What I was reporting about the Duchess of Sussex seven years ago appears as relevant as ever

What should we make of claims in Vanity Fair that podcast staff needed “long term therapy” or took extended breaks from work after working with the Duchess of Sussex?

A lengthy 8,000 word cover story in the latest edition of the high profile US magazine portrays Meghan, 43, as a ruthless boss who treats those who fail to impress her with contempt.

One person is quoted as saying that this manifested as “undermining”, adding: “It’s talking behind your back. It’s gnawing at your sense of self. Really, like, Mean Girls-teenager.” Another says: “I left because I couldn’t live with myself any more,” adding: “You don’t tell the couple ‘no’.”

A third reports: “She’s constantly playing checkers – I’m not even going to say chess – but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board.

“And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment.”

According to Vanity Fair, one former employee who was excited to begin working with the couple on media projects did not believe reports that Meghan had bullied palace aides.

After working with her, this person realised, “Oh, any given Tuesday, this happened,” it is alleged.

Suffice to say, this is not the first time I have heard that both Meghan and Harry, 40, were tricky to work for. As I reported in the aftermath of Megxit in 2020 – palace staff had taken to nicknaming them “Duchess Difficult” and “The Hostage”.

As an aide warned me at the time in no uncertain terms: “She’s not just difficult, she’s dangerous”.

It was in the autumn of 2018 – around six months after Harry and Meghan’s fairytale wedding – when I first got wind of the happy couple’s diva-ish behaviour.

The discovery that the Princess of Wales had been left in tears following a bridesmaids dress fitting for her daughter, Princess Charlotte appeared to be just the tip of the iceberg. Tantrums had also allegedly been thrown about tiaras, the aroma inside St George’s Chapel – and, as I later discovered, Kate wearing Meghan’s favourite designer’s dresses.

Although Meghan would later dispute the bridesmaid dress tears story during her March 2021 bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey – claiming it was Kate who had made her cry – the fallout with her sister-in-law appeared to be emblematic of something bigger.

By then we had discovered that around the time I wrote the bridesmaid dress tears story, Jason Knauf, then the couple’s communications secretary, had lodged a bullying complaint claiming Meghan had driven two personal assistants out of the household and was undermining the confidence of a third staff member.

A spokesman for the Sussexes claimed they were the victims of a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation. Meghan’s lawyer, Jenny Afia, later claimed the word “bullying” had been used “too casually”. She added: “What bullying actually means is improperly using power repeatedly and deliberately to hurt someone, physically or emotionally. The Duchess of Sussex absolutely denies ever doing that.”

Yet as multiple sources have told me, Meghan wasn’t someone who screamed and shouted. It was much more subtle than that. As the Vanity Fair piece suggests: “You can be yelled at even if somebody doesn’t raise their voice”.

One former employee told me: “Meghan has a habit of using a whisper shout, so when Harry is in the room, he just hears her talking normally and doesn’t understand why people describe her as aggressive.

“His default response is always ‘Meghan is misunderstood’.

“She’d throw around phrases like ‘lack of accountability’, ‘disappointment’ or ‘we know what you did, and yet we still decided to support you’. But when staff tried to get clarity, asking what exactly they had done wrong, she’d dismiss them with lines like, ‘I think it’s best we keep it to ourselves and not advertise it in front of the team’, ‘We’re here to protect you, not throw you under the bus’.”

I was branded a “racist”, a “liar” and even received death threats for challenging Meghan’s truth, but it seems other people’s truth may finally be catching up with Meghan.