A royal insider has claimed that Meghan’s dislike for her living arrangements at Kensington Palace were the start of her troubles with royal life and set the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on the path to ‘Megxit’.
It’s Meghan’s 44th birthday on Monday and following the so-called ‘peace summit’ last month, it appears at long last that the animosities between the Sussexes and the other royals may soon be thawing.
But years before ‘Megxit’ had entered the vocabulary it was already becoming clear that the Duchess of Sussex was unhappy with her life as a working royal.
Writing in his royal bestseller Yes Ma’am, Tom Quinn claimed that the first sign that all was not well with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex became apparent while they were living at Nottingham Cottage within the grounds of Kensington Palace.
Quinn said: ‘Starting life as a member of the royal family in Nottingham Cottage was the beginning of all Meghan’s troubles – she felt it was so small that it must be a reflection on how the royal family were belittling her husband.
‘She just didn’t understand that real royals don’t care much about houses and material possessions because having always had them they take them for granted.’
According to Quinn, Meghan not only believed the home was too small for her larger standards but she was ‘compounded by a vague feeling that the Kensington Palace staff tended to treat Harry as less important than his brother’.
At the time, Prince William and Kate Middleton lived in the much larger apartment 1A inside the palace itself.
A member of the comms team who was particularly close to Meghan told Quinn: ‘Meghan spotted immediately that Harry wasn’t quite as central to things as his brother William.
‘This was the start of the whole grievance thing about being the spare.
‘I don’t think Harry had even thought much about the fact that he was a spare until well into his marriage. Meghan managed to give him more perspective because she could see the family from the outside.’
During Harry and Meghan’s time living at Kensington Palace concerns were raised about their treatment of staff.
One member of staff told Quinn that Meghan could be ‘quite demanding’ and wanted to be involved in ‘every detail of her royal life’.
Complaints about their behaviour eventually reached Prince William who allegedly went ‘ballistic’ at the news.
The bombshell allegations, uncovered in Robert Lacey’s bestselling novel ‘Battle of Brothers’, reportedly caused a major fall out between William and Prince Harry.
According to Lacey, concerns had been raised to Harry and Meghan about their alleged behaviour towards members of staff as early as 2017. Meghan has however always denied bullying allegations.
The Kensington Palace source claimed that Meghan would begin firing off emails as early as 5am, leaving staff with a ‘barrage’ of messages in their inboxes.
They added that the Sussexes reigned over a ‘really toxic environment’ which saw colleagues shaking before meetings with the Duchess of Sussex alongside allegations of bullying. There was even a claim that the encounters left one individual with PTSD.
While Meghan brushed off a complaint about her conduct from a senior aide, claiming ‘it’s not my job to coddle people’, Prince William did not respond so flippantly to the issue.
According to Lacey, when Jason Knauf – a royal aide who worked with the Sussexes – presented William with a ‘dossier of distress’ about their behaviour he ‘went ballistic’ and was left ‘astonished’ and ‘horrified’ by what he heard.
William’s anger stemmed from the fact that a tradition of treating the staff ‘like family’ within the Royal Family had been broken and that he personally knew many of those named, Lacey wrote.
Following the dossier, William and Harry allegedly had a testy phone call where the Duke of Sussex ‘flared up in a fierce defence of his wife’.
Roberts wrote: ‘The moment the Prince heard the bullying allegations he got straight on the phone to talk to Harry – and when Harry flared up in furious defence of his wife, the elder brother persisted.
‘Harry shut off his phone angrily, so William went straight round to find his brother on the Kensington campus.’
It’s not just the palace staff, for Meghan has developed a reputation of being difficult to work with.
In September 2024, an unnamed source told the Sunday Times that they witnessed ‘people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s***’.
Another source claimed that Meghan ‘screamed’ at a florist down the phone for half an hour after they failed to mention in a post online that the Duchess of Sussex was working with them on a bouquet.
Earlier this year, a bombshell profile in Vanity Fair claimed that Meghan would reportedly be ‘warm and effusive’ towards employees at the start before turning ‘cold and withholding toward the person she perceived to be responsible’ when something ‘went poorly, often due to Meghan and Harry’s own demands’.
A source who worked in media projects told the publication: ‘She’s constantly playing checkers – I’m not even going to say chess – but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board.
‘And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment,’ which they say meant ‘undermining’ behaviour, adding: ‘It’s talking behind your back. It’s gnawing at your sense of self. Really, like, Mean Girls teenager.’
The profile also details allegations from former employees of Meghan who reportedly felt mistreated during their time working with her.
These claims, which echoes accusations from her time at Kensington Palace, paint a troubling picture of a woman whose behaviour allegedly left staff ‘having therapy’ and led to allegations of ‘bullying’ behind the scenes. These allegations were vehemently denied by representatives of Meghan and Harry at the time.
However, reports are conflicting.
Producer Jane Marie, who worked with Harry and Meghan during the development of Archewell Audio projects, insisted to Vanity Fair that Meghan is ‘just a lovely, genuine person’.
Other staff members have claimed that she would send her employees gifts ranging from dog leashes to skincare products.
