How Meghan and Harry are battling to squash ex staffer’s claims Duchess is ‘demonic’ boss who had ‘psycho’ moments

MEGHAN MARKLE has been hit by a fresh wave of ­allegations from former employees after she was branded a “demon” boss who had “psycho moments”.

Last night, a former courtier who worked for Meghan and Prince Harry claimed that ­during their time with the Duchess “there definitely were bad, very bad, even psycho moments.”

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The Daily Beast website reported the comments.

The unnamed source is quoted as saying: “I witnessed people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s**t.”

The ASTONISHING claims follow a recent story in another US publication, The Hollywood Reporter, that described Meghan’s management style as like a “dictator in high heels” who reduced “grown men to tears”.

Meghan’s team were already trying to dismiss those earlier allegations — said to be gleaned from a number of current and former staff.

In an extraordinary move to undermine the story this week, five current and former employees of the Duchess of Sussex went on the record to defend her, saying she is the “best boss ever”.

Us Weekly, a magazine known to be friendly to the royal couple, went in to bat for them with an article headlined “What It’s Really Like To Work For Meghan Markle: Staffers Reveal Truth Behind Rumours”.

‘Negative publicity’

The article quoted the former employees, stating how, in fact, Meghan was a caring and considerate boss.

It included claims she gives staff bundles of freshly cut flowers, home-produced eggs, and makes her team “feel like seeds being watered”.

The article was widely dismissed as a puff piece, with speculation it was potentially orchestrated by Meghan’s PR team .

Meghan, 43, and Harry, 40, are understood to be furious about The Hollywood Reporter’s claims and are desperate to stem the tide of negative publicity they are facing on the other side of the Atlantic.

It comes at an incredibly awkward time as Meghan is about to launch a cookery show and cook book to go alongside her new lifestyle brand, named American Riviera Orchard.

The former employee who spoke to the Daily Beast dismissed the Us Weekly article as a cynical exercise, saying: “She is lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns.”

In public the former Suits actress presents as happy and thoughtful.
But The Hollywood Reporter’s claims that she “barks” out orders and sends angry emails at 5am eats away at that image.

An insider told The Sun last night: “The Sussexes were left reeling by The Hollywood Reporter’s story.

“It appears that the Us Weekly story was sanctioned by the ­couple as even Archewell’s ­current global head of communications, Ashley Hansen, was quoted by name.”

Archewell is the Sussexes’ ­charitable foundation, whose name was inspired by their five-year-old son Archie.

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A production firm also called Archewell, which has helped produce the couple’s podcasts and documentaries, has an estimated £75million deal with Netflix and £20million contract with Spotify that supported the couple’s ­luxury lifestyle in a mansion in Montecito, California.

They need more money-spinning projects like those to pay their huge wage bill and keep globetrotting on private jets.

There is little doubt that the quotes about Meghan published in Us Weekly gush with incredible zeal.

Hansen told how her employers were supportive when surgery required her to take extended leave.

She is lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns

Former employee

She told the mag: “Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support.”

Unnamed current and ex-staff members claimed that they left work with “a basket with fresh flowers, fresh fruit, fresh eggs” or received gifts such as a “luxury dog leash”.

Josh Kettler, the most recent chief of staff to depart in August, also spoke up on their behalf.

He described the Sussexes as “dedicated and hardworking”, while another ex-chief of staff, Catherine St-Laurent, said: “The time I spent working with Prince Harry and Meghan was incredibly meaningful.”

While praising Meghan’s “humanitarian” works, Archewell’s former chief operating officer Mandana Dayani even managed to plug her pal’s culinary abilities.

She said: “Some of my favourite memories were during our weekly meetings in their Montecito home, where Meghan always served the most incredible lunches, snacks and her latest beautiful concoction.”

Most telling was one comment from an anonymous source which blasted The Hollywood Reporter for publishing comments “likely made up from someone who’s disgruntled.”

But that is not how The Hollywood Reporter is presenting things.

‘Felt Meghan’s wrath’

Earlier this week, the publication’s co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan stood by the article published on September 12, titled: “Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting On Harry And Meghan.”

He hit back after a Sussex source had been quoted as describing that report as “fabricated.”

Maer told the American TV show Access Hollywood: “Our reporter talked to a very high-up source who works for the couple and said, ‘Everyone is terrified of Meghan.’ ”

He stated that, prior to going to press, his reporters spoke to a dozen people who had worked with Harry and Meghan past and present.

Maer also pointed out that these staff members’ accounts were ­similar to reports made in The Times who claimed they had “felt Meghan’s wrath”.

The Times reported claims that she had bullied staff within the royal household — strongly denied at the time as “baseless smears” by Meghan’s lawyer.

Maer said: “‘Duchess Difficult’ is a nickname that has trailed Meghan for quite a few years.

“What is new is this notion, since coming to America, that a lot of these rumours were manufactured by the Palace. The reporting that we did suggests that probably isn’t true and there is still this undercurrent of fear.”

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Following repeated critical comments about Meghan in 2019, anonymous pals spoke in her defence to People magazine in the US.

The editor of People at the time, Dan Wakeford, is now editor of Us Weekly. In both cases the magazines deny having been briefed by Meghan or Harry personally.

This time, Us Weekly is said to have followed up an Instagram post by a staff member sticking up for their boss.

But questions have been raised in the past as to whether Meghan is whispering in the ears of journalists or not.

‘Best of the best’

In a High Court case four years ago, Meghan denied guiding Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, a former Us Weekly writer, for their unauthorised autobiography about the couple titled Finding Freedom.

She had to apologise in 2021 to the judge for forgetting that she had exchanged emails with an aide who was going to brief Scobie and Durand.

Meghan insisted she had “no intention to mislead” the court. The Sussexes have long tried to control who covers their media events and hit back at any negative reporting.

Harry even claimed that the Royal Family, nicknamed The Firm, was plotting against his wife.

In his Apple TV+ series The Me You Can’t See, he said there was a “combined effort of the firm and the media to smear her”.

The Sussexes were left reeling by The Hollywood Reporter’s story

Journalists covering the couple’s royal-style tour of Colombia in South America were kicked off WhatsApp groups by the team of the country’s vice president Francia Marquez for reporting on security.

Photos of Harry looking glum in Colombia while Meghan clapped happily told a story of their own.

Harry has just been on a two-day publicity trip to New York without her and travelled to a Santa Barbara fundraiser without his wife.

The Duke, who will this weekend make his fourth trip to the UK without his wife, also went on a lads-only night away for his 40th birthday.

It is, of course, entirely possible that the employee who told Us Weekly that Harry and Meghan “picked the best of the best from every field and watered the seeds for them to flourish” did so with genuine enthusiasm.

Or, perhaps, a good helping of manure was on hand.

What is Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Foundation charity?

AFTER stepping back as senior royals, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry launched their own non-profit foundation, Archewell.

The non-profit aims to offer “classes, lectures, seminars, conferences, workshops, and retreats on a variety of topics,” run a mentoring scheme, or conduct and host “events and exhibitions for cultural, sporting, health, mental health and entertainment purposes.”

The website launched on New Years Eve 2020 and couple included sweet black-and-white photos of them with their mothers as they called for “compassion” in an open letter.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed Arche, the Greek word meaning source of action, was also the inspiration behind the name of their son Archie Mountbatten-Windsor.

“We connected to this concept for the charitable organisation we hoped to build one day, and it became the inspiration for our son’s name,” they told The Daily Telegraph. “To do something of meaning, to do something that matters.

“Archewell is a name that combines an ancient word for strength and action, and another that evokes the deep resources we each must draw upon.”