Meghan Markle gives her staff gifts including dog leashes and skincare products, and is such a good boss that she makes them feel like seeds being watered or much-loved children.
That, at least, is the case according to extraordinary claims made to Us Weekly Tuesday, after The Hollywood Reporter claimed Meghan was a “dictator in high heels” who “belittles” people and had reduced “grown men to tears.” Sources close to the couple denied the story as a “fabrication” to The Daily Beast last week.
In a bizarre intervention Tuesday, a carefully curated selection of former and current staffers talked to Us Weekly to heap praise on the couple.
The report included some words from Prince Harry’s former Chief of Staff, Josh Kettler, who notoriously parted company with Harry after just three months in the role.
Kettler—who, needless to say, did not elaborate on why he actually left the couple’s employ—said he was “warmly welcomed” by the couple, adding: “They are dedicated and hardworking. It was impressive to witness.”
Another former chief of staff, Catherine St-Laurent, told Us: “The time I spent working with Prince Harry and Meghan was incredibly meaningful to me.”
Ben Browning, a content chief who masterminded the Harry & Meghan documentary on Netflix before leaving for another position said his experience, “was positive and supportive,” adding that he remained friends with the couple.
If these tributes might seem to come cynics not exactly gushing, those still on the payroll were gratifyingly more forthcoming.
Ashley Hansen, Harry and Meghan’s global press secretary and the head of communications for Archewell, was particularly flattering to the couple, saying that when she asked for time off work for surgery, “I was met with the kind of concern and care a parent would express if it were their own child.”
She was sent flowers and care packages, “But most profoundly to me, Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support,” she adds. “It meant so much to him and even more to me. You don’t realize how much that kind of kindness and thought means until you need it.”
Cynics might note that true as this may be, as global head of press, Hansen’s actual job is to make the couple look good in the media.
“Harry and Meghan picked the best of the best from every field and watered the seeds for them to flourish.”
— Staff member
However, it’s the anonymous current and former staffers who reserved the warmest praise for Meghan, with one declaring: “Harry and Meghan picked the best of the best from every field and watered the seeds for them to flourish.”
One current team member revealed: “We’re planning a karaoke night, because we have two people getting married on the team.”
Acts of wholesome kindness seem to be a signature move by the couple according to this account: fresh eggs from their hens, and bunches of flowers and fruit are disbursed to staff paying house calls, and one former staffer says that when she adopted a dog, “The next day, I had a luxury brand leash and new collar on my doorstep.”
Another anonymous employees said: “Meghan will do things like, ‘You mentioned on the call your skin is bothering you, I put together a kit for you.’”
This may all come as something of a shock to Jason Knauf, who was press secretary to Meghan when she was a royal.
Knauf wrote in a 2018 letter to Simon Case, then Prince William’s private secretary: “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 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 duchess denied bullying and accused the Times of perpetrating a smear on her. The revelations were published in the Times just days before Meghan’s much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey was transmitted.
Author Valentine Low went further in his book, Courtiers, citing an unnamed former staffer as saying: “You could not escape them. There were no lines or boundaries—it was last thing at night, first thing in the morning.”
The source added: “Every ten minutes, I had to go outside to be screamed at by her and Harry. It was, ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this. You’ve let me down. What were you thinking?’ It went on for a couple of hours.”
Buckingham Palace subsequently ordered a report on bullying in the palace—but its findings remain unknown as it was never published.
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