VALENTINE LOW recounts the effect of the couple’s frightening TV appearances and investigates the veracity of their accusations in the last excerpt from his gripping new book on how the Sussexes’ relationship with palace servants deteriorated.
The first hint that Meghan may be a victim—as well as a sister-in-law and employer who might be pretty challenging—came in an ITV documentary.
During the Sussexes’ 2019 tour of South Africa, she was interviewed by host Tom Bradby in a Johannesburg garden about her struggles adjusting to life in the limelight as a bride and a new mother. She was then questioned about the effects of all that strain on her bodily and emotional well-being.
Meghan said that it had been difficult and added, “Thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I’m OK,” while seeming vulnerable and as if she were fighting back tears. However, what’s happening behind the scenes is extremely genuine.
While William and Kate were on a visit to Pakistan that October, a screening of Bradby’s documentary was shown to the press. Unavoidably, coverage of the last day of the Cambridges’ trip was overshadowed by the ensuing publicity, which had titles like “Meghan: My Struggles.”
It appears that William and Kate’s staff was upset and saw it as an intentional effort to keep the couple out of the news. The two families’ interactions become quite tense.
Along with Meghan’s obvious suffering, the documentary also demonstrated how far away Harry and William had become.
When Bradby questioned Harry about the separation between him and William, Harry declined to refute it, instead responding, “We are definitely on separate paths at the moment. As brothers, you know that there are good and terrible days.
William, who had just returned from a trip to Pakistan, was surprised by the blunt depiction of his brother and sister-in-suffering. law’s He became aware of their predicament.
William WhatsApped his brother the day after the program aired to check if he could see him. Harry and Meghan were taken off guard by this. What ought they to do?
Harry was initially in favor. He then asked his brother who he would inform when he talked to him again.
William said that in order to free up his schedule, he would need to inform his personal secretary. Harry then ordered him to go.
He preferred to avoid seeing his brother because of fear that William’s staff might leak information about the meeting to the media. This was tragic to everyone who was aware of what was happening.
It brought to light the dysfunction that permeates so many royal relationships and the fact that members of the Royal Family don’t call each other very often. They converse instead via the equipment around them. Consequently, there is distrust and division.
In her March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan would go into further detail about her mental instability.
She discussed the strain she had experienced as a result of online harassment and negative media attention, which she had previously characterized as “nearly unsurvivable” in a podcast. It’s painful to listen to her discuss her suffering and how she didn’t want to live any longer.
Most people would assume that only the truth could have given rise to such a despairing face. Nevertheless, a string of respectable individuals who had all supported Meghan and wanted to make her position work were so frustrated that they started to assume that even her most sincere cries for assistance were part of a calculated plan with her exit in mind as the final goal. They speculate that maybe nothing the palace could do would ever be enough.
One former employee claims, “She was seeking evidence of us failing her from the beginning.” We had to demonstrate that the organization would go above and above to satisfy her.
“It seemed like she wanted to be rejected, not that it was what she wanted.”
Similar-minded employees believed that Meghan intended to leave a paper trail of proof so that, should the couple decide to quit the monarchy, she would be able to claim: “Look how they failed to support me.” They forced me to leave with no other option.
Some employees believed the couple’s indignation over what they saw as sexist and even racist news coverage was inexorably related to the issue.
The fact that Meghan had earned the nickname Duchess Difficult due to the frequent staff turnover in their home also hurt.
According to one insider, ‘In my opinion, their interpretation of not receiving institutional backing was that they were not receiving authorization to blow apart the [royal] institution’s links with the media.
Others had a hunch that Meghan ultimately intended to enrich herself. And the only way she could achieve it was to return to America while leaving her regal life in the UK behind.
Too pessimistic? Perhaps. But the sad fact is that this was what they actually thought because of how poorly Meghan’s relationships with her advisors were.
Some contend that she never really desired acceptance by the Royal Family. It might be the case.
It is also true that she might have been one of the Royal Family’s greatest assets if the institution had worked harder and if she had been more receptive to adjusting to royal life.
Her attorneys, Schillings, refute the claim that she desired rejection.
They claim that she had a “clear desire to fit in” instead.
She gave up her home nation, job, and way of life in North America in order to devote herself totally to her new position, and she worked hard to uphold that commitment.
The warnings should have been included from the start if the danger indications were.
Sam Cohen, the private secretary for the Sussexes, warned two important courtiers — the private secretaries to both Prince Charles and the Queen — that the palace would require proof of the care it had offered Harry and Meghan if things went south.
According to a source, “[Sam] was a broken record with them on that] duty of care” was vital.
However, the palace had already conceded the duty of care debate by the time Meghan made her interview to Oprah Winfrey.
Everything the palace had done to assist the couple, including providing them with a staff that would have done everything to help them thrive, was simply ignored because the duchess had hijacked the story by making it all about her mental health.
The duchess was instead able to list all the occasions the organization had let her down.
One of them was in January 2019, when she went to the palace’s head of HR and requested assistance for her mental health difficulties. She was offered a sympathetic ear but was nevertheless told to go since HR is for employee matters, not royal family members.
What was Meghan doing there in the first place given that she would have known that? The cynical response would be to leave a trail of proof. The more generous reading would be that she was so desperate that she had no idea where to turn.
The shocking allegation that Meghan made in the Oprah interview was that she went to one of the “most senior officials,” claiming she needed to receive treatment, but was told it wouldn’t be “good for the institution” instead.
Would somebody actually say it to a pregnant woman? It’s an odd concept.
It’s hard to interpret this until one hears from the other person in the room.
However, it’s still true that Meghan seems to have been in a difficult situation. Harry was aware of her pain.
However, when Oprah questioned him about why he didn’t approach his own family to request assistance for his wife, he said, “I believe I was embarrassed of confessing it to them.”
We may all relate to these emotions of guilt since talking about mental health can be challenging.
There is, however, another issue at play here.
Since its introduction alongside William and Kate in 2016, Harry has committed a lot of his attention to the Heads Together campaign, which aims to dispel the stigma associated with mental health.
Years before, after experiencing his own mental crises, he had made the decision to get therapy. Could he not have assisted his wife in doing the same?
And if he wasn’t able to, Heads Together must have introduced him to a large number of others who could have provided assistance and support. He would have known precisely where to look, who to contact, and what to do, as one knowledgeable source put it.
Meghan spoke kindly of Julia Samuel, the psychologist who had known Princess Diana and stayed close to Harry, in previous Oprah interview segments. She had “continued to be a friend and confidante,” according to Meghan. Julia Samuel would also have likely been the best person for the couple to seek assistance from.
It’s difficult to analyze Meghan’s interview with Oprah since part of it is just untrue. But it doesn’t imply that everything isn’t true.
When Meghan tells Oprah, “When I joined that family, it was the last time… that I saw my passport, my driver’s license, and my keys,” it is one of the blatantly false moments. Everything is flipped over. I stopped noticing any of it.
Along with the honeymoon, the pair had had vacations abroad in Italy, Canada, and Amsterdam in the first six months of their marriage. Meghan then traveled to Ibiza, France, Italy, and New York in 2019. (twice). Without a passport, it would have been difficult to complete all of those journeys.
I won’t go over every instance of a statement being false or misrepresented in the interview, such when she says they were wed three days earlier than expected. However, it’s useful to consider one of Meghan’s main complaints: that the palace wasn’t doing enough to defend her.
‘They were prepared to lie to protect other members of the family, but they weren’t willing to speak the truth to protect me and my husband,’ she said in an interview with Oprah.
Her primary worry was a newspaper article about Kate sobbing following Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress fitting, which occurred before the wedding.
Meghan said to Oprah that “the story with Kate”—which never happened—was quite challenging. “I believe that’s when, truly,” the speaker said.
The fact is that Meghan had grown fixated on getting the palace press office to issue a statement rejecting the report following the dress fitting.
They were equally convinced, however, that it would be a grave error to begin briefing about personal incidents pertaining to disagreements amongst Royal Family members.
In addition to not wanting to brief against other royals, they also concerned that doing so would set a precedent that would make it more difficult for them to refrain from commenting on private tittle-tattle in the future.
Additionally, it would fuel the narrative, guaranteeing that it would occupy newspaper pages for many days to come.
This turned out to be a significant area of disagreement between Meghan and her media advisors.
But Meghan went farther than just refuting the Kate-in-tears claim on Oprah. She said that the opposite really occurred.
I started crying because she was unhappy about something having to do with flower girl outfits, and it truly wounded my emotions.
It was not a pretty performance: Meghan had complained for months about how the press had damaged her image, and now she was doing the same to Kate, who was obviously never going to reply.
Meghan had attempted to get the press office to inform journalists about a concern before the report of Kate’s tears broke. The second included a staff member who left and whose settlement agreement included a non-disclosure clause.
The Sussexes repeatedly attempted to get their communications secretary Jason Knauf to brief journalists on what Meghan believed to be the reason for the employee’s departure, despite the fact that the employee was required by law to remain silent. The Sussexes claim they were unaware of the non-disclosure agreement.
Knauf declined because he didn’t agree with Meghan’s version of what happened. He also believed that the person should not have been briefed.
There are still unanswered concerns about the drama of Harry and Meghan’s conflict with the Royal Family.
Did the Queen’s private secretary Edward Young and Prince Charles’ private secretary Clive Alderton know that Meghan and Harry were becoming more unhappy?
Or did they have their heads buried in the sand? Did they let their personal animosity for Meghan to blind them to the glaring dangers that awaited them?
According to a former insider of the palace, the handling of the unfolding situation was “beyond incompetence.”
The source said that Meghan believed she would become the UK’s Beyoncé. She would get such respect if she were a member of the Royal Family.
What she found was that there were so many absurd laws that she was unable to even carry out the basic functions of a private person.
It was necessary for the decision-makers to gather around a table and discuss a course of action. What is required of you to feel better? What more can we offer?
Harry and Meghan’s worsening friendship with Young and Alderton didn’t help the issue.
According to reports, Meghan saw the Queen’s private secretary as “an uncompromising, bureaucratic character,” and Harry shared her opinion of the two senior courtiers.
Another perspective is that nothing could have prevented the crisis. Just too much distance between the two sides.
Importantly, it was the Queen who held the position that they could not be permitted to do part-time official tasks unless they were willing to abide by the constraints that apply to working members of the Royal Family.
The Sussexes, however, want the freedom to engage in American politics as well as earn money. On that issue, there was no way to come to a consensus.
One more opinion on this, from a surprise source: maybe the Sussexes’ departure from the nation and the Royal Family wasn’t the total catastrophe that many people believe it to have been.
‘Part of me feels Meghan did Harry the greatest gift anybody could do, which was to remove him out of the Royal Family, since he was extremely miserable in the final few of years of his working life,’ said one courtier who knows Harry and is still outraged about what he and Meghan did.
We were aware of his discontent but were unsure of how to address it. She arrived and discovered the answer.
Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind The Crown, by Valentine Low, will be released by Headline on Thursday for £20. Adapted by Corinna Honan. Visit mailshop.co.uk/books or phone 020 3176 2937 to place an order for a copy for £18 (offer available until October 15, 22; UK P&P is free on purchases over £20).
The image that conveys to Harry and Meghan that there is no turning back: According to RICHARD KAY, the first official photograph of King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla, together with William and Kate, exudes a sense of closure.
Yesterday, the first official photograph of King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla was being admired and admired all over the globe.
Affection because William and Kate, the new Prince and Princess of Wales, are at his side, and interest because we can have a peek of the monarchy’s present and future. Rarely has Charles been so at ease in a formal image.
Researchers will look for hints concerning the Royal Family’s long-term security as well as the institution that they represent, as well as the composition and historical context of the event.
The image, which features the new sovereign with his son and heir and King George III, the longest-reigning male monarch in British history, looming in the background, is obviously rife with symbolism.
The fact that the photo was shot on the day of the Queen’s burial, just before our four most senior royals were set to hold a large banquet at Buckingham Palace for visiting Heads of State—including US Vice President Joe Biden—may be even more surprising.
If there was a lesson to be taken away from this, it was that monarchies must continue to carry out their duties while suffering considerable personal loss.
The public mourning for the Queen, who for them was a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother in addition to the monarch, served as a reminder that the royals are constantly on duty, even when they had to muster every ounce of restraint.
According to palace insiders, the photo was shot to commemorate a “historic event” for the family. But there was more on exhibit here than simply history.
Surprisingly, all four of them have calm body language. It expresses friendliness and acceptance. Although the new King is a step closer to the camera and has an air of effortless confidence, William and Kate, who are both taller, may physically dominate.
For once, there aren’t any of the cuff-tugging gestures and general restlessness that can be seen in several formal photographs.
The other hand is carelessly inserted into his jacket pocket while the other rests securely behind Camilla’s back.
The most telling thing about him, though, is the hint of a smile. It is the expression of a guy who, rather than being intimidated by what lies ahead, finds inspiration in it.
There is also another important element at play here. It also gives a not-so-subtle nod to his desires for a more adaptable and relevant monarchy, which he believes will be achieved by reducing its size. Some may question whether this is actually cutting to the bone rather than just slimming down. The absence of the King’s younger son is the silent elephant in the room.
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan would have expected to be a member of this family group three years ago.
In fact, a similar image was released to commemorate the then-Prince of Wales’ 70th birthday just four years ago.
But the harmony and joy that emanated from that picture evaporated after a few months.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are located in sunny California, so it is not difficult to anticipate how this photograph would be received there. Will it only serve to remind them of the reasons they initially decided to leave the family, or will it exacerbate their already-existing feelings of exclusion and exile?
The fact that the photo was shot when the couple was still in Britain and a few days before they saw their children Archie and Lilibet at home cannot possibly be a coincidence. Therefore, there must be just another indication that they will never again play the dominant role in royal life.
They did not want to share the limelight, which was one of the reasons they first made the decision to leave.
They are at the center of their own manufacturing in America. However, there is a new royal order in Britain that centers on four individuals rather than six.
This image has a sense of finality that implies there is no turning back for a pair who may have been at the center of monarchy but are now on the periphery of it.
Is it the poison to their souls that Prince Andrew’s first exclusion from the Palace balcony was? It most definitely feels like that.
When the Queen addressed the country for her Christmas message throughout the years, she often had pictures of herself taken around her. In 2019, she did so with images of Prince George, William, and her own father, along with Charles and William, on her desk. The past, present, and future of monarchy, it declared, were all here. Only a few weeks later, Harry allegedly severed ties with the family due to his exclusion.
Instead of using images, King Charles deliberately chose the wall art of his new royal residence for this picture. Another tribute to the stability – and preservation – of monarchy was the choice of a 60-year-reigning king as the background.
Prince Harry would be well to learn this lesson since every royal image has a backstory.