Prince Harry's Theory Royals Were Jealous of Meghan Slammed by Biographer

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were both viewed as bullies by their staff and the theory the royals were jealous of Meghan is "risible," according to a royal author.

Valentine Low's new book Courtiers charts the breakdown of relations between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the staff that Meghan was famously accused of bullying in an internal email sent by Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf in October 2018. Meghan denied the allegation.

The message was leaked to Low, days before the Sussexes' Oprah Winfrey interview in March 2021, and Harry said it left Meghan crying into her pillow.

It also served as a counterpoint to the couple's narrative about the reasons for their royal exit, and Low told Newsweek there are "linked threads" between the two competing accounts.

Harry told Oprah how King Charles III, Prince William and Kate Middleton "were really welcoming," but added that "it really changed" after an October 2018 tour of Australia when they got to see "how incredible she is at the job."

Courtiers says that, on the same tour, staff were screamed at or reduced to tears by the duchess.

Low said: "I think what happened on the tour did not improve relations within the institution in general, their treatment of staff on tour."

He added: "The idea that the rest of the royal family were jealous of their success in Australia strikes me as risible."

Newsweek approached representatives of the duke and duchess for comment.

Knauf's email accused Meghan of bullying two PAs out of the household and was sent to Prince William's then-private secretary, Simon Case, in October 2018 after the couple had returned to Britain.

Low is the royal correspondent for the U.K. newspaper The Times, which first published extracts of that email in the days before Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview.

The following month, in November 2018, came a now-infamous news story in The Daily Telegraph by veteran royal writer Camilla Tominey, who said Meghan had made Kate cry at a bridesmaid's dress fitting, days before the Sussexes' wedding in May 2018. The story was attributed to an anonymous source.

Low said: "I think there are linked threads, obviously the fact that the bullying allegation was made, that it went to Simon Case, that it went to HR, that it went back to Harry—that didn't improve the Sussexes' relations with the rest of the institution.

"I think that also Camilla Tominey's reporting of the 'tears' incident was November, so that sparked off a long-running thing, Meghan's resentment that this was never corrected."

Harry and Meghan's account to Oprah made no mention of the allegations of bullying by staff but also cited the Australia tour as a turning point.

The duke told CBS: "You know, my father, my brother, Kate and all the rest of the family, they were really welcoming. But it really changed after the Australia tour, after our South Pacific tour."

Meghan added: "That's when we announced we were pregnant with Archie. That was our first tour."

"But," Harry said, "it was also the first time that the family got to see how incredible she is at the job. And that brought back memories."

The implication appeared to be that Harry was suggesting royal jealousy of Meghan's performance on tour was the reason for the change in relations.

Meghan herself cited the allegations she made Kate cry as a "turning point," adding: "That's when everything changed."

Meghan described how in January 2019, two months later, she told Harry she was experiencing suicidal thoughts amid a wave of hostile media coverage.

At the time, Meghan wanted Kensington Palace to issue an on-the-record denial of the story about Kate crying, but staff would not do so.

Low said: "I don't think that any royal press office would ever have done that. If I was employed as a royal press officer, I wouldn't have put out anything official correcting that. I might have had a quiet word with people, saying, 'I wouldn't necessarily be keen on following up that story if I was you.' Try to guide away from it.

"But I don't think any press office with any sense would put out a statement saying he didn't make her cry," said Low. "It keeps the story going. It fans the flames, so a one-day story becomes a three-day story. If you start getting involved in spats between individual members of the royal family, that's a very dangerous road to go down."

Meghan's Archetypes podcast also indirectly addresses the bullying allegations without direct reference to them.

A common theme throughout Archetypes is the way women are often criticized for demanding behaviour that men are praised for, as overly ambitious, as divas or as dragon ladies.

Low, however, said that Prince Harry was also viewed as a bully by Kensington Palace staff who worked for the couple at the time.

"Harry gets tarred with the same brush. There's no sexism there. There's a quote in my book which says very explicitly they are both bullies," Low said.

"It was people working for Meghan who were being reduced to tears," said Low. "It was people saying—before an encounter with Meghan that they were worried about, frightened about—'I'm shaking with fear,' 'I feel terrified,' 'I feel sick.'

"That's direct evidence of the effect that her behavior had on the people working for her. They may also have been working for Harry, but it's her behavior.

"I talk about how appalling [Prince] Andrew is to people. I think he can be [a bully]," Low added. "If the accounts we've heard are to be believed, they both behaved appallingly."

For his part, Low says he can only quote his sources and is not able to say personally whether Meghan is a bully.

He also told Newsweek that the allegations may not have stood up to a formal disciplinary investigation, had there ever been one, although this would have been impossible as royals are not employees of the palace, so they are not subject to HR procedures.

Low said: "To put it mildly, she's a demanding person with a certain way of treating people.

"She didn't want to have to deal with the little people within the office. It was the senior people only, and to have to deal with someone below a certain level was demeaning and sort of an affront to her dignity.

"Which considering it was such a small office at Kensington Palace was a crazy way of behaving. That's why she treated those people like that because that's the way she thinks it's appropriate to behave."