'Betrayed' Meghan Markle feels she 'can't trust anyone' after bombshell documentary
The relative calm that’s surrounded Prince Harry and Meghan Markle recently was well and truly broken by a new German documentary that aired last week. Entitled Harry - The Lost Prince, the bombshell show shone a spotlight on their new life as globetrotting charity ambassadors - but was deeply damning and has left Meghan feeling 'hurt' and 'betrayed' yet again, a source tells OK!.
It included a number of intimate interviews with the likes of former Metropolitan Police security chiefs, the couple’s Montecito neighbours - who said Meghan doesn’t “get involved in the community”, and even a veteran former soldier from Harry’s Afghanistan days. “Both Meghan and Harry feel the show is yet another one-sided take down of them and just want it all to stop,” our source claimed.
They added: “It’s like they can't escape their past and are still being judged on things that happened over five years ago but they know it gets people talking and makes money. Meghan feels hurt by a lot of people - but especially her neighbours, who she feels have betrayed her by telling people this, rather than offering friendship and support.
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"It was hard for her to make this move and have the eyes of the world on them, so she needed some friends, but obviously she was quite guarded because of what she’d been through. Meghan is very wary of getting close to people and trusting them and this documentary has confirmed she was right.”
The couple moved to the upscale Montecito neighbourhood after leaving Frogmore Cottage in 2020. They’ve since shared the occasional glimpse of their life at their grand home - which has huge stone fireplaces and is decorated with neutral tones - but they’ve been few and far between, as the couple shield Prince Archie and Princess Lillibet from the limelight.
But it appears that their desire for privacy hasn’t done them any favours when it comes to making friends locally. In the new documentary, neighbour Richard Mineards features in the film, talking about the expensive lifestyle the Sussexes enjoy. He says: “I personally don't think that Meghan is an asset to our community… She doesn't really go out or get involved with the community. Harry has to a certain extent, because he's quite jolly… but Meghan doesn't seem to get seen anywhere… And you don't see him either.”
Despite the harsh words, our source says Meghan has good reason for keeping her inner circle tight, especially amid speculation about her marriage. When she stepped onto the red carpet for a glitzy red carpet bash in Beverley Hills last week, some media called it another step in her "professional separation” from Harry.
Harry seemed to make light of such rumours earlier that day, joking that “apparently we’ve bought or moved house 10, 12 times. We’ve apparently divorced maybe 10, 12 times as well. So it’s just like, what?, at the New York Times DealBook Summit. When he was asked if all the interest in them was actually a good thing, Harry admitted it was "hard to keep up with" so he tries to ignore it.
On why they keep their circle tight, our source claimed: “There’s no denying that Meghan doesn't have a large set of friends - but that’s because she can’t trust a lot of people. They’ve both been betrayed in the past, by closer friends and family members, so it’s hard for her to make new friends and let people into her life.
“She isn't sure if people are being friendly for the right reasons. Meghan feels very safe when she’s at home with Harry, her mum Doria and the kids and as much as she would like to have a bigger social circle, she knows she can’t. It can be quite lonely but it will never be as bad as it was when she was in the UK, so that’s a sacrifice she’s willing to make.”
The show was made by veteran royal reporter Ulrike Grunewald, who said after making it that she could sympathise with the couple’s British-based family. “The most damaging allegations can only come from within. Revelations that shock the royal family only come out of Prince Harry ‘s or Meghan Markle ‘s mouths”, she told a newspaper recently.
Ulrike also delved into the pair’s charity, the Archewell Foundation, claiming she wasn’t impressed with what she found. According to the documentary, donations to the Foundation dropped from $13million to $2million from 2021 to 2022, and maintains the couple only officially work one hour every week on the charity.
There were also interviews with former security chiefs, including Dai Davies, a former Head of Royal Protection and a Divisional Commander in the Metropolitan Police, who slammed Harry for disclosing in his book Spare “that he had killed a number of Taliban” while serving in Afghanistan because people might still regard him as a “potential target”.
He also criticised how the couple undertake what he called their “carefully orchestrated” foreign trips, including their recent visit to Colombia for the Archewell Foundation. “In Colombia, although there are very rich people there, the vast majority, 85 per cent or 90 per cent, are very poor,” he said. “And what I've noticed of these tours, he mixes with the upper classes.”
Aside from the documentary, our source claims another harsh reminder for the couple of their changed social standing was the attendance of the Beckhams at a state banquet with King Charles, Queen Camilla and Prince William, held at Buckingham Palace in honour of the Emir of Qatar and his wife.
“[The documentary] coupled with the fact that their former friends Beckhams were at a state banquet with Charles and Camilla, means that it’s been a tough week", claims the source. “People forget they had to leave [the UK] because they were treated so horribly and Harry gave up so much because he couldn't stand living there. And the final straw has been seeing the Beckhams cosy up to the royals, which just proved to the Sussexes that they have taken their side and the friendship is over.”
