The Hollywood Reporter Piece Isn't Really About Meghan's Bullying

A number of you have reached out and asked about my thoughts on the Hollywood Reporter piece on Meghan being “Duchess Difficult.” I had not actually read it, so for today’s subscriber post, I pulled it up and am sharing my thoughts. As a preliminary matter, if you want to read the article, I think this is the one people are talking about.

The piece summarizes the high-level staffers the Sussexes have lost, including the unsavory possibility Sunshine Sachs dropped the couple in 2020 after they stopped paying their bills: “(Sources tell Rambling Reporter that Morgan [of Sunshine Sachs] stopped repping them around 2020, because the Sussexes stopped paying Sunshine Sachs for its services, though the PR firm denies that was the case.).” Despite the denial, the allegation is out in the open, and most people will assume it is true.

Then, the Hollywood Reporter attempts to provide the “why” behind these many departures, which is where the drama lies:

Why’d they all leave? What explains the churn? “Everyone’s terrified of Meghan,” claims a source close to the couple. “She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice. They’re both poor decision-makers, they change their minds frequently. Harry is a very, very charming person — no airs at all — but he’s very much an enabler. And she’s just terrible.”

Yikes. The piece goes on:

In 2018 Markle’s treatment of two royal aides prompted Buckingham Palace to investigate the then-princess for “bullying behavior.” Though the results of the inquiry were never released, Markle denounced the effort as a “calculated smear campaign.” But some of the couple’s stateside staff-members also reserve special bile for Markle, whose reported penchant for noisy tantrums and angry 5 a.m. emails has earned her the in-house moniker ‘Duchess Difficult.’ “She’s absolutely relentless,” says one source. “She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.”

Frankly, that final description seems dramatic to me. Reducing grown men to tears? Hmmm. But the central thrust of the accusation, that Meghan, as a boss, is over-bearing, rude, and even mean rings true to most people who have observed Meghan closely.

Up to today, I did not bother to read the Hollywood Reporter piece because it sounded like old news, and frankly, it is old news. We have all known for a long time that Meghan is not pleasant to people she considers inferior.

I say this, not because I am not a fan of Meghan’s, which I obviously am not, but because I think it comports with observation and life experience.

Meghan’s public persona has always felt fake.