Meghan strikes back: friends rally to deny rumours of 'Difficult Duchess'
The Duchess of Sussex wrote to her father begging him to stop “victimising” her after the Royal wedding, her friends have claimed, as her inner circle go on the offensive to confront what they call “global bullying”.
Five close friends of the Duchess, each speaking anonymously, have provided a glowing tribute to her in the pages of an American magazine, sharing details of their private visits to Kensington Palace to relay the “truth” about her.
Saying the Duchess has “silently sat back and endured the lies and untruths” since she joined the Royal Family, her friends have now moved to paint a picture of “elegance, grace, philanthropy”, calling her “selfless”, devoted to God, and able to “make a five-star meal out of the garbage in your refrigerator”.
In an extraordinary interview, with US celebrity magazine People, the five friends tackle tabloid news stories head on, giving new and intimate details about the Duchess’ interactions with her father Thomas Markle.
While the friends ask for anonymity “to protect the private friendships they hold dear”, each will be immediately identifiable to the Duchess after they gave precise details of their visits to stay with her at Kensington Palace.
A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment on whether staff had been aware of the interviews, while fans praised the interviewees - described as “a longtime friend, a former costar, a friend from LA, a onetime colleague, and a close confidante” - for speaking out with what they assumed to be the Duchess’ permission.
“We worry about what this is doing to her and the baby,” the Duchess’s former costar told the magazine. “It’s wrong to put anyone under this level of emotional trauma, let alone when they’re pregnant.
“We want to stand up against the global bullying we are seeing and speak the truth about who our friend, a mother-to-be, really is.”
The Markles
Friends laid bare the Duchess’ relationship with her family, claiming she has “no relationship” with her half-siblings and is now like “ships passing” with her father, who fell ill and missed her wedding after he was caught colluding with the paparazzi.
In the emotional aftermath, friends claim, Mr Markle "wouldn't get in" to a car sent to take him to the airport and went on to ignore his daughter’s "scared" phone messages.
In a letter sent after the wedding, she allegedly told him: ‘Dad, I’m so heartbroken, I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimizing me through the media so we can repair our relationship.'"
“He writes her a really long letter in return, and he closes it by requesting a photo op with her," said the friend.
"And she feels like, ‘That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m telling you I don’t want to communicate through the media, and you’re asking me to communicate through the media.’
“It’s almost like they’re ships passing.
“He knows how to get in touch with her. Her telephone number hasn’t changed. He’s never called; he’s never texted. It’s super-painful because Meg was always so dutiful. I think she will always feel genuinely devastated by what he’s done.”
‘Duchess difficult’
Reports that the Duchess sends early morning emails to staff are evidence that she is an “incredibly organised, diligent, focused, hard-working person”, said the former colleague, while the turnover of staff in the Sussex’s office is “all natural courses of employment”.
Relaying how, during a recent visit, the “very self-service” Duchess did her own makeup and styling sitting by a space heater at Nottingham Cottage, she added: “She writes her own remarks. And many of Harry’s. They do it together.”
“There’s a false assumption that she lives in some gilded palace with staff and ladies-in-waiting and all these royal perks.
“It’s simply not true. We’ve all been to their cottage. It’s small and she’s made it cosy… Meg cooks for herself and Harry every single day – there’s no chef or butler.”
The real Meghan’
The Duchess, her friends say, is “wicked funny”, who drops everything to support them in times of joy and crisis, and is a “leader of group morale”.
On television show Suits, she “would always do spirit boosters for the crew”, including ordering “gourmet burgers” to the set.
She now keeps a box of hand warmers to take to palace guards when it gets cold, one friend claimed.
“It’s the same stuff she does with her office [at Kensington Palace] now,” said her former co-star.
“I came by there one day, and she had ordered an incredible ice cream and sorbet stand for the office. They were remarking how it was the ‘best day of work ever’.”
When friends visit, one said, there are candles by the bed, cookies, slippers, home-cooked meals and muddy dog walks, ending in the Duchess “wiping them [the dogs] off with towels” herself.
Her solace
The Duchess, who was baptised shortly before her wedding by the Archbishop of Canterbury, has “a very close relationship with God”, a friend said, adding: “A deep sense of gratitude and humility has guided her.”
Citing that “extremely faithful” life as evidence, she claimed that stories of how Prince Harry and Ms Markle upset palace staff during a dispute over a wedding tiara, and asked for fragrance to be sprayed in St George’s Chapel, are “100 per cent untrue”.
“If people knew how spiritual she is and how serious and respectful [sic] she takes her relationship with God – she would never ask for something like that."
Royal life
“Her lifestyle can be very isolating”, said the longtime friend. “She and Harry are both very grounded. She has a firm understanding of the things she can and can’t control.
“And she tried not to put any effort into the things she can’t control.”
The LA friend added: “Forget the fact of who she’s married to: She was royalty from the day I met her.”
The full interviews are available in People magazine, on sale on Friday.
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