Meghan Markle bullying, misrepresentation claims ahead of royal Oprah tell-all
Tensions between royal aides and the Sussexes explode ahead of their Oprah tell-all, with claims Meghan Markle bullied staff with emotional manipulation and harassment.
Just days before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s tell-all with Oprah Winfrey airs, royal aides have accused Meghan of bullying staff during her time at Kensington Palace.
The Duchess is also accused of misrepresenting the provenance of a pair of expensive diamond earrings she wore to a formal dinner in Fiji during her 2018 tour of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
Tensions have dramatically escalated between Royal aides and the Sussexes, who have recorded two days of interviews with Oprah for a two-hour tell-all garden chat to be televised next Sunday, following the claims.
The Times has also obtained complaints that were raised at the time by Meghan’s former staff that they were bullied by the Duchess.
It is claimed that she drove two personal assistants out of the household and was undermining the confidence of a third staff member. The Times reports staff would on occasion be reduced to tears; one aide, anticipating a confrontation with Meghan, told a colleague: “I can’t stop shaking.”
The Times reported a source claiming: “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.’’
Meghan wore the earrings, a wedding gift from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, three weeks after the grisly murder of the US based journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi Arabian hit squad at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, the paper reports.
But The Times said during the time of the tour, journalists were informed the earrings were borrowed.
The Times said: “When the duchess wore the earrings in Fiji given by the crown prince she told aides who were preparing to brief the media about her outfit for the state dinner that they had been ‘borrowed’ from a jeweller, a source said, an explanation that was widely reported. This was three weeks after the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.’’
They added: “Lawyers for the duchess said she may have stated they were borrowed but did not say they were borrowed from a jeweller and denied that she had misled anyone about their provenance.”
The Times reports there is email evidence that staff felt they were being bullied by the Duchess.
In one email, Jason Knauff, the then Kensington Palace communications director, forwarded the bullying complaints to the HR department of Buckingham Palace.
Duchess ‘always’ had ‘someone in her sights’
He wrote: “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.”
He added: “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.”
The email also addressed “stress” being experienced by Samantha Cohen, the couple’s private secretary, who is Australian but lasted just one year and five months working for the Sussexes after 17 years with the Queen’s household.
The Knauff email concluded: “I questioned if the Household policy on bullying and harassment applies to principals.”
Another former employee told The Times they had been personally “humiliated” by Meghan and claimed that two members of staff had been bullied.
The Times reports that another aide claimed it felt “more like emotional cruelty and manipulation, which I guess could also be called bullying”.
The duchess denies bullying and her lawyers stated that one individual left after findings of misconduct.
But the willingness of Meghan’s former staff to talk to the British press suggests an ongoing bitterness that the bureaucracy of the royal family sided with Meghan and went all out to embrace her into the Royal fold, sometimes at their expense.
‘Calculated smear campaign’: Sussexes respond
A spokesman for the Sussexes said in a statement: “Let’s just call this what it 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. 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.
“In a detailed legal letter of rebuttal to The Times, we have addressed these defamatory claims in full, including spurious allegations regarding the use of gifts loaned to The Duchess by The Crown.
“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. She is determined to continue her work building compassion around the world and will keep striving to set an example for doing what is right and doing what is good.”
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