The Duke and Duchess of Sussex tied the knot in 2018 in a lavish ceremony watched by millions. The public started to loveย Meghan Marke, but just two years into the family, the couple decided to leave Britain and move to the States.
On January 8, 2020, the couple announced the news on their official Instagram account.
โWe intend to step back as โseniorโ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen,โ the couple wrote.
โWe now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honor our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.โ
The Queen appeared to be fine with Harry and Meghanโs decision, but it was then-prince Charles who got angry and had a hard time accepting his sonโs act.
Things turned even more heated after the couple gaveย Oprahย the infamous interview during which they accused the family of a number of things. Among the rest, they claimed that a senior royal questioned the skin color of then unborn Archie, and Meghan was denied any help when she opened up about her mental struggles.
These accusations didnโt stop there. Harry appeared on theย Armchair Expertย podcast where he claimed that Prince Charles handed down a โcycleโ of โgenetic pain and suffering,โ that he was trying to break.
At the time, both Harry and Meghan refused to reveal the name of the senior royal in question, but now acclaimed author Christopher Andersen wrote in his bookย Brothers and Wives: Inside the Private Lives of William, Kate, Harry, and Meghanย that it was prince Charles who made the โinnocentโ comment regarding Archie.
โThey wouldnโt reveal who it was. Harry later said the comment didnโt come from the Queen or Prince Philip. Well, I found that it was a very innocent comment made by Prince Charles,โ Andersen claimed.
โHe turned to Camilla and said, โI wonder what the kids are going to look like.โ โYou know, hair color, eye color, complexion. It wasnโt racially motivated or anything. But the men in gray who run things behind the scenes at the palaces spun it into something more sinister-sounding,โ he added.
โHarry was upset and asked Charles and William what was going on. They told him, โYouโre overreacting; youโre being oversensitive. Letโs move on.โ And it just added fuel to the fire. There was a lot of tension already, and that just made it so much worse.โ
Later on, the couple released a Netflix documentary series and Harry published his best-sellingย all-tell memoirย Spare.
The final episode of the series featured the couple on a plane to California, with Harry telling his then-baby Archie to say hi and putting his finger on the mouth as a sign of โshhh,โ while Meghan could be heard telling her son that they go where mommy is from.
And although this image portrayed them as both free and happy family, royal experts claim just the opposite. What the Sussexes referred to as to โthe freedom flight,โ was allegedly far from one according to body language expert Darren Stanton who believes the couple was in a state of panic.
โThere was a real sense of urgency in both Harry and Meghanโs faces as they flew to California. Even though they were thousands of feet above the ground, they both lowered their voices as if they didnโt want to be heard,โ Stanton said in December, shortly after the Netflix documentary episode was released.
โThe couple were obviously in a state of panic to get out of Canada, where they felt exposed. Both Meghan and Harry looked really tired and stressed, while Meghanโs mother also showed empathy for the situation.โ
The body language expert concluded: โThe fact that Harry called it a โfreedom flightโ truly explains his mindset at the time. He very much saw it as a cat-and-mouse game, which was a time-sensitive operation.โ
โHe seems a lot more settled and relaxed in the rest of the documentary compared to the scene of them on the plane. It was very much a turbulent period for Harry and Meghan.โ
Meghanย claimed during several occasions that she was mistreated by her husbandโs family and the media, but apparently, she made her staff feel mistreated as well.
In 2021,ย The Timesย published a report stating that multiple royal aides had approached the newspaper, alleging that one ofย Meghan Markleโs former aids had filed a bullying complaint against the Duchess during her time at Kensington Palace with Prince Harry.
The complaint accused Meghan of bullying two personal assistants, resulting in their departure from the royal household. The allegations came to light through an email sent by Jason Knauf, who was serving as the acting communications secretary at Kensington Palace at the time.
According toย The Times, Knauf addressed his concerns in an email to Prince Williamโs private secretary.
โI am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights,โ Knauff wrote.
โShe is bullying (name removed) and seeking to undermine her confidence.โ
A month later, Knauf submitted his resignation. Around the same time, Meghan addressed the accusations and expressed sadness regarding the matter. Despite Harry and Meghan asserting that the accusations were a โwholly false narrative,โ Buckingham Palace opted to investigate the concerns.
Following an investigation, the palaceโs human resources policy had been updated but no details regarding the exact changes were released.
In 2022, in her bookย Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown,ย author Valentine Lowย revealed bombshell allegations, quoting sources saying how Meghan Markle screamed at her ex-staffers, verbally attacking them on several occasions.
โThere were a lot of broken people,โ an insider told Low. โYoung women were broken by their behaviour.โ
Low recounted an incident where Markle sharply criticized a young female worker in front of their colleagues.
โDonโt worry. If there was literally anyone else I could ask to do this, I would be asking them instead of you,โ Meghan allegedly told the worker.
As per the same author, another staffer was โcompletely destroyedโ after working with Meghan.
Yet another person working for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said, โEvery 10 minutes I had to go outside to be screamed at by her and Harry. It was, โI canโt believe youโve done this. Youโve let me down. What were you thinking?โ It went on for a couple of hours.โ
Harry touched on the allegations inย his memoir, acknowledging that โmore than once a staff member slumped across their desk and wept.โ
โShe was also said to have driven our assistant to quit; in fact that assistant was asked to resign by Palace HR after we showed them evidence sheโd traded on her position with Meg to get freebies. But because we couldnโt speak publicly about the reasons for the assistantโs departure, rumors filled the void.โ
Harry added that there was โfrequent bickering around the officeโ in which โsides were taken: Team Cambridge versus Team Sussex,โ
He continued: โRivalry, jealousy, competing agendasโit all poisoned the atmosphere. It didnโt help that everyone was working around the clock. There were so many demands from the press, such a constant stream of errors that needed clearing up, and we didnโt have nearly enough people or resources.โ
Although the topic of the allegations against Harry and Meghan seemed to faded away, late Queen Elizabeth IIโs former press secretary, Samantha Cohen, has decided to speak.
Stating she was heavily involved in the investigations by the Palace but not sharing any specifics, Cohen said the Palace couldnโt find any replacement aides for Harry and Meghan because of high staff turnover.
โI was only supposed to stay for six months but stayed for 18 โ we couldnโt find a replacement for me and when we did, we took them on tour to Africa with Harry and Meghan to show them the ropes, but they left (quit) as well while in Africa,โ Samantha Cohen said.
According to Valentine Lowโs book, Cohen was also screamed at by the couple before and during the flight to Australia for their 2018 tour.
โSam always made clear that it was like working for a couple of teenagers. They were impossible and pushed her to the limit. She was miserable,โ a friend of Cohen told the author.
โShe was constantly having to battle on Harry and Meghanโs behalf, while taking all this abuse from them.โ
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