Salty attitudes, bad habits, and a duchess trapped in a palace. When it
comes to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, it's hard to separate fact from fiction.
Who could forget Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding? Her two beautiful dresses,
the star-studded guest list, and of course, then-Prince Charles walking Meghan down the aisle.
It was a bittersweet moment, as traditionally the honor would have gone to her father,
Thomas Markle. According to The Daily Mail, he was photographed in London just days before the
wedding, prepping for the big day. Thomas was then hospitalized for heart surgery and would
not be appearing at the wedding, as confirmed by a palace press release. But there were rumors
that his absence was less about his health and more about a fallout with his daughter.
Thomas reportedly had a few tense exchanges with Meghan and Harry after he was caught staging
the paparazzi photos before the wedding. Further rumors circulated suggesting that
Thomas had faked the heart attacks that led to his hospital visit. He denied the
allegations to the Daily Mail, supplying medical bills for his treatment as proof.
According to Us Weekly, Thomas has continued talking to tabloids about his daughter and the
royal family for years. He even shared a personal letter Meghan wrote to him with the Daily Mail,
in which she begged him to stop speaking to the tabloids. In 2021, Harry and Meghan successfully
sued the newspaper for publishing the personal correspondence, according to The Washington Post.
Thomas Markle told Good Morning Britain in 2021 that he's apologized to Meghan and Harry but:
"Bottom line is I've never heard back from Meghan or Harry in any way shape or form."
The society of tabloids loves to pit women against each other. So after Meghan Markle
and Prince Harry announced their engagement, it was only a matter of time before Meghan and Kate
Middleton allegedly became enemies. According to The Telegraph, which first broke the allegation,
Meghan was said to have reduced her sister-in-law to tears during a bridesmaid dress fitting for
Princess Charlotte. Tom Bower's explosive tell-all book, Revenge, further purported
that at the core of the argument was a question of whether the bridesmaid outfits should follow royal
protocol and include tights. It supposedly prompted immediate tears from Middleton.
But in the now-infamous CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey,
the former Suits star insisted that the two fell out because Kate was in
the wrong. Addressing the rumors that she made her sister-in-law cry, Markle stated:
"The reverse happened. And I don't say that to be disparaging to anyone."
Markle also stated that the week up to the wedding was difficult and added:
As of 2022, tabloids have continued to stir the pot between the two. A year earlier,
there were reports that the two had made an effort to amend any wrongdoing after Meghan
gave birth to her daughter, Lilibet. But according to Us Weekly, we have yet to see
them interact in public in a meaningful way. If they've buried the hatchet, then
the reportedly complicated relationship between their respective husbands doesn't help matters.
The rumor that Prince Harry and Prince William had a falling out has persisted for a long
while. But as it goes, the exact details remain murky. While some think it started when William
warned his brother against marrying Meghan, others believe the final straw for Harry was
when William refused to speak up in his wife's defense. According to StyleCaster, there were
online theories that William was leveraging the bad press surrounding Meghan to distract from his
own rumored affair. But The Telegraph reported that Harry and Meghan's decision to move to the
states and talk about the family's private lives with Oprah Winfrey didn't sit well with William.
"Pretty rich coming from a ginger."
While it's unclear exactly what happened, a look at William and Harry's body language at
the many royal events of 2022 suggests that something went down. While it's likely that
there was never only one thing that led to the fallout, there perhaps were a combination
of stressful events. And the relationship between the two princes certainly doesn't
look promising at the moment. According to insiders, the once-close brothers had grown
into two very different men. Harry explained in the interview with Oprah that he and William:
"We have a shared experience, but we, you know we, we were on different paths."
A source told Us Weekly:
It's been well rumored that Prince Harry was a party animal in his young adult years. And
it would have hardly been surprising that a young, rich, and handsome man liked to blow
off some steam on the weekends. But there was speculation that his penchant for partying had
become a problem. According to The Guardian, one of the first indicators that Harry's behavior was
an issue came in 2002. King Charles reportedly discovered that the then-16-year-old boy had
been frequently drinking alcohol and using cannabis, so he subsequently ordered Harry
to spend a day at a rehab clinic. In the intervening years, tabloids reported him
getting into repeatedly questionable situations such as the time he unfortunately dressed up as
a Nazi for a costume party, or the time he was caught playing strip poker in Las Vegas.
It wasn't until years later that Harry admitted that he'd had a problem with drugs and alcohol.
In his AppleTV+ docuseries, The Me You Can't See, he explained that it took him years to deal with
the trauma of his mother's death. He began binge drinking at the weekends to cope. He confessed:
As soon as Meghan Markle and Prince Harry got married, it seemed like the new duchess
didn't quite fit in. The scrutiny that came with her new title was totally new to the
former television star, as was palace culture. And while she played the part well in public,
there were rumors that she failed to adjust to royal life behind
the scenes. Royal expert Professor Pauline Maclaran told the Express:
It wasn't until 2021, when speaking with Oprah Winfrey,
that Meghan explained she felt so trapped by the palace that she became suicidal.
She claimed that at one point she was only allowed out of the house twice in four months.
"I know there's an obsession with how things look, but has anyone talked about how it feels?"
Markle declared that things had become so desperate she was afraid to be left alone.
When she approached the courtiers about seeking outside treatment, her request was allegedly
denied for fear of how it would look to the public. Things escalated to the point that
she and Harry decided it was time to step away as working royals and head for the states. They both
came to the conclusion that a culture with which Meghan was more comfortable should be their goal.
"The decision that I have made for my wife and I to step back is not one I made lightly."
When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle officially stepped away from their royal duties in January
2020, there was still a lot to figure out with their family. Up until that point,
the couple had relied fully on their salaries as working royals. Now that they were out of a job,
money was going to be an issue. At the time, King Charles was reportedly against continuing
to pay Harry and Meghan their salaries if they were going to relocate to California
and no longer serve the royal family. Harry said as much during his interview with Oprah,
and added that if it wasn't for the inheritance left to him from his mom,
the late Princess Diana, he'd still be stuck in the U.K.
"I had three conversations with my grandmother and two conversations with my father,
before he stopped taking my calls."
According to Vanity Fair, Charles didn't think it was fair for the British public
to finance Harry's new American lifestyle, but
he wasn't rash about cutting him off either. According to official royal expenditure reports,
between 2020 and 2021 the royal family still spent millions ensuring the safety and financial
security of Harry and Meghan. But a spokesperson for the couple claimed that this payment didn't
contradict Harry's statement, as it was part of a different financial timeline to the one discussed.
While things are likely still tense between Charles and Harry,
the prince has managed to almost fully move towards financial independence. Shortly after
establishing himself in the US, he and Meghan signed multimillion-dollar deals
with Netflix and Spotify, something Harry could never have done as a working royal.
Leaving a centuries old institution is a triumphant task in itself,
even in the year 2020. So when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry left the royal family,
they reportedly dealt with tense negotiations between Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles, and
Prince William, according to the Daily Mail. Harry and Meghan allegedly left without much notice,
before any clear understanding of their roles had been figured out. According to Town & Country,
almost immediately following the birth of their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor,
it was rumored that Meghan and Harry were considering rejecting a royal
title for their son. But the truth may have been a bit more complicated.
During their interview with Oprah Winfrey, the couple claimed that they indeed wanted
a title for their firstborn because it came with security and other protections. They alleged that
long before Archie was born, the palace made the decision that he would not be given one.
Meghan told Winfrey that while she was pregnant, she was informed that the family intended to
break royal protocol by denying Archie his title. She added there was no explanation
as to why, and that she was troubled by the implications of the decision. She told Winfrey:
"The idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled in the same way."
When his grandfather became king, rumors began swirling that Archie's
title may finally be granted. As of this video, that hasn't yet happened.
Soon after their engagement, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry began building a staff to assist
with their daily lives and royal duties. Most of them reportedly didn't last long. In fact,
they were rumored to have dropped like flies. Former
tabloid editor of Britain's Daily Star newspaper, Dawn Neesom, told Page Six:
This led to gossip that the couple was extremely hard to work for. When Meghan and Harry left royal
life, people went on the record about their alleged experiences with them. And what they
had to say was not favorable. Meghan was accused of being very demeaning to staff,
with one individual claiming that so much as missing a call from the
Duchess left them drastically afraid of the consequences. Things apparently
escalated to the point that Prince William and Kate Middleton got involved to comfort
Meghan's exhausted staff on more than one occasion, according to The Daily Beast.
The Times reported that Meghan and Harry's former communications secretary, Jason Knauf,
filed an HR complaint detailing how deeply concerned he was at Meghan's
bullying — especially of other women. According to the Evening Standard,
the couple denied the allegations, with a legal advisor stating:
Though some might argue that the sheer volume of people willing to share their experiences
could point to some truth, the accusations could very well just be blown up rumors.