Revealed: US report claiming Meghan Markle is nicknamed ‘Duchess Difficult’ and a ‘dictator in high heels’ by ‘terrified’ staff ‘came from source still working for the couple’, says editor
A US report claiming Meghan Markle is a ‘dictator in high heels’ came from someone ‘very high up’ still working for the couple, a senior journalist has claimed.
The source said that Meghan ‘doesn’t take advice’ and has reduced ‘grown men to tears’, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Maer Roshan, Co-Editor in Chief of the publication, has said he stands by the story after a backlash amongst supporters and friends including one Sussex source who said the claims were ‘fabricated’.
Meghan herself has also always denied claims of bullying staff.
Mr Roshan believes that their insider has revealed that it ‘probably isn’t true’ that claims Meghan is ‘difficult’ to work with and the nickname ‘Duchess Difficult’ were ‘manufactured’ by the Palace after Megxit.
The allegations about her behaviour emerged in a piece on the exodus of staff who have worked for the Sussexes, including the couple’s chief of staff Josh Kettler who resigned from his role in August after just three months.
Mr Roshan told Access Hollywood: ‘Our reporter talked to a very high up source who works for the couple and said: “Everyone is terrified of Meghan”.
‘Duchess Difficult is a nickname that has trailed Meghan Markle for quite a few years. What is new is that this notion, since coming to America, that a lot of these rumours were manufactured by the Palace and the reporting that we did suggests that probably isn’t true and there is still this undercurrent of fear’.
Friends of Meghan have said that they have never seen ‘a negative side to her’.
Mr Roshan told Access Hollywood: ‘Two things can be possible at once. The couple does help a lot of people. Meghan and Harry declined to comment on our story. I think Meghan would have said that barking around orders is something that we expect from men and it would never raise an eyebrow’.
Meghan has touched on the subject in her Archetypes podcast.
She said: ‘You’re allowed to set a boundary. You’re allowed to be clear, [it] does not make you demanding. It does not make you difficult, it makes you clear’.
But the Hollywood Reporter piece last week claimed that Meghan ‘terrifies’ people.
The piece also described the couple as ‘both poor decision-makers’ who ‘change their minds frequently’ – with Harry dubbed ‘a very, very charming person’ and yet ‘very much an enabler’.
The publication reported allegations that Meghan was ‘absolutely relentless’ and that ‘she marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders’, adding: ‘I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears’.
Meghan’s ‘noisy tantrums’ and ‘angry 5 am emails’ have also earned her the nickname ‘Duchess Difficult’ by her members of staff, the Hollywood Reporter said.
A spokesman for the Sussexes declined to comment when approached by MailOnline today.
But a source close to Harry and Meghan rejected the claims last week, saying the allegations were false.
‘These quotes were fabricated by someone lacking knowledge of our company. The Duke and Duchess work from Montecito, and we’re based in Hollywood. They likely think we’re all in the same office and that this quote would fly, but the circumstances don’t even allow for it. If she’s “marching around” and “barking orders” no Archewell employee could factually claim that. It’s total nonsense’, they said.
‘And the source said on the emails: ‘Who hasn’t sent an email when they can’t sleep or are awake early?
‘I’ve never once ever gotten an email from either of them at that hour and even if I did, The Duchess specifically notes in her email signature that everyone has a different working day and to not feel obligated to respond outside of normal business hours. These source quotes don’t make any sense’.
The claims came as the Duke of Sussex turned 40 and separate sources suggested he was feeling increasingly lonely in the US and considers his security guard David Langdown, a former Met Police officer, his best friend.
Meghan had previously been accused of bullying palace staff before the pair’s move to California, prompting royal aides to launch an inquiry into claims of Meghan’s ‘belittling’ behaviour towards two personal assistants.
Staff were said to have been left in tears and feeling ‘traumatised’ – with some likening their condition to having post-traumatic stress.
While details of the report were never revealed, the allegations have always been strongly denied by the duchess, whose lawyers described them at the time as a ‘calculated smear campaign’.
The new reports come after it was revealed by The Mail on Sunday that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s PR adviser Christine Weir Schirmer had left quietly at the end of last year after joining the couple as head of communications for their charitable foundation Archewell in 2020.
News of Schirmer’s departure came just weeks after it was reported that Kettler had resigned after his short spell working for the couple.
While Kettler had been hired on a trial basis when he took up the role with Harry and Meghan, US magazine People reported that the ‘decision to part ways was mutual, with both sides agreeing it wasn’t the right fit’.
But the departures of Schirmer and Kettler have only highlighted the problems Meghan and Harry have long had when it comes to keeping their staff.
The couple have gained a reputation for losing employees, and are believed to have lost at least 18 members of their workforce since they married in 2018.
Nine or more have left their roles since the couple escaped Britain for California in 2020, including their global press secretary Toya Holness and Meghan’s top aide and private secretary Samantha Cohen.
Tensions within the royal family since Harry and Meghan left for a new life in the US in 2020 have only got worse, especially following the publication of Harry’s memoir Spare in January last year.
He claimed his brother William, the Prince of Wales, 42, had branded Meghan ‘difficult’, ‘rude’ and ‘abrasive’, and even accused the elder sibling of pushing him into a dog bowl.
Prince Harry is in New York this week.
His decision to jet off alone to New York to meet royals and celebrities before a solo trip to Britain shows he is determined to ‘carve out’ new opportunities and ‘assert himself’ after turning 40, experts told MailOnline .
The Duke of Sussex is away from Montecito for the next seven days and went to a California benefit organised by Kevin Costner on Saturday, without his American wife.
Last night he attended a dinner organised by the World Health Organization (WHO), greeting Queen Mathilde of Belgium warmly on arrival.
On his trip to New York this week he will also support pet charities and businesses including African Parks, The HALO Trust, The Diana Award, and Travalyst. And this weekend he will fly to London for his annual visit to support WellChild at their awards ceremony, again without his wife.
This month he is said to have planned a lads-only weekend away with friends to mark his 40th birthday, but was with a smiling Meghan leaving a ‘double birthday’ event, held for their friend Tyler Perry, the night before the Prince’s own big day.
Biographer Phil Dampier, author of Royally Suited: Harry and Meghan In Their Own Words, said: ‘Harry sometimes feels like a spare part and he often looks unhappy when he’s out with Meghan at events in California. I think he has reached a point where he wants more for himself. He’s turned 40 and must be asking himself what the future holds.
‘I think he’s desperate to find some new meaning to his life and that seems to involve branching out on his own more.
‘He has this few days in New York and then he’s heading to London for the WellChild event with which he’s been involved for years.
‘He clearly wants to find some causes he can get involved in and give his life some purpose.
‘Meghan doesn’t want to come back to this country, so he will have to fly solo’.
Harry has reportedly been contacting some of his old friends ahead of his UK visit.
‘I’m sure he’s lacking some mates he can go out with for a beer and truly relax. The more he does things on his own and carves out some new projects, the more likely it is he can heal himself and eventually some of the divisions with his family, but it’s going to be a long road’, Mr Dampier said.
Royal expert and investigative journalist Tom Bower has said that Harry’s next week away shows he is trying ‘to assert himself’ alone.
He said: ‘It’s not just Harry doing repeated solo events which suggests a shift in his lifestyle and strategy to assert himself – not least in Britain’.