Racist comments?
Hush money?
Buddies with Putin?
Admirers perceive the British royal family as a beacon of refinement, but there's more
going on than meets the eye.
Although she has been characterized as one of the shadiest royals, the tea on Meghan
Markle is weak compared to other members of The Firm.
Critics argue that the hate Markle receives is rooted in dog-whistle racism, whereby she's
perceived as an interloper into the British royal family.
Subsequently, Markle ranks low on this list, though the timeline of her romance with Prince
Harry seems somewhat sketchy.
When she went on her first date with Harry in 2016, Markle was allegedly still dating
her boyfriend, chef Cory Vitiello.
A source who chatted to The Telegraph insinuated that this was the case.
The royal pair's romance first became headline news in October of that year.
However, in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2017, Markle painted a very different timeline
of her relationship with the prince, saying,
"We're two people who are really happy and in love.
We were very quietly dating for about six months before it became news."
This would mean that they first began dating in April 2016, when Markle was still reportedly
in a relationship with Vitiello.
According to the book Revenge, Markle allegedly sought out a romance with Harry deliberately
despite dating Vitiello, supposedly seeing the royal as a meal ticket.
However, such assertions seem dubious at best and are in stark contrast to Harry's own recollection
of meeting his wife.
According to the prince, he first fell for Markle after seeing her photo on Instagram.
"And then we got each other's numbers.
We were just constantly in touch."
In his youth, Prince Harry was known as being somewhat of a hellraiser.
He frequently found himself a tabloid staple due to tales of his supposed hard partying ways.
Infamously, he donned a Nazi uniform at a costume party in 2005, an act that cemented
his status as a contentious figure within the royal family.
However, he has since expressed remorse over the costume.
And in doing so, he has dragged his family into the furor.
Ever since he left royal duties behind, Harry has been spilling the tea on his relatives,
and fans are living for it.
Accordingly, in his memoir Spare, he claimed that it was Prince William and Kate Middleton
who encouraged him to sport the offensive attire.
Harry recalled preparing for the party and being unsure as to which costume he should
rent: a pilot's uniform or Nazi regalia,writing,
"I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought.
Nazi uniform, they said.
[...] They both howled.
Worse than Willy's leotard outfit!
Way more ridiculous!
Which, again, was the point."
Despite the uniform supposedly being his brother and future sister-in-law's idea, Harry acknowledged
that he was deserving of the public backlash that followed.
Additionally, he made other eye-popping revelations in his memoir.
While on duty in Afghanistan, Harry revealed, he killed 25 enemy combatants.
He was heavily criticized for his actions, with some critics accusing him of utilizing
discourse that dehumanized Afghan soldiers.
"I'm out here doing my job.
That's all I can say."
Of all Queen Elizabeth II's children, Prince Edward has long seemed the odd one out.
A failed film producer and TV personality, Edward has been somewhat of an aimless figure
in the family.
That doesn't mean that he isn't able to fill his free time with plenty of jet-setting and
frolicking, however.
And in doing so, he has racked up a hefty bill for the British taxpayer.
It seems that Edward's carbon footprint is less a footprint and more a gaping crack in
the ozone.
Rather than drive or take public transport, the prince is apparently content to collect
air miles, having reportedly used a private helicopter for 80-minute trips, at a cost
of £3,000 to the public purse, according to the Daily Mail.
Anti-monarchy campaigner Graham Smith said in 2018,
"We need to look more seriously at the extravagance of the royals.
He should be taking public transport or cars at a fraction of the cost."
In contrast to her siblings, who generate considerable media attention, Princess Anne
has been somewhat of a stoic figure in the royal family.
Nevertheless, she has been involved in some startlingly shady antics — thanks to her dogs.
Unlike her late mother, who adored corgis, Anne adopted boisterous English bull terriers.
In 2002, one of the princess' dogs, Dotty, attacked two children, resulting in the youngsters
being traumatized.
Though Anne was handed a £500 fine and paid that same amount in compensation to the victims,
the relatives of the children felt that the royal was let off the hook.
The terror of the terriers did not stop there: Anne's dog ended up killing one of the queen's
beloved corgis, Pharos, the following year.
Sarah Ferguson doesn't exactly have a squeaky-clean rep.
She first generated controversy amid the infamous toe-sucking scandal of 1992, in which she
was snapped laying topless on a beach with her extramarital lover.
Since then, her finances have come under significant public scrutiny.
For many years, Fergie was deep in debt.
In 2010, she attempted to alleviate her money woes by offering an ostensibly wealthy financier,
who was in fact an undercover reporter, unlimited access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, in
exchange for more than $600,000.
The deal was caught on tape by the News of the World.
When the sting was made public, she expressed regret for the humiliating gaffe.
Eventually, Fergie was able to pay off her debts — with the help of Jeffrey Epstein.
She accepted a considerable sum of money from the convicted sex offender, something that
she has since apologized for.
"There have been many ups and downs, for Sarah and for Andrew."
She told The Evening Standard,
"[I] deeply regret that Jeffrey Epstein became involved in any way with me.
I abhor pedophilia. [...] and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf."
She did, however, concede that thanks to the payment, she was unburdened from debt for
the first time in her life, but vowed to do good with her newfound financial freedom.
Although the British press has long painted Kate Middleton as a pristine princess, some
accusations have marred that image.
At the heart of it is her relationship with sister-in-law Meghan Markle, with Middleton
accused of subtly shading Markle in public spaces.
This alleged animosity came to the fore following Prince Harry and Markle's 2018 wedding, when
there were reports that the bride made Middleton cry following a dispute over flower girl arrangements.
However, speaking to Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Markle dispelled such rumors, alleging that
it was Middleton who made her cry.
"No, no, the reverse happened."
Despite this, Markle was portrayed as the villain in the British press.
A Medium essay argued that the initial public narrative helped facilitate a racist hate
campaign against Markle.
This was buttressed by the fact that Middleton failed to come to her sister-in-law's aid
by publicly defending her.
Despite being much loved by royalists across the world, Queen Elizabeth II often used her
colorful clothing as a subtle way of side-eyeing her frenemies.
As Sali Hughes detailed in her book Our Rainbow Queen: A Tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and
Her Colorful Wardrobe, in 2017, the queen appeared to shade Brexiteers by wearing a
hat that resembled the EU flag.
But the queen wasn't just adept at throwing shade; she was also involved in some rather
sketchy financial dealings.
Notably, she lobbied the government to keep her private wealth concealed from the public
back in the '70s.
She was also named in the Paradise Papers as one of several super rich individuals who
hid their money away in offshore tax havens.
These allegations were in stark contradiction to the public image the queen tried to maintain.
Similarly, there were reports that she paid over $2 million to help cover Prince Andrew's
legal fees following his settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who accused him of sexual abuse.
Such payments would essentially come out of the public purse.
Once dubbed the most hated woman in Britain, Camilla Parker Bowles has attempted to rectify
her public image in recent years.
Speaking to Anderson Cooper, Prince Harry attributed this shift to Queen Consort Camilla
allegedly being power hungry, saying,
"The need for her to rehabilitate her image [...] made her dangerous because of the connections
that she was forging within the British press."
The ire directed at Camilla was largely due to her affair with King Charles when he was
married to Princess Diana.
"Well, there were three of us in this marriage.
So it was a bit crowded."
According to the book Rebel Prince, Camilla and Charles actively schemed to portray Diana
as hysterical and unbalanced.
Subsequently, Camilla allegedly came up with nasty nicknames to describe Diana, branding
her quote, "a mouse" and, quote, "that mad cow."
Camilla also apparently decorated her restroom with cruel caricatures of Diana.
When the late princess confronted Camilla about the affair, Camilla apparently bizarrely
reasoned that she was entitled to an affair with Charles, since Diana supposedly led a
charmed life.
She allegedly asserted,
"You've got everything you ever wanted.
You've got all the men in the world to fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children.
What more do you want?"
In 2021, The Times published an exposé into Prince Michael of Kent's close ties to Vladimir
Putin, and the wealth that he has allegedly acquired through his connections to the Russian state.
An alleged sting operation saw the queen's cousin and his business partner, the Marquess
of Reading, chatting to undercover reporters who posed as South Korean business executives
via Zoom.
The prince supposedly boasted of his connections to Putin.
He also noted that he'd been honored with the Order of Friendship by the Kremlin.
"In addition to that, I've traveled extensively around Russia."
The Marquess even told the reporters,
"This is kind of slightly discreet.
We're talking relatively discreetly here.
Because we wouldn't want the world to know that he is seeing Putin purely for business reasons."
Prince Michael was subsequently caught attempting to sell access to the regime for around $250,000.
Michael was heavily criticized for his alleged attempted business dealings, since the sting
occurred amid growing tensions between the UK and Russia over Putin's human rights violations
and alleged involvement in the poisonings of British citizens.
Marina Litvinenko, whose husband was allegedly fatally poisoned in London by Putin's henchmen,
condemned the prince, saying,
"It shows you don't care about human rights, democracy, about the people who are dying
in Russia or what he did to your own citizens on UK soil."
Responding to reports of the sting, Michael denied the accusations and later claimed that
he wasn't an ally of Putin.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he handed back his Order of Friendship,
but did not confirm whether he would cease business in Russia.
While Prince Harry has generated his fair share of critical op-eds, Prince William has
maintained a relatively blemish-free public profile.
Scratch a little deeper, however, and you'll find an array of seemingly sketchy behavior.
In 2020, The Times alleged that William had effectively bullied Harry and Meghan Markle
out of the royal family.
Although Harry denied the allegations at the time, he later wrote in Spare that William
did bully him.
In fact, he claimed that his brother's animosity sometimes turned violent.
Following a confrontation in which William criticized his brother's relationship with
Markle, he allegedly lunged at Harry and assaulted him.
"There have been more revelations by Prince Harry about his life in Britain's royal family."
Harry wrote,
"He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor.
I landed on the dog's bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me."
Indeed, William had previously been accused of having a foul temper.
In the book William at 40: The Making of a Modern Monarch, royal author Robert Jobson
claimed that William has a short fuse that can switch in a matter of seconds.
In addition to the ongoing drama with his brother, William has also been accused of
cheating on Kate Middleton.
His rumored lover was Rose Hanbury, a former friend of his wife.
In 2019, it was alleged that William's legal team threatened British outlets not to publish
stories about the supposed affair, effectively suppressing freedom of the press.
Following Prince Philip's death in 2021, tributes poured in, with many describing the late royal
as an eccentric and colorful character.
However, this perceived eccentricity often masked a darker side to the Duke of Edinburgh.
For instance, Philip was known for his racist and xenophobic remarks.
As detailed in the Independent, he'd been quoted as often making disparaging comments
about Asians: He's alleged to have accused Chinese people of indiscriminately eating
animals, as well as using racist language to describe their facial features.
He also allegedly made various ableist remarks toward people with disabilities, once telling
a group of deaf children in the Caribbean that their hearing loss was likely caused
by the sound of steel drums.
On another occasion, he reportedly told a blind woman, in reference to her guide dog,
"Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now?"
Additionally, he appeared to make offensive jibes about Black and South Asian people on
numerous occasions.
Philip also found himself on the wrong side of the law.
In 2019, the then-97-year-old duke was involved in a car crash that could very well have left
two women and an infant dead.
When driving near Sandringham, he was supposedly, quote, "dazzled by the sun," causing his car
to steer off the road and crash into another vehicle.
Both women required hospitalization due to fractures and suspected broken bones, though
the baby thankfully escaped injury.
Philip evaded prosecution, with critics accusing the royals of receiving preferential treatment.
"Now to Prince Philip, he was spotted back behind the wheel—"
Like her husband, the aforementioned Prince Michael, Princess Michael of Kent also has
a number of shady indiscretions to her name.
For many years, Princess Michael, whose own father was a Nazi, has faced accusations of racism.
When dining at a New York restaurant in 2004, she was alleged to have hurled racist abuse
at fellow patrons.
Witnesses who spoke to the New York Post claimed that Michael yelled at a group of Black people,
"You need to go back to the colonies!"
The princess reportedly claimed that she actually said,
"You should remember the colonies."
However, the initial account of the royal's apparent racist outburst was corroborated
by the restaurant's owner.
Attempting to atone for her reported racism, Michael only dug herself deeper.
In an interview with ITV shortly after the incident, she claimed that she can't possibly
be racist because she once wore blackface, proceeding to use an antiquated racial slur
for mixed-race people in contesting accusations that she's a bigot.
In 2017, Michael caused controversy once again when she infamously wore a racist brooch when
attending a festive luncheon alongside Meghan Markle.
Moreover, her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Aatish Taseer, alleged that Michael named her black
sheep Venus and Serena.
Although King Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles has been well documented, his
ill-treatment of Princess Diana seemingly extended beyond his philandering.
By most accounts, Charles was often cruel to Diana.
When the couple announced their engagement in 1981, Di professed her love for her fiancé.
Charles did not.
"Of course."
"Whatever 'in love' means."
The week after the couple got engaged, Diana developed bulimia, reportedly exacerbated
by Charles demeaning her.
She said,
"My husband put his hand on my waistline and said: 'Oh, a bit chubby here, aren't we?'
And that triggered off something in me — and the Camilla thing, I was desperate."
In addition to being accused of mistreating his late ex-wife, Charles allegedly projected
his anger onto his youngest son.
In his interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry claimed that his father purposely made
him suffer as a child, saying,
"That doesn't make sense — just because you suffered, that doesn't mean that your
kids have to suffer."
Since becoming king, Charles seemingly hasn't mellowed.
Infamously, he grew irate and darted angry looks at his aid when he wanted a pen removed
from his desk.
It's almost impossible to hear the name Prince Andrew without thinking of the myriad accusations
that have come his way.
By his own admission, the queen's middle son was friends with the late pedophile Jeffrey
Epstein and his right-hand woman, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
Subsequently, Andrew was accused of sexually assaulting one of Epstein's many trafficking
victims, Virginia Giuffre, when she was just 17
In his infamous BBC Newsnight interview in 2019, Andrew attempted to explain away all
of his alleged indiscretions.
Shown a snap of himself and his accuser posing at Maxwell's house, he admitted that he could
not explain the photo.
He alleged that Giuffre's claims that he was sweating all over her as they danced at a
club were false, since he apparently cannot sweat.
This is in spite of the fact that photographs have surfaced apparently showing the prince
sweating profusely.
Asked why he had to travel all the way to New York to Epstein's residence, which was
home to many of his sex crimes, in order to break off the pair's friendship, Andrew reasoned
that he did so because of his, quote, "tendency to be too honorable."
Infamously, he also asserted that he couldn't possibly have abused Giuffre because he was
at a Pizza Express restaurant on the day in question.
In 2022, Andrew paid Giuffre millions in an out of court settlement, though he's since
maintained his innocence.