So what is the truth about boss Meghan? After loyal staff heaped praise on Sussexes, now Duchess is accused of 'chewing people up'
Meghan Markle was today reportedly described by former staff as someone who could be a ‘demon’ and treated some employees ‘like a tradesman’ amid an intensifying row over her management style.
One palace courtier who is claimed to have worked for the Duchess of Sussex said they ‘witnessed people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to ‘feel like s**t’, according to a new US media report.
It was claimed that another former aide said they ‘always thought she was a classic narcissist’ and she was ‘lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns’.
The report in the Daily Beast today follows two major recent articles published in America about Meghan – with one in the Hollywood Reporter criticising her as a ‘dictator in high heels’, and another in Us Weekly praising her management style.
A representative for Meghan and her husband Prince Harry confirmed to MailOnline today that they would not be commenting on the new Daily Beast article.
It comes as Harry continues to attend events in New York this week while Meghan and their children Archie and Lilibet are at home in Montecito, California.
One courtier who was said to have worked for Meghan and Harry when they were still senior royals was quoted by the Daily Beast as saying: ‘I do think that after the ill-feeling of Megxit, Meghan’s bad moments were amplified and distorted and blown out of proportion.
‘That said, there definitely were bad, very bad… moments. I witnessed people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s**t.
‘But it was an incredibly fraught time and I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. She has said herself she was suicidal at times.’
Another aide who worked with Meghan ahead of her wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018 referred to the positive picture portrayed in the Us Weekly article.
The aide told the Daily Beast: ‘I always thought she was a classic narcissist.’
They added: ‘She is lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns.’
A third source told the Daily Beast that a florist was ‘screamed at down the phone’ after posting a detail about a bouquet they were working on for her – without identifying Meghan as the client.
This source said: ‘They vowed never to work with her again, despite the prestige of having her as a client. If you were working for her, you were often treated like a tradesman who could be treated like s**t.’
It follows accusations made in a Hollywood Reporter article on September 12 that ‘Duchess Difficult’ had reduced grown men to tears as she ‘barks’ out orders.
Then, staff loyal to Harry and Meghan gave the couple a glowing report and a positive account of their working lives to Us Weekly in an article published yesterday.
Josh Kettler, Harry’s former chief of staff who left after just three months in August, said in the Us Weekly article that he was ‘warmly welcomed’ by the Sussexes and called them ‘dedicated and hardworking’.
‘It was impressive to witness,’ he added, without elaborating on why he left so quickly.
Ben Browning, Archewell’s former head of content – who was responsible for their tell-all Netflix documentary but then left before the end of his contract – said his experience at the company, and with Meghan and Harry in general, ‘was positive and supportive’.
Their current PR chief, ‘global press secretary’ Ashley Hansen, says they treated her with ‘the kind of concern and care a parent would express if it were their own child’ when she took time off for surgery, adding that they also sent flowers and gifts.
She added: ‘Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support. It meant so much to him and even more to me. You don’t realise how much that kind of kindness and thought means until you need it.’
Another anonymous source told Us Weekly: ‘This is the first company I’ve worked [where I] liked every person. Harry and Meghan picked the best of the best from every field and watered the seeds for them to flourish. We have an enormous microscope on us. But good things are happening.’
They said Harry asks on work Zoom calls about what staff have done at the weekend and as a team they plan events such as karaoke nights and ‘holiday parties’.
A former staff member said the Sussexes heard they had adopted a dog, and ‘the next day, I had a luxury-brand leash and new collar on my doorstep’.
Expectant parents are also given ‘brand-new gifts and top-notch second-hand stuff from the couple themselves ‘like unused car seats and baby items they no longer need’, it was said.
‘They want to take care of us,’ one current employee said. ‘Meghan will do things like, ‘You mentioned on the call your skin is bothering you. I put together a kit for you’.’
It was also claimed that no one leaves the couple’s Montecito home empty-handed.
‘Whenever staff go to their house, they leave with a basket with fresh flowers, fresh fruit, fresh eggs,’ one staffer said. ‘Best bosses I have ever had,’ another current team member insists.
Also speaking to Us Weekly yesterday was former Archewell boss Mandana Dayani who said the ‘kindness, mentorship and support’ she has received from the Duke and Duchess ‘happens quietly behind closed doors’.
It is a stark contrast to recent reports about a string of departures from their Archewell organisation, which combines their media deals with philanthropic endeavours.
The exposé in the Hollywood Reporter claiming the Duchess is a ‘dictator in high heels’ was sourced from someone ‘very high up’ still working for the couple, it has been claimed.
That article also said Meghan ‘doesn’t take advice’ and has reduced ‘grown men to tears’ as she ‘barks’ orders.
The Hollywood Reporter also described the couple as ‘poor decision-makers’ who ‘change their minds frequently’.
Maer Roshan, co-editor-in-chief of the publication, has subsequently said he stands by the story, despite a backlash amongst supporters of the Sussexes.
Mr Roshan said they spoke to around a dozen people who had worked closely with Harry and Meghan ‘now and previously’.
He also told Access Hollywood that ‘our reporter talked to one very high up source who works for the couple who said everyone is terrified of Meghan’.
They say the Duchess ‘belittles people’ and ‘doesn’t take advice’.
Although they have not commented officially, a source ‘close’ to Harry and Meghan rejected the claims last week.
They also pointed out that a note on her email signature which says staff should not feel obligated to respond outside of normal business hours was further proof she wasn’t demanding.
Meghan herself has always strongly denied claims of bullying staff, claiming they were part of a ‘calculated smear campaign’.
Mr Roshan added: ‘Duchess Difficult is a nickname that has trailed Meghan 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.’
Buckingham Palace launched its own investigation after the bullying allegations were made public but refused to reveal the findings.
Insiders have previously told the Mail that former employees who may have evidence to support the claims she bullied several female staff when she was living in the UK as a working royal were never even spoken to.
The Mail also revealed that former staff had dubbed themselves the ‘Sussex Survivors Club’ and some were suffering from the equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder.