Meghan’s diamond earrings allegedly gifted by Saudi Prince linked to journalist murder
Shocking claims have been made about diamond earrings allegedly gifted to Meghan by the Saudi Prince accused of ordering a brutal murder.
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Yesterday, Harry and Meghan Duke and Duchess of Sussex were photographed by the paparazzi (you know, the nasty press they left the UK to get away from) out for a drive in their Montecito neighbourhood, looking particularly stony-faced.
Little wonder they were looking so glum in light of truly explosive news breaking in the UK this morning, with a report in The Times claiming that in 2018 the Duchess “faced a bullying complaint made by one of her closest advisers” and that “she drove two personal assistants out of the household and was undermining the confidence of a third staff member”.
According to the explosive report, “Staff would on occasion be reduced to tears; one aide, anticipating a confrontation with Meghan, told a colleague: ‘I can’t stop shaking.’
“Two senior members of staff have claimed that they were bullied by the Duchess. Another former employee told The Times they had been personally “humiliated” by her and claimed that two members of staff had been bullied.
“Another aide claimed it felt ‘more like emotional cruelty and manipulation, which I guess could also be called bullying.’”
While another source said: “There were a lot of broken people. Young women were broken by their behaviour.” The source described one member of staff as “completely destroyed”.
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A spokesperson for the Sussexes has denied the claims and said that Meghan was “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”.
According to her lawyers, “one individual left after findings of misconduct”.
The Times report said a complaint was made in October 2018 by Jason Knauf, who was then the Kensington Palace communications secretary “in an effort to get Buckingham Palace to protect staff who he claimed were coming under pressure from the Duchess. Prince Harry pleaded with Knauf not to pursue it, according to a source.”
Knauf is alleged to have written to Simon Case, then the Duke of Cambridge’s private secretary, saying: “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* was totally unacceptable.
“The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.”
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So just how did The Times’ Valentine Low come to reveal these bombshell claims? According to Low, “sources 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.”
In another sensational claim, The Times has also alleged that Meghan wore diamond earrings to a dinner in Fiji in October 2018 which were a wedding gift from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, three weeks after the Saudi ruler is alleged to have approved the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
On October 2, Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the Crown Prince, disappeared from the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. Over the next few weeks reports started to emerge that he had been beaten, tortured, killed and dismembered “in the presence of the kingdom’s top diplomat in Istanbul”.
On October 23, Meghan wore a blue cape Safiyaa gown and a pair of enormous, glittering diamond earrings to a state dinner in Fiji which journalists, at the time, were told she had “borrowed”. That same day, Reuters reported that MBS’ top iad Saud al-Qahtani, had ‘run’ the Washington Post contributor’s killing “by giving orders over Skype”.
Which is to say, by the time Meghan donned the enormous gems, the Saudi ruler and royal was already linked to the brutal killing.
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If the earring claim is true, this is a truly staggering decision on the Duchess’s part.
Let’s all take a deep breath here. This is a lot.
These are not pot-stirring whispers in a muckraking tabloid but serious allegations levelled by one of Kensington Palace’s most high-level staffers and reported by a very credible journalistic source.
These are truly devastating allegations that represent a serious body blow to the seeing Sussexes’ PR crusade to paint themselves as victims.
However, we also need to stress that, based on what has been reported so far, that is all they are at this stage – allegations. Allegations, it cannot be stressed enough, Harry and Meghan have strenuously denied, hitting back and saying this is “a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation. We are disappointed to see this defamatory portrayal of The Duchess of Sussex given credibility by a media outlet.”
But there is no denying that these shocking claims could not have emerged at a worse time for the Duke and Duchess with the countdown on to their two-hour Oprah tell-all interview which will air next Monday afternoon (AEDT).
Earlier this week, the first trailers for their TV sit-down emerged, with Harry shown telling the talk show queen that his biggest fear was “history repeating itself,” and Oprah pointedly asking Meghan, “Were you silent, or were you silenced?”
Based on these snippets, the couple seem intent on establishing themselves once and for all as the victims of a cruel palace machine, hellbent on crushing the couple’s ambitions and zeal, and who did little to protect them from the virulent criticism and harsh treatment they supposedly received at the hands of the British press.
With this new Times report, that ‘woe is us’ campaign might have taken a potentially fatal, direct hit.
Central to the ‘Harry and Meghan vs the Meanie Palace’ narrative is the notion that the sea of courtiers and aides who populate the offices of Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House failed the Sussexes, leaving the couple exposed by refusing to marshal their considerable resources to defend the actress-turned-royal.
However, one source has now painted a startling different picture of the alleged steps the palace took, telling The Times: “Senior people in the household, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, knew that they had a situation where members of staff, particularly young women, were being bullied to the point of tears.
“The institution just protected Meghan constantly. All the men in grey suits who she hates have a lot to answer for, because they did absolutely nothing to protect people.”
The key word in that statement? “Protected.” Rather in this telling it was the Duchess’ staffers who were allegedly left to fend for themselves.
What the report’s allegations add up to is the two key, supposed titanium-tipped, ‘bullets’ of the Sussexes’ PR assault on the palace – that Meghan was martyred on the monarchal PR pyre and that the Men in Grey abandoned them to be mauled by the media – might just have been spectacularly neutralised. Their sharpest, most effective barbs? Potentially rendered null and void.
No matter how much Harry and Meghan claim they were wronged and no matter how heinous and horrible a picture they paint of their treatment by the palace, this report might just have torpedoed their two most potent lines of attack.
No matter what one might make of The Times’ bullying allegations, the claim that Meghan wore diamonds, allegedly given to her by a ruler who at the point she donned them was already facing claims linking his regime to a brutal killing, casts her in a particularly mercenary and hypocritical light.
Meghan has long been an advocate of gender equality and women’s rights – so how will she reconcile that with a choice to allegedly don earrings that were given to her by a man who runs a country where women’s rights activists, as reported by Human Rights Watch, have been jailed?
Given the Sussexes’ Oprah confab was shot weeks ago and has potentially already been edited and is finished, how will the Duke and Duchess fight back against this damaging salvo?
Will the ‘we were victims’ line of attack still hit the mark they seemed to think it would?
The biggest question of all is: Can they come back from this?
Stay tuned. This week looks set to be one for the royal history books, and for all the wrong reasons.
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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