Meghan ‘set up photo ops with paparazzi’
... so did they co-operate with book’s authors?
‘Their love was real and feelings genuine’
MEGHAN Markle set up paparazzi pictures while she was working as an actress and before dating Prince Harry, it was claimed last night.
The Suits star allegedly told photographers where she would be so they could get pictures and ‘let info slip out to the press’, the bombshell biography claims. Recalling the moment the couple’s relationship became public in October 2016 while they were in Toronto, it claims they were ‘tipped off’ that a tabloid was planning to run the story. There is no suggestion that Meghan was involved in the pair’s relationship becoming public. The book states: ‘The following day Meghan felt somewhat bittersweet. On the one hand, she was disappointed that their secret was out. ‘It was no longer just the two of them. While Meghan, before she met Harry, had occasionally set up a paparazzi photo here and there or let info slip out to the press, she did everything in her power to protect the privacy of her relationship with the prince. ‘She knew keeping things quiet meant they could get to know each other without pressure or further worries that came from reporters covering their romance.’ But it added there was ‘also a part of her that was relieved’. The claims about Meghan’s previous relationship with the media come amid questions over the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s involvement with the book. The couple have denied they sat down with authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand to be interviewed for the biography – serialised in The Times and Sunday Times – that lays bare their battle with the royals.
But its pages contain intimate anecdotes which would only be known by those closest to them. In one excerpt, the authors tell how the night before her wedding, Meghan was ‘sitting in a bath... FaceTiming with a friend’.
Another section describes the ‘perfect [yoga] pose’ she stretched her body into after discussing marriage with Harry while on holiday in Africa.
It also reveals texts between the couple and the details of the meal eaten by the prince and the Queen when they met at Windsor for a final heart-to-heart.
In another extract, a source close to the couple defends the fast pace of their relationship, saying: ‘Their love was real and their feelings for each other were genuine. Everything else was noise.’ The comment echoes Meghan’s own words from an interview in Vanity Fair in 2017 when she discussed the impact of her relationship with Harry.
‘The people who are close to me anchor me in knowing who I am. The rest is noise,’ she said.
Some commentators have drawn comparisons to Andrew Morton’s biography of Diana, the late Princess of Wales.
The book was criticised on publication but it later emerged that Diana was the source.
The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter told the Mail: ‘I think it has their fingerprints all over it. We had a similar scenario in 1992 when Diana swore blind she hadn’t helped Andrew Morton and yet a year later it came out that she had indirectly helped him so history is repeating itself.
‘There are too many things that we have seen in the serialisation that could only come from the horse’s mouth, like deciding to gatecrash Sandringram when they landed from Canada.
‘Who would know about that? Who would know about sitting down for tea with the Queen? Other than that, it doesn’t really tell us much that we don’t already know.’ As Royal Editor at Large for Harper’s Bazaar, Mr Scobie has spoken about his links to the couple and has made no secret of his admiration for them.
Describing the Sussexes’ ‘farewell tour’ in February and March before they left the UK, he told how he had been ‘struck’ by how ‘knowledgeable’ Prince Harry was on environmental issues.
He was also one of only three journalists invited to cover Meghan’s penultimate royal engagement at Buckingham Palace when he described hugging her. In an interview, Mr Scobie was pressed over whether he did a ‘sit down’ interview with the couple. ‘The book doesn’t claim to have any interviews with Harry and Meghan. And nor do we,’ he said.
Asked if there had been an offthe-record discussion, he replied: ‘No, and I think that you can tell from the reporting, my time around the couple is enough for me to know my subjects.’
The authors say they spoke to more than 100 sources, including ‘close friends and palace staff (past and present)’ and any information has ‘at least two sources’.