Mail Online

How Palace ‘bent over backwards’ to help Meghan adjust to Royal life

Author Andrew Morton says she was given a ‘formidable’ staff who spent hundreds of hours checking social media and reported trolls to police

By Kate Mansey

A MASSIVE effort was made to protect the Duchess of Sussex when she joined the Royal Family, according to Princess Diana’s biographer Andrew Morton.

Contrary to claims by Meghan during her bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year that she was abandoned by the Windsors, his updated biography of the Duchess says a ‘formidable backroom staff’ was deployed to help her adjust to royal life.

A Palace insider last night agreed that aides had ‘bent over backwards’ to help her.

In six new chapters of Meghan: A Hollywood Princess – serialised today by The Mail on Sunday – Mr Morton provides explosive new details of the rift which led to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepping down as working Royals and moving to the US.

Mr Morton, who created a publishing sensation in 1992 with Diana: Her True Story, says:

● Far from abandoning Meghan, the Palace had a team which spent ‘hundreds of hours monitoring social media accounts’ and ‘violent threats were reported to police’;

● Harry was the ‘prime mover’ in souring relations between the Sussexes and the Royal Family, but it was Meghan who ‘took the hit’;

● The couple l obbied Prince Charles to change the rules so their son Archie would not become a Prince – not the other way around, as they have suggested;

● Harry had acupuncture in the run up to his wedding

● Prince William did not agree with Meghan and Harry’s decision to keep the names of Archie’s godparents a secret;

● The Duchess of Cambridge’s coolness towards Meghan, and William’s alleged bullying contributed to a devastating ‘Cain and Abel’ fallout between the brothers. The fresh details of one of the most turbulent episodes in recent royal history came as Harry and Meghan continued a high-profile visit to New York, culminating in their appearance last night at Global Citizen, a 24-hour event intended to ‘unite the world to defend the planet and defeat poverty’.

Unity is hard to find in Mr Morton’s account of the deteriorating relationship between the Sussexes and the Palace, leaving Harry forced to choose between ‘Meghan and the Monarchy’.

He claims diplomats were ‘blindsided and bewildered’ when the couple launched a fusillade of criticism against the media during a tour of South Africa in 2019. ‘Within months, Meghan went from Duchess Dazzling to Duchess Difficult ... and from Duchess Difficult to Duchess Dictatorial,’ he writes. He later adds, acerbically: ‘The word “vulnerable” does not immediately spring to mind when assessing Ms Markle’s many qualities.’

Casting doubt on Meghan’s claim that there was little support from the Palace, Mr Morton writes: ‘Before the wedding, the Queen had shrewdly assigned her own experienced assistant private secretary Samantha Cohen to explain the workings of the Monarchy and the Commonwealth to Meghan.’

He also points to the Duchess of Cornwall tenderly taking her hand at a garden party to celebrate Charles’s 70th birthday – ‘a rare royal gesture’ which said ‘Meghan is now “one of us”’.

The Queen went further, he writes, by giving Harry and Meghan ‘a golden ticket’ by appointing them to key roles in the Commonwealth. ‘This global role would set the couple free from the endless fashion, lifestyle and personality comparisons with William and Kate,’ he adds.

Mr Morton says there was ‘no real rapport’ between Meghan and Kate and there were claims of bullying against William. ‘The Sussexes felt that they had been driven out by the “bullying” attitude of Prince William.’

A Royal source last night firmly denied any bullying by William and insisted the family had done all it could to support Meghan.

‘Queen assigned her own experienced assistant’

News

en-gb

2021-09-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://mailonline.pressreader.com/article/281595243681459

dmg media (UK)