Meghan Markle bullying claim sparks vicious battle with royal family
Accusations Meghan bullied staffers and wore diamonds given to her by a dictator have sparked the Sussexes’ most vicious public battle yet.
The word historic gets hauled out far, far too often when it comes to writing about the royal family.
Moi? Guilty as charged.
When Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, released her first selfie in February it was historic.
When Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, launched the first royal book club in January it was historic.
When Sophie Rys-Jones was allowed to live with Prince Edward prior to their wedding, it was historic.
Yes, they were all firsts, all occasions where women broke new royal ground and rapped gently on the royal status quo.
But today? Today the only way to describe what has been happening behind palace gates and behind the gates of a certain Montecito mansion owned by Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is historic.
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Truly, horribly historic.
Yesterday, the UK’s The Times published an incendiary report alleging that Meghan had bullied staffers.
“There were a lot of broken people,” a source told The Times’ Valentine Low.
“Young women were broken by their behaviour.”
A source also described one member of staff to Low as “completely destroyed” while another staffer, “anticipating a confrontation with Meghan, told a colleague: “I can’t stop shaking.’”
The same story also claimed that she wore enormous diamond earrings which were a gift from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after the murder and dismemberment of his vocal critic and journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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A spokesperson for the Sussexes has denied the claims saying they were “saddened by this latest attack on her character”.
A lawyer for the couple told The Times via a statement that bullying claims were part of “a calculated smear campaign” and called the piece a “defamatory portrayal”.
In regards to the earrings, lawyers for the now California-based royal, per The Telegraph, “have insisted she was unaware at the time of the dinner of speculation that the Crown Prince was (allegedly) involved in the murder of the journalist”.
Overnight, in the wake of the bullying claims, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson announced the palace will launch an investigation into the claims, saying they were “clearly very concerned” and that “members of staff involved at the time, including those who have left the household, will be invited to participate to see if lessons can be learned”.
Meghan and Harry, as the clock ticks downs towards their Oprah TV tell-all airing on Monday (AEDT), have launched a stinging fightback.
In a statement to The Telegraph, a spokesperson for the Sussexes said: “The Duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself and is deeply committed to supporting those who have experienced pain and trauma.”
Then, senior palace sources told The Mirror that royal aides were “incandescent” over the “smear campaign” claims.
A senior palace source told The Mirror: “We have not been briefing around the Oprah Winfrey program or anything to do with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at all.
“It is totally disingenuous, frankly ludicrous and wholly untrue to suggest anyone at the palace has been peddling disinformation and has been briefing on these matters.
“There are far, far more important things going on right now than the circus surrounding a media appearance.”
Which leaves us badly, badly needing a word that is more consequential than ‘historic’ to use right about here.
Make no mistake: The events of the last 24-hours or so amount to a Rubicon-crossing moment for both the Sussexes and the palace for a number of reasons.
Let’s start with the most glaring development which is that the gloves have well and truly come off in dramatic earnest.
If what we have seen prior to this amounted to some gentlemanly fisticuffs, this week amounts to a bloody round of bare-knuckle boxing.
Both the bullying allegations levelled against Meghan and the fact that the earrings she donned twice had been a gift from the dictatorial Crown Prince, date back to 2018 and the first year of the Sussexes’ marriage.
They are not new so why are they hitting the headlines right now?
It would seem that those in the know have sat on these incendiary charges, kept primed in some pinstriped back pocket for years, so that they could be deployed at a point to maximise the impact on the Sussexes.
TheTimes reported that these claims were only coming out now after the paper was approached by sources who “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”.
Interesting then that such urges for truth telling came at a particularly convenient time for Buckingham Palace ahead of the Sussexes’ Oprah interview and I think we can summarise that some behind-the-scenes calculated finagling and Machiavellian media skulduggery is going on here, all in aid of dealing Harry and Meghan a blow ahead of their TV tell-all.
And then there are the Sussexes’ comments issued via the lawyer and via a spokesperson.
They have not simply denied the charges but have pulled no punches, levelling blame directly at the palace with a spokesperson for the couple telling The Times: “It’s no coincidence that distorted several-year-old accusations aimed at undermining the Duchess are being briefed to the British media shortly before she and the Duke are due to speak openly and honestly about their experience of recent years.”
Which is all to say, neither side is pretending anymore. Any pretence of both sides engaging in full-on PR warfare has disintegrated, the ugly truth of this internecine conflict for all the world to see.
While there have been clashes of this sort before, never before have both sides so squarely faced off against one another and this time, the tone and tenor has become much more … mucky.
If the 13 months since Megxit was first announced amounted to a series of skirmishes, then today we are getting very close to all out, full-frontal war.
Like any war, there will be casualties, PR-wise, on both sides.
Here is another historic thing: Never before has the palace launched an investigation into one of its own.
Never before has the house of Windsor so publicly called into question the alleged behaviour of one of its members.
Over the years, members of the royal family have been, accused of adultery (repeatedly and often on prime time television), paling around with a convicted sex offender, having sex with a teenage “sex slave” and most recently, sticking One’s regal oar in and lobbying to have a law changed so she could keep her personal wealth a secret.
But never in the long list of alleged sins attributed to the house of Windsor has mistreating their staff ever numbered.
From the Queen and Charles down, they have always attracted loyal lieutenants and staffers who often work tirelessly for them for decades, despite the fact the palace famously pays peanuts.
This is a new and horrible line that has been crossed.
Not only is the Duchess accused of “reducing staff to tears” but the palace now stands accused of protecting one of their own and failing to protect or help staffers.
This situation is not going to disappear into the ether.
According to The Telegraph, the results of the palace campaign won’t be hidden away here and could be shared in the “annual Sovereign Grant report, which highlights significant changes in operations”.
Meghan and Harry, The Sun reports, are not expected to be quizzed, however there is a chance they could face mounting pressure to have their say.
If the final report is made public, it could lay bare the inner workings of the palace with a wholly unprecedented level of exposure. Dare I say it? It would be … historic.
Perhaps the biggest, irrevocable shift is that this week’s events call into question whether there is any chance that relations between the palace and the Sussexes might ever normalise.
Before this week, it had been widely speculated that Harry might try and attend both his grandfather Prince Philip’s 100th birthday celebrations and Trooping the Colour in June.
The prospect of Harry taking his place on the Buckingham Palace balcony (considerations such as COVID and the fact the Sussexes’ second baby will be due around that time notwithstanding) seems less and less likely.
How could they, after all this, stand side-by-side and pretend things are fine and dandy, big grins on their faces as they wave to the masses?
The game is up. That charade is well and truly over. How can things ever return to normal now?
Should Prince Philip not make it out of hospital, where he remains more than two weeks after being admitted, how could they all stand side-by-side in St George’s Chapel at Windsor?
So yes, it‘s all very ‘historic.’ And it’s all so very, very sad.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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