Gong for the royal aide who accused Meghan of bullying her junior staff
THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s ex-PR chief who accused Meghan of bullying has been recognised in the New Year Honours.
Jason Knauf initially worked as joint head of communications for both Harry and Meghan and William and Kate.
He subsequently made serious allegations about Meghan’s alleged bullying of junior staff before quitting.
The royal aide became a special adviser to William and Kate and then chief executive of the Royal Foundation, the charitable arm of their official operations.
During his time working for the couple, Mr Knauf helped start William’s highprofile Earthshot environmental awards and the couple’s Heads Together mental health initiative, as well as undertaking 36 foreign trips with them.
He left the foundation last year to move abroad. As such a senior royal aide, with seven years of service under his belt, it is not unexpected for him to receive a personal honour from the sovereign.
He has been made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order, which is conferred for extraordinary services to the monarch or members of the Royal Family. A
‘Unlikely to go down well with the Sussexes’
lieutenant is the second of the five grades of membership and will allow Mr Knauf, who will receive his gong at either Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, to put the letters LVO after his name.
Mr Knauf said last night: ‘Working for the Prince and Princess of Wales was the honour of a lifetime.
‘Receiving this recognition means more to me than I can say. I am incredibly grateful.’
His appointment is unlikely to go down well with the Sussexes, who have made no secret of their antipathy towards him. The duchess has always denied the allegations of bullying, which she described an orchestrated smear campaign against her.
She was also angered after Mr Knauf gave evidence during her High Court case against The Mail on Sunday, the sister paper of the Daily Mail, which shed new light on her claims that she had no idea whether her communications team had co-operated with the authors of Finding Freedom, a flattering biography about her and Harry.
He provided the court with emails proving he had provided information to the writers ‘with her knowledge’.
Meghan was subsequently forced to apologise to the court but said she had not intended to mislead it and had simply ‘not remembered the exchanges’.
In their recent Netflix documentary series, the Sussexes once again made clear their hostility towards Mr Knauf, with Meghan’s lawyer going so far as to suggest Prince William would have given his authority for him to come forward. Mr Knauf responded, saying he had been a neutral witness and did not consult the Royal Household first.
Another ex-Sussex staffer, Sara Latham, who masterminded the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, has also been made an LVO.