Meghan Markle’s claims against the Royal Family which are ‘untrue’ according to new book

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship with the Royals has turned to ash, as one of the pair’s main gripes is rubbished by a new book.

Exclusive: Meghan Markle’s claim she was forced to hand over her passports to The Firm after marrying Prince Harry has been rubbished by the author of a new royal book.

In an exclusive interview with News Corp Australia, longstanding royal writer Valentine Low said the Duchess of Sussex had a “complicated relationship with the world.”

Sharing the secrets behind his explosive new book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown — and the 100 interviews he conducted for it — the British author said her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey begged many questions.

He specifically took to task the Suits actress’s suggestion her passports, driver’s licence and keys were held by courtiers when she became a full time royal.

Citing foreign holidays in Italy, Amsterdam, a honeymoon in east Africa and trips to visit Elton John in France and to the States twice for a baby shower and to watch her friend Serena Williams compete in the US Open, Mr Low said “it would have been a challenge to go to all those trips without a passport.”

Meghan Markle’s claim she was forced to hand over her passports to The Firm after marrying Prince Harry has been rubbished by the author of a new royal book. Picture: AFP

“The idea they were kept on a leash is simply untrue,” he said.

Despite her “complicated relationship with the outside world,” Low said Markle did Prince Harry “the greatest kindness” by helping him defect to America.

“Which was to take him out of the family, because he was just desperately unhappy the last couple of years in his working life and the palace didn’t know what to do with him,” he said.

Samantha Cohen, was treated ‘terribly’ by Markle, it is alleged.

“That understanding gave me a new perspective on how to look at the events of Megxit.”

He said being born into The Firm “shouldn’t be a life sentence,” but it was “a deep shame” it happened so acrimoniously.

The royal correspondent for British broadsheet The Times said Australian courtier Samantha Cohen was treated “terribly” by Markle, even though she was incredibly liked, capable and credited with modernising the royal family.

“The people who worked for Meghan and Harry were really trying to help them … but they (the Sussexes) had issues with the wider institution,” he said.

“Sam (Cohen) was Aussie, lovely, unstuffy, and was going to resign but was persuaded by the Queen to work for Harry and Meghan about the time of their wedding, but she had a terrible time and was told she was constantly failing.

“She was the best organiser of foreign tours but for Sam, dealing with Harry and Meghan was like dealing with a couple of teenagers.”

The Sussex’s have strenuously denied claims they mistreated their staff.

Low said Markle was “very demanding”, “centred on herself,” and believed her version of events of her palace life.

Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown, by Valentine Low.

“Saying in the Oprah interview that she got married three days before the wedding … no you didn’t,” he said.

“She saw the Archbishop of Canterbury and they had some sort of blessing but as the Archbishop himself said, they got married when we saw them get married.

“Stuff like that was clearly untrue.”

‘A shared sense of victimhood.” Picture: Supplied

He believes Harry and Meghan, who wed in 2018, are genuinely in love and bond through their shared “sense of victimhood”.

“They feed off each other,” he said.

He said the bridge between princes Harry and William “is made of ash” and that “the brothers will never make it up”.

“After the ITV interview where (reporter) Tom Brady asked Meghan if she was okay, William realised Harry was in a bad way asked to meet up – but when William said he’d have to tell his private secretary to change his arrangements, Harry cancelled – I was really struck by how a well meant gesture of reconciliation should be scuppered by Harry’s mistrust of courtiers and that the family can’t behave like normal people,” he said.