‘DAMP SQUIB’ BOOK CLAIMS WON’T ROCK ROYAL FAMILY
BUT WHO DID CALL MEGHAN ‘HARRY’S SHOWGIRL’..?
PRINCE William’s behaviour towards Meghan led to a rift between him and Harry, it was claimed last night – and that the Duchess had been referred to as “Harry’s showgirl” by a senior royal.
When William sat down to talk about Meghan, sources said he told Harry: “Don’t feel you need to rush this. Take as much time as you need to get to know this girl.”
The authors of Finding Freedom, said this was taken as snobbishness.
They write: “During his 10-year career in the military, outside the royal bubble, he had learnt not to make snap judgments about people based on their accent, education, ethnicity, class or profession.”
The book claims another friend added: “Harry could see through William’s words. He was being a snob.”
Other family members reportedly questioned the speed of the relationship.
It was claimed in newspaper extracts that one senior royal referred to Meghan as “Harry’s showgirl” while another said: “She comes with a lot of baggage”.
A courtier was reportedly overheard saying: “There’s just something about her I don’t trust.”
The revelations came as royal experts say the Duke and Duchess of Sussex “shot themselves in the foot” following claims that they quit after being forced to take a backseat to more senior royals.
The book describes how the couple felt marginalised as others were given the plum jobs, while Palace officials failed to support them when they were criticised.
But experts called the book, serialised this weekend in the Times and Sunday Times, a “damp squib” more damaging to the couple than the Royal Family and they were “the architects of their own misfortune”. The book, by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, says the couple were “propelling the monarchy to new heights around the world”. But it also says the Queen was hurt and “blind-sided” by her grandson’s surprise announcement he was to leave “The Firm” through his website in January.
The authors said the book was a detailed account of how over the past four years Harry and Meghan grew increasingly frustrated at being overshadowed by Prince William and Kate and having to take a backseat to other royals.
It described a culture of increasing tension and how the Sussexes believed courtiers, dubbed “vipers”, in other royal households were leaking stories about them.
The book also alleges they were undermined because Palace officials feared they were more popular than Prince Charles, the Cambridges and even the Queen.
It goes on to accuse William and Kate of freezing out the couple – a bitterness said to be evident during the Commonwealth Service in March when they were snubbed.
At one point Harry and Meghan were said to be so desperate to discuss their situation with the Queen that they considered seeing her “unannounced” but feared it would have “ruffled feathers”.
But royal writer Margaret Holder believes quitting was an own goal for the Sussexes. She said: “Meghan may not have understood but Harry knew from the cradle that priority is given to the line of succession.
“Meghan wanted to impress her own Americanised ‘brand’ on a thousand-yearold institution. It didn’t work, so they quit.
‘A lot of hype...this book is a damp squib’
Now Harry and Meghan may well have burned their bridges, wiping out any chance of a return to the fold.”
Royal biographer Hugo Vickers said the royal household “don’t have anything to worry about – a few snide remarks but not directed at anyone in particular, and I don’t think it will have much effect, to be honest.
“There had been a lot of hype about this book and it’s rather a damp squib.”
Speaking on Sky News, he added: “Really, they have been shooting themselves in the foot with one statement after
another. The other members of the family have buckled down under Covid and they’ve done a pretty good job in inspiring the nation and talking to people and helping in various different ways.
“What a pity Prince Harry couldn’t have been here. Instead he’s secreted in a $15million mansion in LA when everyone else has buckled down.”
The Sussexes deny involvement with the book but historian Kate Williams noted the authors had “spoken to people who are close to Harry and Meghan because there
are lots of reports about how Harry feels and some of them are really moving”. She said that “it does seem that friends who are close to them did give them words”.
Last night royal author Andrew Morton, who worked with Princess Diana, on her biography, Diana: Her True Story, tweeted: “Take out Harry and insert Diana and you have royal groundhog day.”
Author Nigel Cawthorne added the rift between the brothers was history repeating itself. He said: “The falling out between the Sussexes and Cambridges is a carbon copy of what happened with the Wales and Yorks. Initially the couples got along famously and then tempers flared between the princes, their wives and their parents. Harry and Meghan were slightly more naive than the Yorks.”
Harry, 35, and Meghan, 38, live in Los Angeles with 14-month-old son Archie, after ending royal duties in March.
Their wedding in Windsor in 2018 was watched by 50 million in the UK and US alone but the book claimed the couple felt patronised and cut adrift by the family. The authors wrote: “There were just a handful of people working at the Palace they could trust.”
A statement from the couple said: “This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”
● Finding Freedom: Harry And Meghan And The Making Of A Modern Royal Family is due to be published next month.