‘Demon boss’: Bombshell new report dooms Meghan Markle
An explosive new report has levelled a series of devastating claims about the Duchess of Sussex as she faces the biggest PR crisis since Megxit.
There are no new ideas, Mark Twain wrote, and nor, I would have added, new biting labels for members of the royal family.
Lazy, entitled, self-involved, work-shy, a shirker, profligate, self-indulgent, overly fond of Scotch woodcock? Why yes, everyone from Queen Victoria down to her great-great-great-great-granddaughter-in-law Kate, the Princess of Wales has been targeted.
But this month has changed all that, with one member of the royal family having been called a series of scathing new names.
“Just terrible”, “a dictator”, “absolutely relentless” – in the last two weeks, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex has been dubbed all of these things … only for even more to come out today.
Staffers who have previously worked for the duchess have now claimed that the 42-year-old was a “demon” and a “classic narcissist” who had “psycho moments” and who made people “feel like s**t”.
Hells bells.
In LA and London, clearly the floodgates have been set to “open” and it feels like former staffers of Meghan and husband Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex are all but lining up and patiently taking numbers to tell their side of the story. (The Hollywood Reporter alone spoke to a dozen current and former employees of the duke and duchess).
We will get into the weeds and the gory details, I promise, but the bigger question is, if this anti-Sussex barrage continues, how long until their careers are all but on life support?
Today’s cymbal clash, thunder clap, gasping-audience new story is from The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes.
“There definitely were bad, very bad, even psycho moments,” one royal courtier, who worked for the former Suits star and Harry, has said.
“I witnessed people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s**t.
“But it was an incredibly fraught time and I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. [Meghan] has said herself she was suicidal at times.”
Another person who worked for the duchess in the run-up to her wedding has said: “I always thought she was a classic narcissist and getting her staff to tell a magazine how amazing she is only confirms that in my mind. She is lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns”.
Yet another insider told Sykes that after a florist “posted an insignificant detail online” about something they were doing for Meghan (and without identifying her) they were “screamed at down the phone” for half an hour after.
“They vowed never to work with her again, despite the prestige of having her as a client. If you were working for her, you were often treated like a tradesman who could be treated like s**t.”
This Beast story is just the latest withering depiction of life inside the Sussex camp and the way things stand, the duke and duchess are now facing down their biggest PR disaster since Megxit.
Things started about a month ago with the influential media and tech news site Puck deeming their Netflix deal one of the industry’s “worst” of the “peak TV period”. It also reported that the streamer was “not expected to renew” it next year, thus leaving the couple all but unemployed.
Then, we got industry bible The Hollywood Reporter publishing an eyebrow-singeing bombshell report about the duchess, based on interviews with a dozen former and current Sussex employees.
“Everyone’s terrified of Meghan,” a source close to the couple told the Reporter.
“She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice … she’s just terrible.”
“She’s absolutely relentless,” one source has said
“She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.”
Next stop on our tour, the Daily Mail, where a senior Hollywood producer revealed to Alison Boshoff that “there’s now a genuine dislike” of Harry and Meghan in Los Angeles. Another senior industry figure said of the duke and duchess, “It’s hard to find anyone with a good word to say for their film and television credibility”.
Cue the damage control. Release the good PR hounds. On Tuesday, the tabloid Us Weekly entered the fray, offering up a series of testimonials from former and current staffers of the couple in what appeared to be an effort to try and staunch the reputational bleeding. (All of that declining to comment was clearly not working).
One time chief of staff Josh Kettler, who left the couple’s employ in August after only three months, said he was “warmly welcomed” by the pair and called them “dedicated and hardworking”. Another former chief of staff, Catherine St-Laurent, said she “remained close” to the duke and duchess and that her time in their employ was “incredibly meaningful”.
The Sussexes’ former head of content, Ben Browning, said the couple were “positive and supportive” and that “we all continue to be friends. The narratives we’ve seen suggesting the contrary are untrue”.
The warmest words came from Ashley Hansen, the Sussexes’ global press secretary who said that, after undergoing surgery, the former HRHs sent flowers, care packages and that “most profoundly to me, Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support”.
Maybe a bit of gushing about bouquets and “care packages” might have gone some way to neutralise or countermand the Reporter and the “just terrible” claims, but now with this Beast piece, the scales have toppled out of Harry and Meghan’s favour.
Right now, the duke and duchess’ standing and credibility look like they are in free fall.
There is the practical element here – who will be eager to work for or with them if their reputation is so tarnished? – but also a much bigger image one. Their brand is built on them using words like “caring” and “compassion” with a certain tired hackneyed regularity and presenting themselves as modern alterna-royals.
How long can they keep that up if people formerly on their payroll keep coming along and alleging that Harry and Meghan are nightmare employers who “scream” at, “belittle” and “terrify” people (if not “reducing them to tears”)?
And which deep-pocket companies will be eager to get the Sussexes on their books, should Netflix pull the pin, if they become notorious for all the wrong reasons?
There’s only so much even a massive bouquet and all the care packages in the world can do.
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
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