Meghan Bullying Accusation Reporter Responds to Account of Her Tears

Meghan Markle's former staff leaked allegations she had bullied two PAs to show that "she was not the only victim," a royal author told Newsweek.

Valentine Low broke the story that Meghan had been accused of bullying by former Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf in March 2021, days before her Oprah Winfrey interview.

At the time, a spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex described the account as a "a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation" while Prince Harry said he woke up to find Meghan "crying into her pillow."

Since then, Low has released a book, Courtiers, published by Headline Books on October 6, dealing with the royal staff who work behind the scenes of what Prince Harry and Meghan termed "the institution."

Low told Newsweek: "The people who came to me wanted to do so because they wanted that story told and they wanted it told before Oprah because Oprah was a few days off. Once Oprah came out, that would be Meghan's truth out there.

"And anything you said against Meghan after that would come across as sour grapes. It would be too late and nobody would be interested in what you had to say.

"These were people who felt they had suffered while working for Meghan. There is a perfectly valid argument that Meghan suffered in her time in the royal family but these were other people saying she was not the only victim.

"Other people were victims too, and it was very important to get that message out before Oprah to say 'listen, there's more than one story here.' There's more than one narrative. So it's not cynical, it's valid."

The centerpiece of Low's coverage was an email sent by Knauf to a superior, which read: "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 [name removed] was totally unacceptable."

"The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights," Knauf continued. "She is bullying Y [name removed] and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behavior towards Y [name removed]."

The account prompted a strongly worded rebuttal from Meghan's team but the full impact on the duchess was not made public until two months later in May, 2021, after the Oprah Winfrey interview had already aired.

Prince Harry told mental health docu-series The Me You Can't See: "Before the Oprah interview had aired, because of [the media's] headlines, and that combined effort of the firm and the media to smear her, I was woken up in the middle of the night to her crying in her pillow because she doesn't want to wake me up because I'm already carrying too much.

"That's heartbreaking. I held her, we talked, she cried, and she cried, and she cried."

Low said: "I think a lot of tears have been shed on all sides over the last couple of years, it wouldn't have been my intention to cause more tears to be shed."

"I have some sympathy for Meghan," he added. "Her pain, we kind of have to listen to that. The palace did make mistakes. Although they did go out of their way to help her, also as a wider institution they didn't recognize the signs that things were going badly wrong early enough and didn't do anything about it."

Low's book describes how relations between Meghan and her staff unraveled in part on a tour of Australia and the South Pacific in October 2018.

He said his own coverage of that tour was positive about Meghan, citing one specific story in which he framed her as a benefit to the monarchy.

He said: "I wrote a very positive piece about how she was a breath of fresh air in the royal family and reshaping how a royal consort, a royal wife as it were, could fill the role. And I meant it. I thought Meghan had a lot of promise, I thought she was great.

"I also thought she should have carried on acting because I thought that would have been a brilliantly revolutionary way of saying I can still keep my career even if it's acting but she chose not to and that's fine.

"I thought Meghan was really interesting and a breath of fresh air and could have helped reshape the royal family for the 21st century.

"I think it is a pity that it all went wrong. I think clearly there was no way to keep on in the royal family, what they wanted was so different there was no way for the two sides to meet."

While his book contains criticisms of both the Meghan and Harry, who was also described by palace staff quoted as a bully, Low says the Sussex exit could have been "amicable."

He said: "If this had been handled better this could have been an amicable divorce and there wouldn't have been all this pain, and they could have gone off to America and done whatever they liked in their new life and there wouldn't have been all this pain and hurt, and that's what I think is a shame."

At the time the bullying allegation first became public, a Sussex spokesperson said: "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."