MEGHAN Markle “really disliked the hierarchy” and thought senior royals “behaved like babies”, insiders have claimed.
Not only this, but sources shared that Meghan, 43, was eager to “finish Princess Diana’s work”, but on a “part-time basis”.
In Tom Quinn’s latest book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, which will be published on February 18, the royal commentator revealed all on Meghan’s “messiah complex”.
As reported in The Times, a former member of Meghan’s team said: “Meghan really disliked the hierarchy. Many of the rules do seem pretty pointless and exist only so that the relative status of each senior royal is protected.
“And the senior royals are such a sensitive bunch — if one gets a gold pen or a new car, they all want one. Meghan thought they behaved like babies.”
Whilst Prince Harry, 40, was generally considered “one of the easiest and nicest” royals to work for, according to one staffer, he was “probably the most muddled of all the royals of his generation.”
The insider added: “The joke used to be that Harry was very much like the Prince Regent in the Blackadder television series. People used to say that without a servant, Harry would take two weeks to put on his own trousers.”
But at the same time, royal insiders claimed that on the other hand, Meghan was a moderniser by nature.
According to Tom Quinn: “She was someone who wanted to get things done and change the status quo. She was actually very good at persuading some of the staff, even the junior staff, to be on her side.”
Not only this, but according to one of Elizabeth II’s former courtiers, Buckingham Palace grew extremely worried when they became aware of Meghan’s plans for her life as a working royal, which were not going to be part of a general strategy agreed with the staff.
The insider recognised that Meghan “just wanted to do her own thing”, but it was “never going to be acceptable that Meghan should outshine Princess Anne, Prince Charles [as he then was] and the Queen.”
The insider explained: “Quite rightly, the Queen always had to be the centre and focus of everything the royal family did and I don’t think Meghan understood why that would mean her doing things she didn’t want to do.
“She didn’t understand that when you join the royal family, you don’t do as you please, you do as you’re told.”
But at the same time, Harry appeared to be delighted by the possibility of freedom and of doing things differently.
According to Tom, senior staff begged Harry “to intervene with Meghan to try to make her toe the line”, but by all accounts this was the beginning of what staffers described as “Harry’s tendency to defend anything and everything Meghan says or does”.
She once said, ‘What Diana started, I want to finish,’ and we took that to mean she wanted to become a sort of globetrotting champion of the poor and the marginalised
Former royal staff member
One of the couple’s former staffers, who claimed Meghan was focused on “how she could become the best-known and most loved member of the royal family”, acknowledged: “She really did have a messiah complex.”
The source continued: “I don’t mean that in a critical way because all her big ideas were about doing good. She once said, ‘What Diana started, I want to finish,’ and we took that to mean she wanted to become a sort of globetrotting champion of the poor and the marginalised.
“She has managed to do this to some extent, but she really wanted to do it as a princess and with the full backing of the royal family, but on a part-time basis.”
At the same time, Tom claimed that all the royal staff he spoke to agreed that Meghan must have felt she was slightly looked down on by the courtiers.
And whilst some people may be able to cope with this, the former member of her staff recognised her desire to fight back: “You’ve got to hand it to her. She really is a fighter.”
A former member of the Kensington Palace staff explained: “When someone arrives from the United States and tries to change things, the old guard really don’t like it. And the old guard are terrific snobs. They have to be less obviously snobbish today, but it’s still there.”
One of Meghan’s former staff also recalled the awkwardness and hilarity of early meetings with the new duchess at Kensington Palace.
Why did Prince Harry and Meghan Markle step back as senior working royals?
PRINCE Harry has always wanted out of the Royal Family and the repercussions will be felt for years, an expert has claimed.
The Duke of Sussex has lived in California with his wife Meghan Markle since 2020 after they dramatically quit their jobs as working royals and moved across the pond.
Katie Nicholl, who is Vanity Fair’s royal correspondent, told The Sun’s Royal Exclusive show that Megxit did not come as a surprise to her.
Speaking to The Sun’s Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson, the commentator explained: “Anyone who knows Harry is aware he’s always wanted a way out of the Royal Family.
“He’s said multiple times on the record that he wished he’d never been born a prince.
“I think he really is living the life he wants to now. It’s very, very sad that it’s played out the way it has.”
In a statement made on the Sussexes’ Instagram account as they stepped back in 2020, the pair wrote: “After many months of reflection and internal discussions, we have chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution.
“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.
“It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.
“We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to The Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages.
“This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.”
The source shared: “It was extraordinary because she was so confident that you could see she wanted to run the meeting rather than learn about the royal family through the meeting.
“I think this was typical of what happened throughout her time at Kensington Palace and then Windsor. She was a great believer in grabbing the bull by the horns – except the royal family is not really a bull.”
And moving into Nottingham Cottage in 2017 appeared to really compound the tension, as a member of staff who helped out regularly at Nottingham Cottage recognised: “Meghan 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.”
Meghan also undoubtedly felt constrained by protocol, as a former Kensington Palace staffer claimed: “Meghan quite rightly hated the fact that when she was in Nottingham Cottage, she had to agree well in advance what time she might leave for an appointment or an event and she had to make sure she didn’t leave at the same time as, or clash in any way with, a more senior royal leaving the palace.”
She was a great believer in grabbing the bull by the horns – except the royal family is not really a bull
Royal source
Not only this, but another problem for Meghan was the servants – whilst she loved having everything done for her by the domestic staff, at the same time, she also hated it too.
One former staffer acknowledged: “Through absolutely no fault of her own, Meghan wasn’t always great with her staff – she just wasn’t used to it as Harry was.”
The former staff member recognised that one minute Meghan would be “really friendly, perhaps overfriendly” and trying to make friends with staff, whilst the next, she would be “irritated by the fact they wouldn’t respond instantly at all times of the day and night”.
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Whilst the sources claimed that it was “true that her nickname for a while was the Duchess of Difficult”, they recognised that Meghan, who was described as “very straightforward and matter-of-fact”, “could be difficult because she was finding life difficult – trying to feel her way and work out the intricacies of a positively medieval, labyrinthine system.”
Despite this, whilst many of the ordinary staff liked the fact that Meghan was feisty and wanted to change things for the better, Tom recognised that an old guard was very much against her.
The source said: “They [the older, public school-educated advisers] really had it in for Meghan and, to be fair to her, she really stood up to them.
“But, of course, if you make waves in the royal family, the senior royals will always back the courtiers, because in many cases the senior royals have been friends with the courtiers since childhood.”
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