Palace delays spark ‘cover-up’ questions
BUCKINGHAM Palace chiefs face growing questions over whether they “covered up” allegations of bullying to protect Meghan Markle.
MPs and legal experts said the 18-month delay in launching a probe into allegations of mistreatment could be seen as “suspicious”.
Sources claim more than 10 aides are already lined up to give evidence over allegations two senior members of staff were bullied by the Duchess.
The Palace wants to see if “lessons can be learned” from the handling of the complaints.
It comes as Princess
Diana’s former solicitor,
Suzanne Mckie QC – who represented Diana in 1996 when she paid an undisclosed sum to a sacked maid – told the Sunday Mirror that staff
“could bring a personal injury claim if they suffered psychiatric injuries as a consequence of the bullying”.
This week it emerged former communications chief Jason Knauf emailed Prince William’s private secretary Simon Case – now head of the civil service – in October 2018.
Mr Case forwarded the message to Samantha Carruthers, then-head of HR for Prince William and Prince Charles. In his email, Mr Knauf said Ms Carruthers “agreed with me on all counts that the situation was very serious”, but added: “I remain concerned that nothing will be done.”
Harry reportedly “pleaded” with
Mr Knauf not to pursue the allegations –although lawyers for Harry and Meghan have denied this.
The alleged bullying victims said they were reduced to tears, while another aide, fearing a confrontation with Meghan, apparently told a colleague: “I can’t stop shaking.”
Another ex-employee alleged they had been personally “humiliated” by Meghan. The former worker also claimed two other staff members had been bullied. Another aide claimed Meghan’s behaviour felt “more like emotional cruelty and manipulation, which I guess could also be called bullying”.
There has been no known court case against a royal – though workers in royal palaces have brought cases against colleagues. Insiders have claimed concerns were raised but not acted upon. Ex-Home Office minister Norman Baker said Meghan and Harry, and the Palace, were “behaving badly”, adding: “It’s highly suspicious these allegations should come out now.”
The Lib Dem MP, still on the Privy Council advising the Queen, added: “This whole episode is doing immense damage to the royal family. No one comes out with clean hands.”
Max Winthrop, former chair of the Law Society’s influential Employment Law Committee, said that when there are delays in dealing with allegations of bullying: “People in tribunals will be asked why they failed to act and
LEGAL CASE Princess Di
MEGHAN’S pal Omid Scobie has admitted he knew her staff felt “frazzled”, as well as “stressed and on edge”, working for her and Prince Harry – but says he never saw or heard anything that suggested the Duchess was bullying them.
Scobie, who wrote the couple’s controversial biography Finding Freedom, also said that working for
the royal household could be “unpleasant” and it wasn’t the first time staff have felt “battered and bruised”.
He said: “I have my own personal experience of working alongside and getting to know many of the people the couple worked with.
“I heard stories about people being stressed and on edge and completely frazzled by the work environment because this was a time when staff often felt caught between the Sussexes and the institution of the monarchy.
“But at the same time that doesn’t feed into a bullying narrative and it’s certainly not one that was ever expressed to me – and I’ve seen different iterations of those teams around them over the years.”
Omid also questioned the timing of the bullying allegations, and Buckingham Palace’s decision to announce an internal HR review just days before Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview is screened.
Speaking on his podcast, The HeirPod, he said: “A lot goes on behind the scenes of the Palace.
“Certainly these aren’t the first stories about staff feeling emotional or battered and bruised by their experience of working for a member of the Royal Family.
“In fact, there have been times, I’m told by people who have even worked there, that it has sometimes been a very unpleasant place to be.”
Speaking about Buckingham Palace’s announcement, which he described as “unprecedented”, Omid added: “It really goes up against what we will hear Harry and Meghan talking about on Sunday because they made it very clear when they were working members of the Royal Family that they wanted to make a proper complaint about the internal leaks.
“This was something they felt they were cons tantly up against and so for the Palace now to be addressing a major problem internally, I think to them probably seems a little unbalanced.”