Meghan Markle achieved worldwide fame when she married Prince Harry. In retrospect, it seems very fitting: Meghan married the son of Princess Diana, and she ended up experiencing many of the same struggles and triumphs that Diana did.
That’s because, like Meghan, Diana was an outsider brought into the Royal Family. And like Meghan, Diana seemed to be constantly at odds with that family while navigating a sea of toxicity from British tabloids and citizens while being relatively beloved by the rest of the world.
The fact that Meghan is so beloved is what made the accusations of her bullying royal staff seem shocking and out of place. Did this really happen? If not, why would the staff make this accusation in the first place?
Now, we might finally be one step closer to getting an answer to these questions.
The original bullying rumors
We’re going to try to get to the bottom of this royal mystery. First, though, it’s important to review the original accusations.
As Sky News reports, the Times newspaper reported on a complaint made by Jason Knauf in October 2018. At the time, he was serving as a communications secretary for the Sussexes.
The complaint was relatively light on details, but it included the fact that, as Insider reports, her staff felt “humiliated” by Meghan and that working with her meant dealing with “emotional cruelty and manipulation.”
Perhaps because of the vagueness of these accusations, people were forced to come to their own conclusions. And those who already disliked Meghan imagined this to be a smoking gun proving that she was acting like a diva due to her newfound status within the Royal Family.
RELATED: Meghan Markle Calls Allegations Of Bullying A ‘Smear Campaign’
Some suspiciously convenient timing
Of course, there is more to this story than just the nature of the accusations. The complaint was made back in 2018. But we didn’t hear about it until 2021, just a few days before Meghan and Prince Harry gave their bombshell interview to Oprah Winfrey.
That interview made the Royal Family look very bad, particularly when Meghan brought up that an unnamed royal allegedly expressed concern about the skin color of her then-unborn son, Archie. Because the interview threw the Royal Family under the bus, some think that the Royal Family might have ensured that this complaint against Meghan came out to diminish her character and her credibility.
That may sound like conspiratorial thinking. But as the BBC points out, Harry has claimed that the Royal Family did little to protect himself and especially Meghan from lies and rumors in the press. And we never did get anything definitive from the investigation into this that Buckingham Palace launched.
Is it so hard to imagine that The Firm might use its tabloid influence and go into damage control mode ahead of the Oprah interview?
Meghan responds to the accusations
One of Meghan Markle’s more admirable qualities is that she isn’t afraid to fight back. She’s willing to defend her children, her husband, and herself when accusations come flying in.
So how did Meghan respond to these particular accusations? Through a spokesman, the BBC reports that Markle responded with the following statement: “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.
Continuing, he said that, “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.”
Of course, this leaves us at something of an impasse. Buckingham Palace never released the results of their investigation, and Markle denied the event outright, characterizing the reporting as an “attack on her character.” But if that is true, then what caused this accusation in the first place?
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A royal expert weighs in
Christopher Andersen is a royal expert and the author of Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan. So when we say the guy wrote the book on royal drama, we mean it!
And he took the time to comment on this alleged incident and what likely happened. As Insider reports, Andersen thinks this was more of a “culture clash” issue than Meghan actually doing any bullying. Some of this, he thinks, was the fairly inevitable result of the American Meghan interacting with the staid and proper British Royal Family.
“Particularly within the royal household they’re very indirect in the way they do things,” he said. “The kind of plain-spoken, upfront personality, distinctly American approach that Meghan has to getting things done just rubs them the wrong way.”
Interestingly, as Insider notes, two of the three staffers involved in these accusations actually retracted their statements. In addition to largely vindicating Meghan, these retractions add fuel to the fire that the original bullying report was released to smear Meghan in the press.