Meghan strikes back
From tales of staff unrest to the strain over her father, five close friends speak out to tackle ‘the lies’
THE Duchess of Sussex wrote to her father begging him to stop “victimising” her after the royal wedding, her friends have claimed, as her inner circle go on the offensive to confront what they call “global bullying”.
Five close friends of the Duchess, each speaking anonymously, have provided a glowing tribute to her in the pages of an American magazine, sharing details of their private visits to Kensington Palace to relay the “truth”.
Saying the Duchess has “silently sat back and endured the lies and untruths” since she joined the Royal family, her friends have now moved to paint a picture of “elegance, grace, philanthropy”, calling her “selfless”, devoted to God, and able to “make a five-star meal out of the garbage in your refrigerator”.
In an extraordinary interview, with the US celebrity magazine People, the five friends tackle tabloid news stories head on, giving new and intimate details about the Duchess’s interactions with her father, Thomas Markle.
While the friends ask for anonymity “to protect the private friendships they hold dear”, each will be identifiable to the Duchess as they give precise details of visits to Kensington Palace.
A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment on whether staff had been aware of the interviews, while supporters praised the interviewees – described as “a longtime friend, a former co-star, a friend from LA, a one-time colleague, and a close confidante” – for speaking out with what they assumed to be the Duchess’s permission.
“We worry about what this is doing to her and the baby,” the Duchess’s former co-star told the magazine. “It’s wrong to put anyone under this level of emotional trauma, let alone when they’re pregnant. We want to stand up against the global bullying we are seeing and speak the truth about who our friend, a mother-to-be, really is.”
The Markles
Friends laid bare the Duchess’s relationship with her family, claiming she had “no relationship” with her half-siblings and was now like “ships passing” with her father, who fell ill and missed her wedding after he was caught colluding with the paparazzi.
In the emotional aftermath, friends claim, Mr Markle “wouldn’t get in” to a car sent to take him to the airport and went on to ignore his daughter’s “scared” phone messages.
In a letter sent after the wedding, she allegedly told him: “Dad, I’m so heartbroken, I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.”
Friends claim the long letter in reply closed with a request for a photo opportunity. “He’s never called; he’s never texted,” said one.
“It’s super-painful because Meg was always so dutiful. I think she will always feel genuinely devastated by what he’s done.”
‘Duchess Difficult’
Reports that the Duchess sends early morning emails to staff are evidence she is an “incredibly organised, diligent, focused, hard-working person”, said the former colleague, while the turnover of staff in the Sussex’s office is “all natural courses of employment”.
Relaying how, during a recent visit, the “very self-service” Duchess did her own make-up and styling sitting by a space heater at Nottingham Cottage, Kensington Palace, she added: “She writes her own remarks. And many of Harry’s. They do it together. There’s a false assumption that she lives in some gilded palace with staff and ladies-inwaiting and all these royal perks.
“It’s simply not true. Meg cooks for herself and Harry every single day – there’s no chef or butler.”
The ‘real Meghan’
The Duchess, her friends say, is “wicked funny”, who drops everything to support them in times of joy and crisis. On the television show Suits, she “would do spirit boosters for the crew”, including ordering “gourmet burgers” to the set. She now keeps a box of hand warmers to take to palace guards when it gets cold, one friend claimed.
“It’s the same stuff she does with her office [at Kensington Palace] now,” said her former co-star. “I came by there one day, and she had ordered an incredible ice cream and sorbet stand for the office. They were remarking how it was the ‘best day of work ever’.”
When friends visit, one said, there are cookies, slippers and muddy dog walks, ending in the Duchess rubbing down the dogs with towels herself.
Her solace
The Duchess, who was baptised shortly before her wedding by the Archbishop of Canterbury, has “a very close relationship with God”, a friend said, adding: “A deep sense of gratitude and humility has guided her.” She claimed stories of how Prince Harry and the Duchess upset Palace staff over a wedding tiara, and asked for fragrance to be sprayed in St George’s Chapel, were “100 per cent untrue”.
“If people knew how spiritual she is and how serious and respectful she takes her relationship with God – she would never ask for something like that.”
Royal life
“Her lifestyle can be very isolating,” said the longtime friend. “She and Harry are both very grounded. She has a firm understanding of the things she can and can’t control.”
The full interviews are available in People magazine, on sale on Friday.