Prince William dismissed bullying allegations against his wife, Princess Kate, and a new report claimed that Meghan Markle “burst into tears” after the heir apparent’s statement was released.
"I mean, the saddest part of it was this wedge created between me and my brother so that he's now on the institution's side. And I get, part of that I get. I understand right? That’s his inheritance, so to some extent it's already ingrained in him that part of his responsibility is the survivability and the continuation of this institution. That day, a story came out that part of the reason why Meghan and I were leaving was because William had bullied us out,” Prince Harry said of Meghan’s reaction in the fifth episode of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s docuseries, as reported by The Mirror.
"And once I got in the car after the meeting, I was told about a joint statement that had been put out in my name and my brother's name squashing the story about him bullying us out of the family. I couldn’t believe it. No one had asked me permission to put my name to a statement like that. And I rang [Meghan] and I told her and she burst into floods of tears because within four hours they were happy to lie to protect my brother and yet for three years, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us,” the younger son of King Charles and the late Princess Diana went on.
However, following this, Prince Harry and Meghan decided to "air their dirty laundry in public,” to which an expert said caused so much "damage to the narrative of a happy family life.”
Meghan and Harry now live in the U.S. with their two children, Archie, five, and Lilibet, three. The pair stepped down as senior working royals in 2020 and, along with their young son, moved to begin a new life in California.
Meanwhile, according to a royal expert, Prince Philip, who passed away in 2021, was reported to have been "wary" of the former "Suits" star. Meghan and Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee who married into the Royal family as the wife of Prince Edward, are said to have shared parallels, according to reports. For starters, Wallis Simpson is the wife of Prince Edward.
Royal expert Ingrid Seward has alleged that Prince Philip referred to Meghan as "DoW" behind her back. "I think Prince Philip was very canny about people and he didn't always see the bad in them, he tried to see the good in them. I think he just couldn't get away from the fact [of the] similarities between Meghan and Harry and Edward and Mrs Simpson," she told GB News in an interview.
“There are so many similarities which is why he used to call her The Duchess of Windsor, I mean not to her face. We used to call her dow—DoW [the abbreviation for Duchess of Windsor],” the royal author furthered.
Ingrid claimed, in her “My Mother and I” book, that the late Duke of Edinburgh was "wary" of Meghan from the beginning. "One of the few wary of succumbing to (Meghan's) charm offensive... was Prince Philip. From the moment he detected her apparent similarity to Wallis, he referred to her as DoW,” she penned.
Meghan and Prince Harry have been cautioned by a royal specialist that they do not have the support of A-List celebrities. Following the couple's decision to disassociate themselves from the royal family and England, their popularity has plunged.
Richard Fitzwilliams, a royal expert and author, is of the opinion that Meghan and Prince Harry "have remarkably few A-listers who openly support them." "Much depends on Meghan's cookery program for Netflix and how well, American Riviera Orchard, her lifestyle brand, actually does. Meanwhile, it seems most unlikely that more awards will come Harry's way anytime soon,” he went on.
Business Times has reached out to Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for comments.
