Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are not the most senior royal family members but they are the most talked-about royals in the world. Apparently, this was a huge draw for The Firm but it also attracted jealousy inside the palace, according to the biographer of Finding Freedom.
Omid Scobie, who co-wrote Finding Freedom with Carolyn Durand, told The Cut that the world became more interested in the British royal family since Meghan's arrival. Because of her, some people saw that being "royal and regal" is no longer limited to white people.
Meghan's popularity was supposed to be a good thing for the House of Windsor until it started feeding off jealousy among the royal staff. Scobie said that, unfortunately, royalty is also a popularity contest and the people working within the royal households were the ones leaking stories to the press to either boost or smear a royal pair.
Scobie explained that the royal households are separated into three: Buckingham Palace (the Queen and other royals), Clarence House (Prince Charles and Camilla) and Kensington Palace (Prince William and Kate Middleton). Each household has teams of private aides, communication staff and courtiers, who apparently, also, compete with each other in this popularity contest.
Prince Harry and Meghan, apparently, wanted to correct some of these story leaks and smear campaigns but senior royal aides asked them not to comment. They, also, approached Buckingham Palace about restructuring the press system because they wanted to be "accessible to a wider and diverse media." However, the Sussex pair was, also, told that they have to pay for their own engagements if they want to widen their reach.
In 2019, Prince Harry and Meghan declared on their former Sussex Royal official website that they don't want to be part of the Royal Rota system anymore. This rota is a pool of journalists from Britain who have exclusive access to various royal engagements. They believe that the leaks about their life are given to the members of the rota.
But, given their difficult relationship with the press, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex slowly realized that breaking away and doing their own thing was the better way to go. They decided they will no longer engage with this press and instead look to credible sources or use social media as their platform for reaching their audience.
In April, the Sussex pair reiterated their zero engagement policy with the tabloid press. Prince Harry and Meghan, apparently, sent letters to the editors of The Sun, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and Daily Express that they will not respond to inquiries from journalists from these organizations.
