, a newspaper he has since left, in the days before Harry and Meghan’s Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021.
It caused shockwaves right before the release of the couple’s CBS tell all, which aired major criticisms of the royal family, including allegations an unnamed royal expressed “concerns” about how dark her child’s skin might be.
Meghan and Harry’s camp denounced the allegations as a “smear campaign” and her U.K. lawyer later told a BBC documentary it was “just not true” that she was a bully. She added: “That said, she wouldn’t want to negate anyone’s personal experiences.”
Needless to say, the high turnover rate among their staff has persisted during their U.S. careers.
Low said the latest allegations were unlikely to alter the way the couple work: “I don’t think Harry and Meghan are in the business of either listening to anyone else or changing.
“I think for subtle, different reasons. I think she always thinks she knows best. I think that she’s clearly a smart individual. She’s also one of these people who thinks she’s the smartest person in the room which is a mistake, however smart you are.
“Harry is slightly different. He thinks the world is against them, or large portions of it are, and therefore dismisses a lot of what people have to say on those grounds.
“He would never do anything because the media said he should, that would be the last thing he would do.”
In Harry’s book, Spare, he described a “poisoned atmosphere” in the private office he shared with Meghan, Prince William, and Princess Kate at Kensington Palace.
As early as summer 2018, a few months after their marriage, “nerves were shattering,” Harry wrote. “People were sniping. In such a climate there was no such thing as constructive criticism.
“All feedback was seen as an affront, an insult. More than once a staff member slumped across their desk and wept.
“For all this, every bit of it, Willy blamed one person. Meg. He told me so several times, and he got cross when I told him he was out of line. He was just repeating the press narrative, spouting fake stories he’d read or been told.
“The great irony, I told him, was that the real villains were the people he’d imported
into the office, people from government, who didn’t seem impervious to this kind of strife—but addicted to it.”
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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