Secret Meghan Markle dossier could blow ‘bully’ claims wide open
In the aftermath of yet another blistering story about the Duchess of Sussex, there’s one mysterious document that could change everything.
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The pen is mightier than the sword – but what about the dryly-written corporate report, hmmm? How hefty and potentially much more razor-edged might such a thing be?
I’m not asking to simply pose a rhetorical question, but because the latest PR wreck that has ensnared Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could potentially be made that much better – or worse – by a mysterious dossier that has been locked away in a London cupboard for years.
Look, it might also be a drawer, a mahogany bureau, a Victorian writing desk once used by Prince Albert to compose quite the naughty diddy, or a clunky un-updated Mac from 2014. But it exists – a report that could prove, definitely, once and for all – after years of claims and counterclaims and counter-counterclaims – about whether Meghan is a nightmarish “dictator in heels” or whether she’s a warm-hearted boss who only wants to nurture her staffer seedlings. (You do like fresh eggs don’t you, delivered in a whimsically downhome basket with a few jars of yuzu curd?)
This week, the duchess found herself facing down fresh claims raised by none other than Vanity Fair of being a termagant to employees and of being “really, really, really awful. Very painful” to work with.
However, there is one document that could settle this, once and for all – either exonerate the duchess, or back up the claims.
That secret British dossier that was “buried” by the late Queen.
There could not be a more combustible or powerful moment for it to be unsealed than now.
To understand how we got here, we have to travel back to 2021 when it was all mask mandates and forgotten sourdough starter clogging our benchtops.
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In March of that year, only days before the Sussexes’ paint-stripping Oprah interview, the Times broke the bombshell story that the duchess had been accused of bullying royal staffers. (“The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights,” Meghan and Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex’s then-communications secretary, Jason Knauf, wrote in one email to Palace higher-ups).
The former royal aides had approached the Times, “because they felt that only a partial version had emerged of Meghan’s two years as a working member of the royal family and they wished to tell their side”.
Meghan hit back at the bullying allegations, with a spokesperson saying that they were “victims of a calculated smear campaign”.
Buckingham Palace got their two cents in, with a statement saying that they were “very concerned about [the] allegations”.
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Less than 24 hours after that Times story came out, the late Queen did something she was supremely adept at – she pushed it off her plate and onto someone else’s, and asked them to sort out the mess. Specifically, Her late Majesty tasked an outside law firm with launching an unprecedented investigation into bullying allegations.
Then, nothing, nothing, nothing, until June 2022 when it was revealed that the lawyers’ investigation was done – only it had been “buried”, per the Times. Despite Queen Elizabeth having privately paid for the highly sensitive infestation, whatever the inquiry into Meghan found, it would never see the light of day.
And so, by and large the world forgot about the report and moved on to more important things, like processing what it is exactly about Barry Keoghan, a man who looks more like a Leeds nightclub bouncer with a sideline in dodgy eccies, that makes him so strangely compelling.
Last October, the duchess’ alleged poor treatment of staff roared back to the fore when The Hollywood Reporter ran a piece about the couple’s US staff and “the ever-expanding ‘Sussex Survivors Club’.”
“Everyone’s terrified of Meghan,” a source close to the couple told the Reporter.
“She’s just
terrible.”
Another source described her as “absolutely relentless” and as someone who “marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears”.
Not to be left out, the Daily Beast got in on the act, with people who had formerly worked with her telling the title’s Tom Sykes that as a boss, the duchess was a “demon” who had “psycho moments”.
Now here we are, three months later – and Vanity Fair has joined in, reporting that Meghan could go from “warm and effusive” with staff to “cold and withholding”.
According to someone who worked with Meghan on media projects, the experience was “really, really, really awful. Very painful. Because she’s constantly playing checkers – I’m not even going to say chess – but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board. And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment”.
(The Sussexes, the Times reported, “dismissed” the magazine’s “distressing” allegations).
Which brings us back to Le Dossier.
It is against today’s tense backdrop of raised temperatures that we need to return to the question of the Palace’s Meghan report, which just might be under several feet of dirt in the Palace back lawn. (You should see that Princess Anne work a spade).
There could be no more charged moment for its contents to come out than right now.
There is a certain Groundhog Day-like quality to this mess, and there is another strange puzzler in all of this – why doesn’t Meghan say sorry?
I’m not suggesting for a second that there is any credence or truth to the negative claims about her management style or that she has done anything that warrants her apologising.
Like any organisation or boss in the world, there are always going to be disgruntled staffers or employees who take issue with management’s style.
However, the sorts of claims like the ones aired by Vanity Fair have kept popping up for years now. Why not try and find a way to deal with them once and for all?
Why not just say, “I’m sorry you feel that way – here, have a muffin basket and a hug and a cleansing sage smudging stick and be off with you and your negative energy?”
Surely there is some way that the duchess could draw a line under things while also coming across looking like the bigger, more magnanimous, more sharing and caring half of this ongoing they-said, she-said whirligig of finger-pointing?
Meanwhile, my editor has never sent me homegrown flower arrangements or fresh eggs from their very own chickens (which is what Meghan did for staffers who spoke to Us Weekly last year) or arranged for a gelato cart to turn up at my house (as the duchess once did for Kensington Palace staff).
Sigh. The writer’s life is not an easy one.
Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles
Originally published as Secret Meghan Markle dossier could blow ‘bully’ claims wide open
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