Meghan Markle denied detailed charges of “intimidating” her former Buckingham Palace team and accused opponents of conducting a “calculated smear campaign” before her CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday.
If Meghan and Prince Harry foresaw an open field to criticize the royal family and / or file various complaints, certain sources at Buckingham Palace seem determined to torpedo their ambitions before Sunday night.
Royal advisers said The times from London that Meghan was the subject of an official bullying complaint made in October 2018 by Jason Knauf, Meghan and Harry’s former communications secretary. The times reported that the complaint detailed how Meghan allegedly “expelled two personal assistants from home and was undermining the trust of a third team member”. Prince Harry asked Knauf not to pursue the complaint, a source told the newspaper.
“The team was occasionally reduced to tears” because of the Duchess, The times reported. An aide, anticipating a confrontation with Meghan, said to a colleague: “I can’t stop shaking.” Another aide said it looked “more like emotional cruelty and manipulation, which I think can also be called bullying”.
Knauf, in an email to Simon Case, then the Duke of Cambridge’s private secretary, said that the palace’s head of HR, Samantha Carruthers, “agreed with me in all respects that the situation was very serious.” He added: “I am still concerned that nothing will be done.”
“I am very concerned because the Duchess managed to expel two PAs from her home last year. X *’s treatment was totally unacceptable … The Duchess seems determined to always have someone in view.“
– Jason Knauf
Knauf, who is now chief executive of the Royal Foundation of Prince William and Kate Middleton, said in his e-mail: “I am very concerned that the Duchess managed to intimidate two APs out of her home last year. X’s treatment was totally unacceptable … The Duchess seems determined to always have someone in view. She is intimidating Y and trying to undermine her confidence. We received reports after reports from people who witnessed unacceptable behavior towards Y. ”
Sympathetic sources around Harry and Meghan reported their frustration and hurt at the attitudes of palace officials in Finding freedom: Harry and Meghan and forming a modern royal family.
However, palace sources said The times that allegations of bullying have not been investigated by the palace and that officials have made Meghan more “welcome” than supporters of the couple have long claimed. A source said of the bullying complaint: “I think the problem is that not much has happened to him. It was, ‘How can we make this go away?’, Instead of approaching it. “
Another source said The times: “The elderly in the house, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, knew that they faced a situation in which team members, especially young women, were being bullied to the point of crying. The institution only protected Meghan constantly. All the men in the gray suit she hates have a lot to answer for, because they did absolutely nothing to protect people. “
The newspaper said the sources were speaking out now before Meghan’s interview on Sunday night to give her opinion on Harry and Meghan’s real life, presumably anticipating that it could be very different from what the couple can convey to Winfrey. The broadcast of the interview – the result of a two-year plan reported by Meghan and Winfrey – is being criticized as inopportune due to Prince Philip’s illness and hospitalization.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment on The times.
“Let’s just call it what it is – a smear campaign calculated on the basis of misleading and damaging misinformation.“
– Sussex Spokesperson
The newspaper also details how Meghan wore earrings at a formal dinner in 2018 that was a wedding gift from Saudi Arabian prince Mohammed bin Salman, which the CIA concluded last week to have ordered the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Dinner came three weeks after Khashoggi was killed. At the time, Meghan said the earrings were borrowed. “The Duchess does not deny that this is what she said, despite knowing its origin”, The times reported.
In a statement to The times, a Sussex spokesman said of the various allegations: “Let’s just call this what it is – a smear campaign calculated on the basis of misleading and damaging misinformation. We are disappointed to see this defamatory portrait of the Duchess of Sussex receiving credibility through the media. It is no coincidence that distorted accusations of several years aimed at undermining the Duchess are being reported to the British media shortly before she and the Duke have spoken openly and honestly about their experience in recent years.
“In a detailed legal letter of refutation for The times, we deal with these defamatory claims in full, including spurious allegations about 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 bullied and is deeply committed to supporting those who have gone through pain and trauma. She is determined to continue her work building compassion around the world and will continue to strive to set an example of doing what is right and doing what is good. “