Read extract here: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/royal-family/article/royal-family-william-kate-harry-meghan-courtiers-servants-zjvdkbkkd
What did you think? I thought a lot of it was stuff we kinda sorta already knew, but having the quotes from “palace insiders” makes it a more engaging read.
Edit: the breakdown of this article by everyone in the comments makes me think we need a “royal article book club” just for weekly discussions…😂
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Personally for me Tom Quinn is the same as Angela Levin. At one point last year he and the mirror were writing a story a minute with him as the “royal expert”.
It’s behind a paywall
Would like to know why palace staffers believed Meghan’s place in the royal household should be a kitchen staff??…
I can’t believe these people get to sell what’s basically fanfiction about the royals lol anyone is a “royal expert” nowadays
Tom Quinn gonna Tom Quinn so I take his stuff with a grain of salt because his stuff seems to be more about shit stirring and idk about how reliable his sources are.
I believe some of this article but then will read a line like this- “Baths must be run at precisely the same time each day” and then my trust goes out the window haha
They never give examples of how she attempted to change things or how she stood up to the old guards.
Easy to make an allegation but the lack of detail to support it suggests it’s just made up by salty sources.
Also these old guards /sources seem to know Meghan’s minds and private conversations between her and Harry that seemed to change him.
The account of the tiara story doesn’t match Harry’s in in Spare but seems to admit that courtiers did not want to be accommodating to Meghan yet they thought the sun shone out of Kate’s **** because she did what she was told.
These reports only confirm that Harry and Meghan would never have thrived in that institution or been treated decently as the people around them had the daggers out for Meghan and as stated in there they thought she’s should have been working in the kitchens not actually being a royal.
This article was very Meghan focused but there were a few other tidbits I found interesting:
One member of staff told me that at one point, Camilla hated the idea of being queen and would regularly say to Charles, “Can’t we get away from all this protocol? It’s all bollocks.” Charles, who hates swearing, would demurely reply, “You’re doing it [becoming queen] for me, darling.”
It’s true that some royals can display acts of ill temper. One former servant recalled how Prince Andrew insisted on a member of staff being transferred because he disliked a mole on the man’s face. Another spoke of a time Andrew moved a man to other duties for wearing a nylon tie. And, according to a now retired member of the Buckingham Palace staff, Prince Edward once tore a strip off his driver for looking too often in his rear-view mirror.
The Kate gossip was painted like a compliment but sad:
“Before Kate realised that as a senior royal you have to dress carefully, having taken advice, she once bought an outfit that William considered inappropriate. He told Kate she looked as if she’d just run through a charity shop covered in superglue. Everyone thought this was very funny, including, to her credit, Kate,” he said.
…Yet what Meghan saw as Kate being pushed around, Kate saw as an essential part of being a member of the royal family.”
Honestly, so much of the palace staff (particularly the older ones) just sound awful.
> “At times it got so bad that I heard one of the senior staff mumble that Meghan should really have been employed in the palace kitchens.”
WOOF.
> “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.”
> “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.”
These 2 assertions seen contradictory to me.
> “Kate had to explain many of the things that parents outside the royal family do with their children as a matter of course — she had to show him how to give the children a piggyback, for example. William said very quietly, ‘My father never gave me a piggyback.’ ”
It’s a little confusing that Kate would have to show William this because we know Diana gave him piggyback rides, there are photos.
Someone was jealous.
Andrew really has less than 0 redeeming qualities. What an odious lump of a person.
Can’t believe I muddled through (most of) this ridiculous article 🤬😮💨😮💨
If anyone has read the autobiography/biography/memoir of the royals, you’ll know which of these rumors are persistent and most likely true. One that really stands out is how awful Andrew has been. Only Fergie has good things to say about him and that’s because she’s on his payroll. We’ve also seen in interviews, footage, and read in books that William is terse and slightly condescending towards not only the press and household staff but also his wife. It seems the only people who get to see his good side are his childhood friends and Jecca Craig. He was rumored to be rude towards his own mother. All in all, this gossip lines up with what one would expect from a bunch of spoiled, entitled royals.
I’m sure most of this is fabricated, but even the fraction that is true means Meghan was right to get away from this demented, abusive family and their minions.
Meghan was there for two years and has been gone for five. They are absolutely obsessed with someone who would be a footnote in royal history. The rota and royal authors look insane. She really does live rent free in their heads.
What pablum. Since when is the Times a tabloid?
Could I believe that Meghan might be difficult to work with, or that the stress of what she was going though (pregnancy, suicidal thoughts, harassment, etc.) you bring out some bad feelings, that effected staff? Yes.
I can also believe that Meghan might be more direct and forth right in a way that lead staff to not like her. Could I believe that Meghan has treated people poorly during her time as a Royal? Yes.
But at the same time, why should she be nice to Royal staff who were, as the article states, making rude comments about her and constantly undermining her?
Beyond that, what I DON’T believe is that she’s some evil monster, who was so bad that Kensington Palace staff were alarmed at her bullying. Sorry, but no, the British royal family is known to treat staff horribly. Even if Meghan was a bully, she would be tame when compared to her in-laws.
William is known to have a temper. Charles has multiple allegations of staff being subjected to abuse. Sophie was caught screaming at her security guard. Anne has cursed at press and staff, and has been rude to the public on multiple occasions. I have heard multiple complaints about Camilla having a terrible attitude, both in the media and from people who have worked indirectly with her. These things are just not reported on as aggressively, I have yet to see a Vanity Fair cover story about William or Charles being hard to work with.
Even if we go further back: Princess Margaret used staff as foot rests and has a notorious attitude. Prince Philip’s “gaffs” are well known. This is a multi-generational thing.
Not one of these people has this pervasive “bullying” narrative attached to them. And unlike Meghan most of them still hold institutional power within the family. So, what gives? Why is Anne “forthright” but Meghan is a bully?
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