Meghan Markle was a “demon” who had “psycho moments” as a boss, people who worked for her have told The Daily Beast.
The former employees spoke out after a carefully curated crop of former and current staffers said she was the best boss ever, who gives her staff bundles of freshly cut flowers and home-produced eggs, and makes her staff feel like seeds being watered.
The positive portrait of Meghan’s management style was painted in Us Weekly on Tuesday, as Team Meghan launched a fightback against a report in The Hollywood Reporter that claimed Meghan was a “dictator in high heels” who reduced “grown men to tears.” Sources close to the couple denied that story as a “fabrication” to The Daily Beast last week.
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However, one courtier who worked for Meghan and Prince Harry as part of their service at the palace told The Daily Beast: “There have been plenty of difficult royals over the years, and I do think that after the ill-feeling of Megxit (when Harry and Meghan left the royal family), Meghan’s bad moments were amplified and distorted and blown out of proportion. Princess Margaret regularly got people to hold out their hands to use as ashtrays, for example, and that’s just laughed off as hilarious eccentricity. Look at Prince Andrew, he was unbelievable to the staff.
“That said, there definitely were bad, very bad, even psycho 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.”
The source pointed out that Jason Knauf, who was press secretary to Meghan when she was a royal, complained about her.
Indeed, it is a matter of public record that in 2018, Knauf wrote to Simon Case, then Prince William’s private secretary, saying: “I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X was totally unacceptable.”
He added: “The duchess seems intent on having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.”
Meghan and Harry’s office said Wednesday they would not comment on the new criticisms of Meghan made to The Daily Beast. However, Meghan previously accused the London Times of perpetrating a smear on her when it published the Knauf letter, noting that the revelations were published just days before Meghan’s much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey aired.
Another person who worked with Meghan in the run-up to her wedding told The Daily Beast: “I always thought she was a classic narcissist and getting her staff to tell a magazine how amazing she is only confirms that in my mind.
“She is lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns.”
Another source told The Daily Beast a story of a florist who was “screamed at down the phone” for half an hour after they posted an insignificant detail online about a bouquet they were working on for Meghan (without identifying that Meghan was the client).
“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.”
Tuesday’s positive testimonials included Prince Harry’s former chief of staff, Josh Kettler—who notoriously parted company with Harry after just three months in the role—giving the couple a carefully calibrated endorsement.
Kettler—who did not elaborate on why he actually left the couple’s employ—said he was “warmly welcomed” by the couple, adding: “They are dedicated and hardworking. It was impressive to witness.”
Another former chief of staff, Catherine St-Laurent, told Us: “The time I spent working with Prince Harry and Meghan was incredibly meaningful to me.”
Ashley Hansen, the duke and duchess’s global head of press was as flattering to the couple as only someone professionally tasked with making them look good in the media could be, saying that when she had surgery, “I was met with the kind of concern and care a parent would express if it were their own child.”
Another anonymous staffer said: “Harry and Meghan picked the best of the best from every field and watered the seeds for them to flourish.”
