‘Royals at War’ book claims Duchess Meghan’s work ethic freaked out the palace?

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the Royal Academy of Arts to view Oceania

I’ve said this a few times now, but I’m completely ignoring all of the dumb crap from Lady Colin Campbell’s “tell-all” biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Lady Colin is a troll in the vein of Piers Morgan. But it’s incredibly curious to see all of these other “biographies” coming out, many of which seem to have been thrown together in a couple of months following the Sussexit. The one we’re discussing here is Royals at War: The Untold Story of Harry and Meghan’s Shocking Split with the House of Windsor by Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett. It comes out on July 23. And what it contains is the oft-repeated story about how Meghan had a “Hollywood gung-ho attitude.” Which is Brit-speak for “she expected staffers to put in 40 hours a week on her behalf and they threw absolute tantrums about it.”

Meghan Markle has ‘very high standards’ and her ‘Hollywood gung-ho attitude’ put her at odds with royal aides, an explosive new book claims. The Duchess of Sussex, 38, who is currently living in LA at Tyler Perry’s $18 million mansion with Prince Harry, 35, and their son Archie, 13 months, is thought to have alienated herself from the staff tasked with easing her transition into royalty. Her ‘West Coast energy’ – which included 5am starts and ‘text message bombardments’ – drove staff to distraction, investigative journalists Dylan Howard and Andy Tillett claim in their upcoming book Royals At War.

One insider told the authors: ‘Meghan can be difficult. She has very high standards and is used to working in a Hollywood environment. However, there is a different degree of respect in the royal household.’

Meghan reportedly also raced to support charities without considering the details of her patronage, according to the book, with the author being told: ‘It was all too rushed, without proper research.’

Meghan’s exacting standards resulted in a ‘remarkable’ staff turnover, according to the book, with five aides having quit or relocated following the mother-of-one’s wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018. One senior female protection officer allegedly left after becoming exasperated because Meghan ‘ignored advice about venturing into risky crowd situations’.

But insiders revealed to Howard and Tillett that Meghan found the constraints of royalty frustrating – especially the expectation that she would remain diplomatically impartial and not voice opinions. In September Prince Harry and Meghan Markle broke free of palace aides, and hired PR firm Sunshine Sachs, whose clients include include Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lopez.

Howard said of the move: ‘Insiders told me that by that point, Meghan had burned too many bridges. The Palace is run by a hierarchy of advisors, aides and equerries who hold the real power. Once Meghan cut herself free of those strings, there was no way back.’

[From The Daily Mail]

These people. SMH. They really think they’re doing something, right? How dare Meghan… want to work? How dare she do her own research into charities when her staffers throw tantrums about doing their jobs and helping her? How dare she not do things the royal way, i.e. barely work? How dare she naturally outshine the dull white royals? How dare she contact an American PR firm when the royal courtiers had spent the previous year waging a blatant smear campaign against her? Who does this duchess think she is? That’s what all of this amounts to.

Royal wedding

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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237 Responses to “‘Royals at War’ book claims Duchess Meghan’s work ethic freaked out the palace?”

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  1. Snazzy says:

    “However, there is a different degree of respect in the royal household.” What does that even mean? We respect people too much to ask them to work?

    • Mary says:

      Good question. The way it is written it makes it sound as though Meghan did not give the staff (courtiers), that has all of the “power,” the respect it deserves (??!!). Was she supposed to curtsey to the staff?

      • MsIam says:

        It means if you’re black, step back. Period. Sophie was a working woman, presumably she would be used to a corporate environment and expect people to behave accordingly at work. I know she got a lot of digs because her father had the audacity to own some tire stores or something but I don’t recall these types of attacks. And the things Sophie was caught saying about the other royals is far worse than anything from Meghan. But for her, all is forgiven. Why is that?

      • notasugarhere says:

        Sophie also closed her business over a million in debt, debt she never repaid. But gets away with it.

    • Yvette says:

      What got me was this: “Meghan reportedly also raced to support charities without considering the details of her patronage, according to the book, with the author being told: ‘It was all too rushed, without proper research.’

      LOL! In other words, Meghan was passionate and pro-active in choosing Charities that probably weren’t ‘socially appealing’ and primed for Tatler-grade photo ops, but would benefit from her voice and attention. Meghan could have been such a boon to the Winsors. It’s a shame they were all too concerned about her ‘not’ staying in her ‘place’ to let her work and be a benefit to the Firm … oh and and concerned about her over-shadowing the shy Duchess of Cambridge as well.

      • Mrs.Krabapple says:

        Translation: Meghan wanted to work hard and often; William and Kate wanted to work hardly at all, and used the years it takes to properly “research” as an excuse.

      • Lowrider says:

        It is a good thing to do deep research into a charity the royal chooses to patron. They are a lot of shady charities using funds to support staff lifestyles rather than the money going to the actual cause.

      • Ana says:

        The proper amount of time would be a decade in Keen years.

      • Chelsea says:

        I have no idea what they’re talking about with her “rushing” into patronage. Half of her official patronage were given to her by the queen(ACU and National Theatre). Smartworks and Mayhew are both respected charities with seemingly good financial standing and the Hubb Kitchen was visited by Prince Charles and Prince William.

        This honestly just read like an attempt to continue the “Harry and Meghan are reckless and will realize the errors of their ways” storyline they’ve been trying to push since January because they can’t get over the fact that H&M willingly left.

        Another possibility is that they capped Meghan on the amount of patronages she could have so she wouldn’t look like she was out working Kate and they’re afraid it and anecdotes of bigotry on the part of palace courtiers will come out in Omid’s book.

    • Penguin says:

      I believe that it’s more of a question of misunderstanding the role of a courtier in the royal household. They’re not PAs and they aren’t at the beck and call of the royal family. They have other staff for that. Courtiers are meant to help the royal family navigate their roles and make decisions on the direction of the monarchy. This has been the case for centuries and their role has remained very much the same. If you understand the structure and role of the monarchy in a country like the UK you realise they have very little freedom or decision making power. There’s a whole system that makes those decisions for them and they just sit back and wave. I think this is something that Charles always struggled with.

      • Becca R says:

        This is more a case of white staff not wanting to take suggestions from a foreign WoC (the actress 😡😡😡) who they felt were beneath them.

        Especially since their “complaints” directly mirror the same ones tabloids had regarding Meghan’s early project that wasn’t leaked/sabotaged). I distinctly remember their were concerns that she had “ideas”.

        I wager the people who worked directly with Meghan (and Harry, since Invictus and Sentebale weren’t managed by palace staff, so why trip when Meghan allegedly stepped outside of the box?????????????) do not share the same view as the Cambridge staff who chose to brief tabloids about those 5AM emails (from the first article) then it was changed to 5AM texts, and I’m sure next it will be 5AM smoke signals.

        Or KP staff is lazy as fuck and we’re ill-prepared to handled FOUR royals who were actively working. William and Kate only because full-time working royals in 2017, and even that was still sporadic compared to what Charles and Anne were doing. Adding to Meghan joining with new ideas that more than likely would have been centered of effectiveness to maximize success?

        The KP staff was not prepared and likely not equipped/staffed to handle the increased workload.

        And instead of doing what normal business do (hire more people/outsource work), they decided to brief the tabloids and whinge about some damn emails/texts.

      • SophieP says:

        What I don’t understand about this report on 5am messages/email/whathaveyou, is that why is it sooo wrong? I remember when I first read it and I thought “wow, this screams dedication!” Why was it wrong that Meghan allegedly did it? I have no clue…

  2. aquarius64 says:

    Same old same old. Repackaged gossip from two years ago.

    • bettyrose says:

      IKR? There’s nothing new here. Even the Lifetime movie of a couple years ago lightheartedly addressed these claims.

  3. Jess says:

    With the virus and brexit, britain is going to go through an economic downturn. The only sweet karma i can find in all this toxicity is when britain economically fails hard, the public will call for the monarchy to distribute their wealth to the public. It is grotesque how these people have castles and diamonds sitting in a vault while the NHS suffers, poverty and unemployment increasing, homelessness, etc.

    Sick of these chihuahuas and their elitist bullshit.

    Off with their heads!

    • ABritGuest says:

      Jess you need to read this article- basically shows how public funding of royals has gone up despite austerity and despite number of public engagements dropping when Prince Philip retired https://members.tortoisemedia.com/2020/06/29/royal-money-sovereign-wealth-fund-queen-and-charles/content.html

      Honestly you can understand why the royal family account thanked journalists the other day & have to keep the right wing press happy because info like this receives minimum press on purpose unless the press wants something eg creating furore over Frogmore reno because they wanted access to Archie’s christening.

      • Em says:

        It’s awful! It just shows though that the more you repeat a story, even if it isn’t true, the more people will believe it. The right wing media repeat the idea that the Royals bring in so much money and are so valuable and so many people still completely buy into it.

      • Ruby_Woo says:

        It’s disgusting

    • Lowrider says:

      The monarchy should be abolished but in reality it is not going anywhere. There’s too many dim people who support classism and are excited by tiaras, pomp and pageantry.

  4. Florence says:

    What did they want – another silent mop of hair and teeth?

  5. Astrid says:

    Harry and Meghan’s wedding pictures always brings a smile to my face. They are happy!

  6. Priscila Bezerra-Fischer says:

    The 5 am emails would only be a problem IMO if Meghan demanded people to IMMEDIATLY reply to them and got angry when they did not…

    WTF? Who is going to walk to the office at 9 AM every day and complain to have received an email at 5? This happens all the time, especially when working with people that travels a lot.

    These aides are just used to the Cambridges once a week work days , where the real work is put into spinning certain narratives rather than actually…working.

    • Becks1 says:

      The 5 am email is so specific that I think it did happen, but like you said…so? Unless there was a requirement to respond right away, just ignore it. I would, because I would be sleeping, lol. (my theory with that has been that it happened on the Australia tour, I think the story of it first floated shortly thereafter, and I imagine she had jet lag so was up early and working.)

      • Priscila Bezerra-Fischer says:

        That is my gut feeling too. It is all about the spin.
        Even if this is a culture clash, Meghan had worked abroad on offices and is intelligent enough to know people have different approaches. This and the fact her team came from the Cambridges. They are used to this very low stakes jobs and got scared.

      • lucy2 says:

        Plus she was probably used to having to be on TV and film sets early, and is just a morning person. Some people like to do that, get up early and get organized for the days, send out their messages, etc. But apparently when Meghan does it, it’s the end of the world.

      • Peanutbuttr says:

        Don’t most of the PR people come from the agency world? Emails at all hours are standard to the point that the first thing I do is check my work phone to see what happened while I was sleeping. 9 times out of 10 its nothing that can’t wait. And I know that’s definitely true with my UK colleagues because I often get emails from them at midnight their time.

      • Em says:

        I’ve swung on both sides of the fence on this argument. I totally understand that someone travelling might send an email or text at whatever time. I’ve sent late night emails while in lockdown.

        At the same time, I’ve always been very careful not to text anyone from work outside of office hours because I feel it’s an invasion of their personal time, even if they know they’re not expected to respond. Text messages late at night or early in the morning could wake people up, if you sleep with your phone right by your bed and I have enough anxiety about work that I probably wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep if that happened to me.

      • bettyrose says:

        Em, that’s really considerate of you, and not at all the norm. The only way I can avoid being texted after hours is to turn notifications off.

      • Chelsea says:

        This 5am emails started after Meghan was quoting as telling someone when they were on tour in Australia that she was up at 430am doing yoga because of jetlag and the stage of pregnancy she was in. I honestly feel like a tabloid, I believe it was the DailyFail, just ran with that and everyone has just kept regurgitating it over and over again.

      • Ylajali says:

        I think the issue is that as a courtier (I would imagine) you’re essentially an EA, and we can’t exactly ignore emails or turn off notifications. My various (CEO/top level gov) bosses would never regularly email me or text that early, because they knew I would check it in case it was urgent. So if the story’s true, a quick read of the org culture could have told her that putting a simple delay delivery on her emails would have easily solved the problem.

    • BW says:

      I don’t get the problem with a 5 a.m. e-mail. I’m not even going to know I got the e-mail until I check my e-mail at the office.

      If you don’t want to get pinged with an e-mail at 5 a.m., turn off the ringer for e-mail alerts. SOLVED.

      • Lady D says:

        I think it boils down to having just a little bit of respect for your employees, no? Unless your shift starts at 4am, you should not be receiving emails from the boss at 5am.

      • Dutch says:

        It’s sometimes just the way people work. One of the top execs in the company I work for regularly sends emails as late at 2 or 3 a.m., because that’s when she has no distractions and can clear out her inbox. She doesn’t expect a response right away, but it’s also a sign of respect on her part because it lets us know that if we email her we will get a response. That time of the morning might be when Megan has no distractions and can give her staff marching order so they can hit the ground running, instead of loafing around with a cuppa waiting for the boss to start her day.

      • Priscila Bezerra-Fischer says:

        @ Lady D : It is an email. Not a phone call. Meghan is herself working at 5 am by sending emails, for whatever reasons. She is not out there calling people at this early hour or demanding people answer her emails right away.

        I dont know which program they use, but the time of the email is definitely not the first thing one notices- it is usually the subjects and the sender. As I do not believe they were pressured into replying her right away, checking the time she sent an email is nitpicking of the great order.

      • AMM says:

        My supervisor was always too busy during actual working hours to do anything organizational. She would often email us any plans or tasks late the night before or early morning the day of. We didn’t have to respond to those or do anything outside of our paid hours, that was just when she had the free time to send out emails. I never found it rude.

      • MaryContrary says:

        I’ve sent and received work emails at all hours of the day and night. It’s certainly not expected on either end that you’re going to work on it at midnight or 3am. It’s not seen as rude. Maybe this is a cultural thing-Americans don’t think this is a big deal at all.

      • MissMarple says:

        I never understood this “getting emails at 5AM” business getting so much attention in the British media. If you work as an EA it is very typical to get emails at 5AM or even earlier. Business execs tend to start their day on the treadmill watching the overseas markets and firing off emails in the very early hours. I didn’t dissolve into a panic attack if I got emails from my boss at 3 or 5AM. These courtiers are so delicate! Hollywood EAs are expected to work just about 24-7. They have almost no life. Does this reflect a cultural difference from NA and Britain? Are we in NA rude for sending emails so early? If you work at a Start Up as I have, you work 80 hour weeks and are expected to adapt to the needs of your team, whether it be late nights or early mornings.

      • Montrealaise says:

        I read excerpts from the book, including the part of the emails. The authors claim that Meghan did expect her staff to answer her 5 a.m. emails within half an hour, so turning off the ring tone or ignoring the email until 9 a.m. was not possible.

      • VS says:

        @Lady D – I am very surprised here; I guess because I am a US American and I work in a very global business, I have sent email at 2 – 4 am in the morning just like I have received emails at those hours; depending on urgency, I have been called at insane hours……..but only if it is an extreme extreme emergency. No one expect anyone to respond to an email sent that late; I never expect it out of other people either….

        I will just stop here……

      • swirlmamad says:

        @Montrealaise, of course the authors of the book that is bashing her is going to say that she expected her staff to respond asap. That’s what fits their narrative. However, I’d be skeptical of that….the vast majority of what you hear about Meghan is that she seems to be a reasonable, empathetic person and I doubt she would be pulling a Miranda Priestley, expecting her staff to set their alarm for ungodly hours so they don’t miss her correspondence. I’m sure she did send the email that early, but I would bet money that this has been twisted to villainize her yet again.

      • Dee says:

        I’d rather get an early email I can check as soon as I get up and find out if meetings and plans have changed, before I get dressed and before I commute to work.

      • Nic919 says:

        Unless they print the emails from her demanding a response at 5 am I will not believe it. I get emails from work at 5 am all the time because my head office is in the UK. I don’t spend time whining about it and check emails at the normal business hours for my time. That’s what happens in a global environment.

        Clearly these courtiers don’t understand a normal person work ethic. She’s not Hollywood, just works how the peasants do. KP hasn’t had people with a work ethic so that’s why they are bothered.

      • Becks1 says:

        @nic – I think that’s exactly it. It doesn’t have anything to do with UK vs US work ethic. It’s about having a work ethic, period. The courtiers at KP had been coasting along with the Cambridges for years and were probably shocked at Meghan because she wanted to work.

      • Olivia says:

        @MaryContrary and @MissMaple…No it’s not a cultural thing. I’m a Brit and an early person. My brains are super active between 4-7am in the morning. I’ve got kids so I’ve made it a habit of emailing around these times so I can wake kids at 7am to get ready for school.Most working parents are in that habit, at least I know a few that do. Never a Hollywood thing, its a common practice by most top execs, managers and officers alike. More so there was no instruction from Meghan requiring immediate response or action upon receipt. I think the problem is more of the courtiers being complacent with the work patterns and schedule of the other lazy royals and fear of change; anything out of the ordinary they find upsetting. I receive emails all the time, some sent as late as 2am from directors. Nothing cultural.

    • ThEHufflepuffLizLemon says:

      I’ve never understood this. Depending on my agenda, my alarm often goes off at 4, and I spend an hour or so getting emails out before I go to the gym (now the basement). I also send late-night emails on delay, and those are usually set to deliver around 6AM, especially if I’m emailing front-line staff, mostly because I don’t want to interrupt their evening with expectations of a response or freak them out with an email from the boss. Why on earth would a 5AM email be earth-shattering? It’s called…business. Which is ultimately the issue-she treated it like a job, and wanted to shine at her brand-new job. I’m so glad they’re out of there.

    • morrigan01 says:

      The 5am email thing is so stupid. Frankly, anyone who works for any company gets emails at all hours, simply because of time zones usually. I would get emails at all hours of the day and night when I worked regularly all the damn time – especially when I worked for a large company that not only had offices all across the country, but overseas as well. And I would SEND emails late at night as well, all the time.

      Nobody expects someone to reply to an email to text message sent at hours very later or very early. Reply later in the morning, like every normal person does.

  7. Becks1 says:

    It really sounds like these people just pulled up all the old tabloid articles about her and are repackaging the same stories.

    She “race to support charities without considering the details of her patronage”? I feel like that’s a dig at the Hubb kitchen, right? The “details” probably were that it helped black and brown women?

    I know the BM has decided these stories make Meghan look bad, but I think they make the BRF look bad. She wanted to work and expected her staff to work? I’m sure that was a shock for the people at KP but I mean…..if the worst they can say about her is that she sent text messages…..

    • Elizabeth Regina says:

      Didn’t Prince Charles himself open that same mosque linked to the kitchen? Courtiers are just ‘courtiering’ Bottom line is they are all tone deaf, out of touch, die hard racists who are shocked at the pace of change in the modern world where the heir, future heir and their consorts have no place.

    • Dilettante says:

      Becks1 – my thoughts exactly about Hubb kitchen.

  8. Helen says:

    Certainly British people aren’t as lazy as these stories make them out to be?

    Or, certainly they’re not happy their royals are as lazy as these “too much work ethic Meghan” stories make them out to be?

    • Becks1 says:

      That’s what I think is so weird about these stories. They’re trying to make Meghan look bad, but it makes the rest of the royals look bad, particularly Will and Kate. Charles’s staff certainly doesn’t have an issue with a royal who works long hours etc. It makes me think that working for the cambridges was considered a cushy job – you didn’t have to do a whole lot, and got to put the royal work on your resume – so then when Meghan entered the scene and was like “hey! let’s work!” they were like…..so let us tell you what exactly we do here…which is play candy crush all day.

    • Lizzie says:

      It sounds to me like Upstairs/Downstairs where the servants are every bit as snobby as the upper class.

      • anotherlily says:

        The people described as royal aides/advisors or ‘the Palace’ are civil servants not domestic servants. They are government employees. If you’ve seen the 1980’s TV series ‘Yes Minister’, they are people like Sir Humphrey Appleby, Permanent Secretary to the Department of Administrative Affairs and Bernard Woolley, Private Secretary. They are part of what can be called ‘The Establishment’.

        The reigning monarch has a constitutional position which is also part of the Establishment and it includes those members of the royal family who officially represent the monarch – ‘The Firm’. They have to operate above party politics. This is why the Queen sued a newspaper which reported a private conversation she’d had with David Cameron when he was Prime Minister.

        Sir Humphrey and his colleagues work for whoever is currently the Minister for their Department but since a major part of their job is providing information and advice they have considerable influence. They also have a high level of accountability. Public servants who are involved in hacking phones and leaking private information about royals could, in theory, face criminal charges.

        Sir Humphrey’s response to a newcomer like the Duchess of Sussex would give an idea of how ‘The Palace’ could have responded. Someone with the kind of abilities and personal qualities that Meghan has would make them nervous. The fact that the Sussexes were more interesting and engaging than the Cambridges would be seen as a huge problem, especially by the Cambridges’ Aides. A plot to oust the Sussexes seems to have been the result.

    • Bella DuPont says:

      Press toxicity IS distinct from the mindset of normal Brits a lot of the time, methinks. However, in my own personal experience, work ethic in the UK lags noticeably (and in some cases, significantly) behind Americans.

      There’s just a certain focus towards achievement, competition and breaking barriers that Americans have and Brits lack (a little bit). There tends to be the attitude and mindset that it’s a little unseemly to strive too hard and try to reach too far.

      This is what I experienced working with international organizations with American and UK divisions. At the time, my Boss used to tell me to make sure to send out early emails to clients (5-6am was ideal) when we were working with our American counterparts to show we were working just as hard as the American guys. (She was considered a bit of a competitive shrew).

      So yeah, I’m not surprised at all that this is what Meghan faced.

      Even in sports, when my sports team got invited to participate in local tournaments with other friendly international teams, we were routinely trounced, sometimes by children. (I once got personally humiliated by a 14 year old, despite my having over a decade more experience than her 😤). My conclusion was the difference in work ethic was just too large, and my team routinely received a fair amount of abuse from the local trainers. They seemed to think we just weren’t making enough of an effort. And that feedback is what we consistently received across the board, in fact, we had a bit of a reputation for it.

      Obviously, this is from my own very narrow level of exposure and I haven’t lived or worked in the UK for a few years now, so who knows, maybe things have changed a bit.

      • Sansevieria says:

        There’s a sociohistorical precedent here – The Protestant Work Ethic looms large in the US, pushing people to do more, achieve more, work harder. For those who are religious, it’s the concept that the “real reward is in Heaven”. For those of us who aren’t, it’s just part of the American zeitgeist and we get swept up along with it. Push harder, work harder, outshine everyone else. It’s the (idealized) American Way.

      • MonicaQ says:

        Oh yeah, I play International Contact Flag (American) Football and the two British teams seemed to forget the “contact” part of it. Since we wear no pads, it does hurt to get hit obviously. We knew if we hit them once or twice, they’d stop coming in after the quarterback or bumped them on the line that it’d throw them off routes. They had a grand total of 4 plays and once you learned them, it was over.

        I’m going to say 3 of them were really fast though. No catching them. But over 4 years we beat them by an average of 35pts and then they stopped coming because other teams are WAY more aggressive than we were.

        Their coach seemed agog that our practices lasted more than 30 minutes and absolutely horrified that we did two-a-days while taking classes and some of us working part time. He practically had a stroke when we told him we practiced 3xs a week. “You know this isn’t professional right?” he said. Well no duh, we don’t get paid but we weren’t going to go out there and embarrass ourselves.

      • Lala456 says:

        This is very much true and I thought of it too when I read this. I used to live and work in the UK an d as others have said, being too ambitious or taking ownership or “thinking outside the box” in projects will actually get you in trouble in the UK. It’s very much sticking to a process and sort of a big brother type attitude where employees are sort of not trusted and treated like children. So not laziness but also being careful to not appear too ambitious. One example is when we were hiring someone, my coworker decided a play a trick on my boss by underplaying them, saying “they were just ok” because everytime they found someone really good and hyped them up, he’d get suspicious and it made him not want to hire them for “being too good.”

    • Ainsley7 says:

      It’s not that British people are lazy, but that there is a better work/life balance. The US mindset is to have a strong work ethic and live to work. In many European countries, it’s more about working so that you can live. They pay living wages, get more time off and have healthcare. So, there is a greater emphasis on the life you live outside of your job. While someone is at work, they are typically expected to do their job, but not expected to go above and beyond. It’s just a difference in priorities rather than laziness.

    • Candikat says:

      As someone who’s lived, studied, and worked in both countries, I can attest that there’s a marked difference in “work ethic” between the US and the UK. I suspect it’s changed now in the London global centres of finance and so on, but the BRF is decades behind the times and the courtiers probably subscribe to the same ethos I saw there in the 1980s. It wasn’t “laziness” exactly, it was a perception that you were over-eager and somewhat gauche if you were worried about getting things done on time. I suspect it’s a remnant of the pre-war era when aristos did not work at all, and looked down on those who did or, worse, “had to.” That set made an art form out of languidity and leisure, and of course the aspiration to live that way trickled down in small ways. It all makes sense when you remember that the courtiers/mid-level palace staff are mostly snobby aristos themselves. If a go-get-em American shows them up in 2020, the public may realize how utterly useless the aristo class is and rebel. That’s their greatest fear and has been since at least the early 1900s. That’s also why they want their figureheads to do only just enough to placate the people, and never more than that.

    • Penguin says:

      I think it’s a case of work/life balance as well as cultural differences. One could make the case that British people are quite preoccupied with “what is done” and “what isn’t done”. Like some sort of unofficial rule book that dictates all relationships, personal and professional. It’s a country that’s profoundly obsessed with tradition and rules, from how you drink tea to how you speak to people. And if that’s the case for any average person I can only imagine how annal they would be about it in the royal household. But also because in Britain we normally work a lot less than in the US and we don’t depend on our job for as many things. Like education, health care, social security etc. It’s not unusual for someone in a professional job to get 30 vacation days a year, not including holidays and most women take at least a year of maternity leave. I’m not sure what the point of the article is meant to be though. Megahn is American therefore her staff should surely adjust to her way of working, as opposed to the other way around?

      • BayTampaBay says:

        “from how you drink tea”

        I was once told by a person from Leicestershire that it would be considered rude in England to ask for lemon & sugar in my hot tea and extra ice in my water glass. LOL! I am not making this up!

      • Penguin says:

        @BayTampaBay I can absolutely see that happening. There’s a whole thing about which teas can take lemon and which must be milk. It’s bananas!

      • Ylajali says:

        Exactly. I’m also in a European country and have worked as an EA to top level execs. Frankly regular 5am emails would give me pause because they indicate a different attitude toward work life balance. I work 40 hours a week, but make myself available at all hours because as an EA you know that things come up last minute. 5am notifications would mean that I would have to be on call to potentially deal with something, and if it becomes a regular occurence would indicate a shift in expectations that wouldn’t sit well with me

      • Penguin says:

        @Ylajali Also to be fair the courtier position is not your traditional EA job. They don’t work FOR the royal family, they work for the royal household and whoever might be there. In the past, it wouldn’t have been unusual for one courtier to work in the household under different monarchs. I can see how they would’ve been peeved.

    • Becks1 says:

      Most Americans I know work normal hours – I know there’s a stereotype that we “work to live” and work insane hours etc, but I know very few people who have those kinds of jobs, and the ones who do are well compensated (and I’m assuming the people in similar positions in the UK work similar hours.) Vacation hours are crap, but that also varies by company (I earn 10 hours of PTO a pay period, I currently have 6 weeks of annual and 350 hours of sick leave in the bank.) I know some people with unlimited paid leave, and some people (like my husband) with the measly two weeks.

      But anyway, I work 8 hours a day, period. My husband’s schedule varies, today he took one phone call, the rest of the day he’s been cleaning and organizing the kitchen, lol. My dad was home by 4 every day.

      I mean obviously its more complex than that, some people may need to work multiple jobs because none pay a living wage, which is a huge problem. Or some people live in areas with a bad job market and can’t leave a toxic and demanding job. And we don’t have the safety nets that would allow a person to make a change in some of those situations, which is another huge problem.

      But the idea that we “live to work” and that’s why M was sending emails at 5 am is just false IMO. I do not think about work once I log out, which today will be at 3 oclock. I have one friend who has to take “after hour” phone calls from their boss.

      • Greywacke says:

        I agree with much you say about people working 8 hour days, but many countries do no have 40 hour weeks like Americans and have much more vacation than is considered acceptable in normal hourly jobs and some salaried work. I think the notion is that pull myself up by the bootstraps mentality that is so adored here in the US, i.e. hard work means you will succeed (even if that isn’t true). In contrast, I know that Japanese people here and in Japan consider Americans lazy. Workdays start early and end a 8 pm. My friend worked for a Japanese company in Portland, and the “lazy” Americans left at 6 pm while the “hard working” Japanese men all worked past 8 pm, though there was no appreciable difference in productivity. To me this argues that appearance/ideology replace the real narrative taking place.

  9. Rapunzel says:

    “West Coast energy?” “Gung ho attitude?” Those are some weird ways of saying “expected her employees to do their jobs and work for her”

    It’s no wonder the Cambs are so lazy if this is the way work is seen by the royal household.

    • K.T says:

      True! All this sniping about Hollywood rather than than those super-normal class obsessed coloniser courtiers. I kinda think they wanted to call her hard work and energy ‘ghetto or urban’ but thought that would be too obvious, lol 😉

    • Lizzie says:

      “West Coast energy” is a made up term, yes? Desperately trying to denigrate being a successfully organized achiever.

      • JanetDR says:

        As I’m thinking about it, it seems like West Coast energy would usually refer to being laid back and relaxed (as opposed to East Coast). But we get it, she liked to accomplish what she was supposed to do, and that apparently made trouble for the staff.

      • lucy2 says:

        Yeah that’s weird, West Coast is generally thought to be more laid back. If they’d said NYC energy, that would make more sense.

        While I’m sure there are some who do work hard, I think a lot of the “staff” are just friends, connections, and other entourage type people who want to get paid and have connections without too much work, and Meghan didn’t want any of that.

      • Jay says:

        @Lizzie, yeah I would assume someone having a “west coast” style (which for me signifies California or BC) would be relaxed and low key, not “demanding”, which is what they appear to be going for here. I’d love to know what those who accept jobs as high level staff members to other royals typically expect from their role?

        I think it is less about trying to coin a new term and is more revealing about the author’s unfamiliarity with American norms, which would also explain why they are portraying Meghan’s work ethic as a bad thing.

    • Greywacke says:

      Lifelong West Coaster here, specifically the PNW, and we are way more laid back than urban East Coasters. I went on a hike with someone from DC and he couldn’t believe a nice Italian restaurant in Portland let us in afterwards, and of course, everyone there was dressed casually. He said you’d need a coat and tie to eat in DC Italian joints.

    • morrigan01 says:

      I’m a born and raised West Coaster – Southern California just like Meghan. And “West Coast energy” makes no sense in the context they’re trying to use it. Because “West Coast energy” would mean she was laid back about everything: casual dress for work all the time, including when going out to eat as @Greywacke noted. Cutting out of work early on Fridays if possible to go hang out and getting a head start on the weekend.

      I suspect they used it in the context they did because they were – once again – trying to call her “Hollywood” or whatever. When ever calling her Hollywood has been incorrect in the actual context of what a person who is *actually* “Hollywood” actually acts like. (For one, a true “Hollywood” person doesn’t move to Toronto to live permanently when they get a steady role on a TV show. It would have been Westwood with a 310 area code all the way).

  10. Faye says:

    Meghan and Harry went outside because none of the palaces ever defended her with all the bs going on then.

    As for her patronages, this is a dig at the Hub Kitchen because I guess trying to help women feeding their community is terrible because a large part of said community is Muslim.

    Meghan wanted people to work and that’s an issue? So glad M&H are gone.

    Brits get what they deserve and seem to want with the rest of that RF lot.

    • Izzy says:

      A dig at the Hub Kitchen and maybe their split from the Royal Foundation, but small wonder Meghan decided to do her own research into her patronages once she got a look at the Keens’ cooked books!

    • beth says:

      Just in reply to your last comment – that’s like saying Americans get what they deserve and seem to want with Donald Trump as President. Please don’t confuse the toxic press with the majority of British people.

      • Faye says:

        Well, I know I was harsh with that statement, but the most popular press is straight trash and people dont seem to want more from the current members of RF says a lot about a large portion of its inhabitants of that country.

        I feel the same way about America if we don’t do what needs to be done in November and vote that POS out.

      • anon says:

        The majority of the British people are the same ones supporting the toxic British media… It’s a synergetic relationship, and no one comes out looking good from it.

  11. Chaine says:

    This paints an unflattering picture of royal staff, who evidently resent when an employer actually expects them to do actual work for their pay?

  12. Chica1971 says:

    I think DM is trying to throw as many different stories and versions out there because they have no idea what’s min the book. They’ve moved on to “gang ho and did not do her research” to describe Megan and acknowledging that Kate told Harry Megan was “ too different “.. BP and CH need to convene a meeting and come up with a credible strategy..they are literally throwing too much stuff at the wall.

    • RoyalBlue says:

      exactly this. they know finding freedom is coming and

      a) they want to capitalize on the momentum and sell their own stories
      b) they want to repeat as many already printed stories out there to get reader burnout and try and trash the sales of finding freedom
      c) they hope three nasty books being released will trump one finding freedom book.
      d) as they are agents of the petty royal family they will do anything to tarnish the legacy of the well loved sussexes

  13. Lucylee says:

    Since when did wanting to support your patronages in a meaningful way become a crime? These books are warmed over gossip that make no sense when looking back on the Sussexes time in the bubble.

    • Ginger says:

      The staff at KP are used to the pace of 8 years for 5 dumb questions. They can’t handle someone like Meghan.

    • FC says:

      That was an interesting line about the patronages. I wonder which of their current patronages the KP staff opposed to? Hubb Kitchen?

      • notasugarhere says:

        I doubt they knew about it at first. It was clear, from the OTT ‘Kate will fix Broken Britain’ three days before Together was published? W&K and the KP staff didn’t know about the book until days before it was published. Meghan must have figured some of the staff out from day one, and learned to do things on her own away from their leaks.

        All her visits to Hubb, putting the book together, getting the book contract. All done secretly. Otherwise, the staff would have submarined the project at the start.

      • Sunday says:

        @notasugarhere wow, I hadn’t considered the implications of that point before, but you’re exactly right. and wasn’t this right before the Oceania tour? both events together surely must have pushed some jealous family members over the edge, and thus the smear campaign evolved.

  14. Ninks says:

    I really do think that some of this is related to the different work cultures on both sides of the Atlantic. If I was getting texts from my boss at 5am, I’d be furious. Even if she wasn’t expecting an answer there and then, it just completely goes against the European attitude to work so I can understand why her staff would be annoyed at that – that’s a demanding boss contacting staff outside of work hours and it’s putting pressure on them no matter what her intention was when she sent it.

    But the rest of it seems like pettiness and resentment. The lack of research complaint in particular is ridiculous, Meghan always seems to be very well prepared and has done her research before any event she attends or anything she’s involved with.

    She was making the staff look bad after they had coasted for years doing the bare minimum and they couldn’t handle it. Instead of being excited by the challenge she had put down, they dug in and resisted her attempts to drag them into the 21st century.

    • Helen says:

      Royal staff are government workers basically for important people. If I worked for ROYALTY or some government bigwig I sure as hell would expect to to actually have to put in the work and be on call.

    • JJ McClay says:

      Why would you be upset about receiving an email at 5am? If a response was demanded at 5am, sure — that’s unreasonable. But you can *send* an email any time you like, that’s not rude.

    • Lady D says:

      I’m with you Ninks. I’d be furious too at a 5am email.

      • ShazBot says:

        yeah, I really don’t get being upset about an email being sent at 5am. My boss sends emails at weird times all the time – sometimes it’s because she’s up late trying to catch up on things, or up early for whatever reason. She has no expectation that we will be online to respond to them – it’s just…she’s doing work (her prerogative) why would she add the extra step to have the email sent at 9am? Such a weird thing to take personally.

      • Tessa says:

        It does not mean the person getting the email has to answer at 5 AM.

      • MsIam says:

        I’ve gotten plenty of emails from my boss written at 6 am and my shift doesn’t start until 10. She gets in at 8 so I guess she is sending them from home before she gets on the road. But honestly it’s no big deal to me. I am not chained to my desk 24/7 so what do I care when she writes emails? I get to work when I get to work and she knows that. Hopefully the people who complained about this are the ones who quit or were shown the door.

      • Candikat says:

        @LadyD, why would you be furious? Genuinely asking. If you don’t check your email until you get to work at 9am or whenever, why are you upset at the time stamp? If you’re waking up b/c your phone alerts you to emails, or if you have only one account for personal and work, then I guess I can see the intrusion, but both of those problems have easy fixes.

        Personally, I’d rather come to work and check present emails so I can plan my day, rather than have them coming in all day long and interrupting other work I may be doing.

    • beth says:

      I don’t think Meghan should be ‘blamed’ for sending an email a 5am. If she’s working then, she’s working then and I don’t expect she was asking for an immediate response. That said, even if I get an email early hours saying – please respond in the morning, I am then actively thinking about it and stressing that it needs to be done. That’s not really Meghan’s problem though.

    • Sofia says:

      Unless Meghan demanded people answer her emails right there and then and got mad when she didn’t, I genuinely don’t see the problem.

    • Ginger says:

      There is nothing wrong with sending an email at 5am. My boss sends hers at 6am but I don’t start work till 9. I have my notifications off so my phone doesn’t wake me up. I’m sure Meghan didn’t end her email with “Reply back now or off with your head”

      If anyone there had an issue with this should have talked to HER instead of the tabloids. Act like an adult. The staff at KP are jokes.

    • S808 says:

      Maybe it’s a cultural thing cause I’ve woken up to work emails sent at 3am and have gotten emails at midnight. I’m not working so I just ignore them.

      • BabsORIG says:

        @S808, I work in the healthcare system and I don’t even have any alert set to my hospital email. My hospital email is separate from my own personal yahoo email and my hospital never ever sends any emails to my personal email.

    • Powermoonchrystal says:

      That is interesting. Just to give a different perspective of working in Europe, it depends on the country and company. While working in Europe for some years, I received late night emails (much more common in the US) or very early mornings (like 6 am) because a lot of parents have to drop the kids at school or day care at 7-8. I personally understand it is the time they have. These people are European, so I guess they also have a Hollywood work ethic? I think these generalizations really speak badly of the palace or the UK work ethic. Not very fair.

    • Jaya says:

      My English boss flew off the handle at my American a$$ b/c I sent her an email over the weekend. I didn’t expect her to answer it over the weekend but I sent it b/c I was working then. British culture at its finest.

    • BabsORIG says:

      You talking 5am emails? People receive emails from their bosses, that were sent in the dead of the night. The expectation is that someone will be sleeping at that point and not checking work emails. There’s a reason why organizations have organization based and assigned emails separate from your personal email and all these emails that come in at whatever time go to your organization assigned email, not to your personal email. So for employees to complain and be upset about their boss is sending emails to their WORK email is just plain stupid. The expectation is for the employee to check their work emails once they get into the office, it doesn’t matter when the email was sent it was sent to your work email that you won’t check till you get into office at 8-9am. What, the employees expected their bosses to start emailing them at exactly 8-9am? If Meghan was sending emails to personal emails, that would be a different issue. But even then, it would all fall on the royal family establishment for failure to create a organization based website. If Meghan was sending to their work emails, I just don’t see why people would get upset over an email that belongs to the firm.

    • lucy2 says:

      Expecting someone to answer off work hours isn’t cool, but if you’re just sending them while it’s convenient and not expecting an immediate response, I don’t see the problem.
      Texts are a different thing though, unless you agree that you’re going to mute your phone and won’t answer them until work hours.

    • Priscila Bezerra-Fischer says:

      @ Ninks : a text, yes…it has the alarm and it can wake you up. BUT it is an email. an email nobody had ever mentioned she expected people to answer right away. You can send an email when you have time. In this case, Meghan was obviously working at 5 am. This is on her, as aan american go-getter, whatever,.

      I am Brazilian and work in Europe, I would be furious if a boss called me at 5, but it is not of my business if my boss is up at 5 am working her ass. This is on her.

      If you think this through, it is not rude at all. I send emails late at evening for suppliers and partners all the time and they reply when they are working. It is fine. and generally speaking, when you receive an email, your eyes go first to the subjects and the sender, not necessarily the time was sent. This is nitpicking.

    • TalkingHeads says:

      Are you British, Ninks? (I only ask because it’s extremely unusual for a British person to use word “European” to refer to the UK.)

      I’m British and I don’t think anything of sending or receiving emails at 5am if I happen to be awake then. I also work in the performing arts industry and this industry has a 24/7 work culture. Not that you’re expected to be checking emails at 5am, just that the performing arts isn’t a 9-5 culture. No one in London media would blink at receiving an email timestamped 5am.

  15. ABritGuest says:

    Yeah repackaged gossip much of which has been debunked eg the RPO left the police force entirely. First time I’ve seen 5 aides left so he’s being creative. I don’t know why people would buy these books when you can see same trash in the Fail or on anti Meghan twitter threads.

    The point about rushing to support charities doesn’t even make sense when she had like 100 meetings to get to know the U.K. charity scene before picking Mayhew & SmartWorks & ACLU& National Theatre were passed down to her by the Queen. I remember Ingrid Seward said Meghan had upset courtiers by going to charities direct as it wasn’t the done thing. Like some of you above I do think this relates to Hubb Community Kitchen& as Nota has mentioned a few times- that William had said he was going to do something re Grenfell & Meghan’s cookbook stole his thunder. I can see the courtiers being upset that ‘hierarchy‘ wasn’t being respected.

    I think the 5am emails was based on her comment during the Australia tour of being jetlagged and getting up to make banana bread. Maybe she sent work messages then too but given her former PA’s appearance at SmartWorks launch & press’ own reporting of tearful goodbyes with staff when they left Britain, nightmare boss narrative doesn’t really work.

    I can see why the courtiers were put out by the Sussexes engaging Sunshine Sachs who I understand were originally retained to help with Travalyst launch but given how they were leaking to the press and sharing their nasty nicknames to Tatler etc what did they expect?

    • Sid says:

      I remember the PA you are talking about and what struck me is how she always looked like she was enjoying being at engagements with Meghan and seemed almost proud of her. As you said, the nightmare boss narrative seems odd. I also wonder if these alleged staff were actually chosen by Meghan or if they were just assigned to her without her input. If they were just existing KP staff who were moved to her team, then I can imagine a lot of hackles being raised at the idea of actually having to do some real work.

  16. February-Pisces says:

    All I see is a woman who worked hard and put in the hours getting trashed for it, whilst her lazy counterparts sit back and relax on the taxpayer coin, whilst being heaped with praise. How may times do William and Kate tell people they don’t want to work? All their excuses would be fine, but we are paying for them to live an A-list luxury lifestyle, which isn’t going to wash anymore now our economy has jumped off a cliff due to Covid-19.

    The reasons ‘exhausted’ gate backfired spectacularly is because no one has time to pamper poor Kate during a pandemic. A few months earlier ‘exhausted gate’ would have achieved the desired results, but not now. This pandemic has really highlighted just how useless they are.

    I wonder how many books are going to be rush out and released before ‘finding freedom’? Is seems the Cambridge’s are determined to get ahead, expect no one actually cares about those trash books, cos Omids book is worth it weight in gold.

  17. Marjorie says:

    “Lady Colin Campbell” was married for a few months 40 years ago to the Duke of Argyll’s brother (i.e. Lord Colin Campbell) and has used that name ever since. She was a troll before there were trolls.

    • Tessa says:

      Campbell has a go at Diana in the book about Harry and Meghan according to what I read about the book.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        I bought the LCC book so I will let you know once I have received it and read it.

    • Noodle says:

      She also had the Markles over as houseguests, so much of her book is coming from their perspective.

  18. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    Royals and wealthy (primarily old money) aren’t ‘supposed’ to work because they’re society’s elite and because having a job is so……gauche.

    How ridiculous and out of touch with reality, I mean, “Hollywood gung-ho attitude,” lmao. Hollywood does NOT have a gung ho attitude. I’ll have to think about where in America, precisely, possesses this odd sentiment.

    • notasugarhere says:

      Many aristocrats work hard. Those who haven’t sold off the family estates because they couldn’t afford them? They’re land rich, money poor, working hard to afford the costs of their failing historic estates. See the Great Estates of Scotland series to see what it takes to stay afloat.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Another Good “Estate” show is “An American’s Aristocrat’s Guide to Great Estates” on the Smithsonian Channel. I have watched every episode. The show is that good. It all bout about the struggle to maintain a centuries old family estate.

        The host-presenter is American (Sugar Grove, Illinois) born Julie Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrooke. Julie is the daughter-in-law of the Earl of Sandwich.

      • Mabs A'Mabbin says:

        “Many aristocrats work hard.” Of course they do. Normal people want to contribute lol.

      • ArtHistorian says:

        Those old manor houses are absolute money pits in terms of maintenance.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        @ArtHistorian – and the family that inherits seems to be willing to spend every cent available on them.

        “An American’s Aristocrat’s Guide to Great Estates” is a very good series. The show examines many “manor house estates” most people have never heard of.

    • Lowrider says:

      The Duke of Westminster has a job…

      Many of those aristocrats are hustling around collecting wages and salaries to maintain their lifestyles.

  19. Jay says:

    Yeah, this just makes Meghan look better, in my eyes – she’s driven, she’s willing to work hard, and she wants to surround herself with people that get that. I would imagine working at any high level organization that would be true. Can you imagine someone working for an institution like the British Museum, or the Gates foundation, and complaining about their manager like this?

    Also, so Meghan was ACTUALLY working like a top CEO, but in her case it’s bad😏

  20. Aurora says:

    “ Meghan reportedly also raced to support charities without considering the details of her patronage, according to the book, with the author being told: ‘It was all too rushed, without proper research.’”

    Translation: She was supposed to show up and cut a ribbon. Instead she created whole ass impactful projects that put the other royals to shame.

    • Rapunzel says:

      Aurora- more like, “top quick to support charities like the Hub Kitchen, which have too many non white folks”

      • February-Pisces says:

        I always remember a few days after grenfell William and the queen did an engagement meeting victims and firefighters etc, and I remember him leaving and the people there were literally begging him to stay, and he just said “really sorry but I have to go, but I’ll be back soon”. Yeah they are still waiting.

      • notasugarhere says:

        That’s key, February-Pisces. William promised to go back to Grenfell. He and Harry went back months and months later, first week of September, for a brief event. Two weeks later, the Together Cookbook was published, without W&K knowing it was happening until a few days before.

        William isn’t just jealous of Harry, his success, his freedom, and his blissful marriage. William is jealous that Meghan got the job done and raised hundreds of thousands.

        All while William was standing around promising (and failing) to do anything to help Grenfell survivors. Meghan’s hard work showed all his promises to be lies. And on top of it, she wouldn’t let him steal the money the Hubb ladies earned through their hard work. I’m sure he was ‘incandescent with rage’ again.

        Right after Harry and Meghan left on their 6 week break? W&K were out doing PR exercises about Grenfell, ‘keeping their emotional promise to help’ and other such lies. Launched yet another new project (for which he’ll take credit), the National Emergencies Trust. Claiming it would better organize charity response to tragedy.

        Basically openly bashed the Together Cookbook when he said ‘For Grenfell there was a huge outpouring of love and support but it seemed like it wasn’t well targeted’.

        Kate did too with ‘It’s not just the support provided at the time, but how it is continued into the future and hopefully it will help with that too’.

        Not one mention from them about the ongoing success of the Together Cookbook, the Hubb ladies launching their own businesses, etc.

      • FC says:

        This. Non white charities are considered “controversial” to these folk.

      • Harper says:

        If Meghan had done her research she would have already known that Wills had already spoken with the Grenfell victims with his concerned face and lots of pursed lips and head nodding so nothing else needed to be done.

      • ABritGuest says:

        NOTA on the Grenfell visit i remember it being one of those times I could respect having a monarchy as Teresa May had famously hidden from angry residents so it was moving seeing the Queen& William engaging with devastated individuals. I remember a picture of him hugging one crying resident and thinking that was such a moving Diana like image. It’s sad if the together cookbook was the catalyst for all this drama especially as there was room for both to help and the community still needs support.

      • February-Pisces says:

        I remember from the engagement that william did with the queen there was a Muslim woman that hugged William very tightly and he literally looked like he wanted to call security. And another man was pleading for help because one of his loved ones was missing. William again was super awkward. Seriously if it had been harry there he would have handled it so much better. At least meghans book made a difference, the kitchen gave those women something positive to focus on. The book actually raised money, and Meghan still sees them when she can. Those women who had been through such a huge trauma were then called terrorists by Pippa middletons wedding guest and Kate’s fav mouth piece Camilla Tominey. It was suppose to be a dig at Meghan but really could have ruined those poor people’s lives even more. That kitchen and those women could have been targeted by white extremists as a result, just cos kate felt a bit jealous of Meghan.Gawd I wish the karma bus would hurry up.

      • Elizabeth says:

        The thing about Grenfell is that there’s plenty if work for everyone in the family to have projects. Meghan – Hubb Kitchen, Kate – children, William – mental health without physical contact, Harry – comforting, Prince Charles – shelter. We don’t expect any of them to be all things to all people.

    • BUBS says:

      Yet, whose patronages are thriving now? Meghan’s!!!

  21. Rapunzel says:

    QE2: Meghan, one must not expect too much work from one’s employees. It’s unseemly. It’s far better to let the taxpayers give one money for doing as little as possible.

    Meg: but then how can I help my charities, your majesty?

    QE2: My dear, one doesn’t help charities. Only Charles thinks that. Charities are what one runs in order to have extra money to pay for one’s Swiss Chalets.

    Harry: But Gan Gan, if Meg and I don’t do solid charity works, how will become respected enough to earn our own keep in other endeavors, thereby having financial freedom?

    QE2: My child, one doesn’t gain financial freedom through work. One finds oneself a sex trafficking pedophile rapist billionaire, and become friends with said billionaire, so that he may lend one homes and money.

    Harry and Meg: yeah… we’re out.

    Courtiers: Ungrateful, gung ho, West coast brats.

  22. Britt says:

    Omids’ book has people still in a tizzy I see. Nobody cares about these books and that’s why they all fizzle out like Lady Colins book because nobody cares and it’s all nonsense. They are jealous of Omid because people trust him and it’s still a bestseller 😂. The British media look absolutely ridiculous at this point. It’s over. Go make money on the the “true royals” that y’all love so much. Oops, they don’t make you all any money.

    • Izzy says:

      People are SO WOUND UP about this book. I’m looking forward to reading it.

      • Becks1 says:

        It reminds me of a quote from Friends, when Ross reveals there’s a videotape of Emma’s conception, and Rachel is like “I don’t want them to see it, but you so clearly don’t want them to see it that it makes me want to see it, do you see?”

        I didn’t think the book would really have anything new or interesting, but the palace and BM are so panicked about it that it makes me think there could be something new there.

      • Harla says:

        I know right?! I think it’s driving everyone crazy because no part of it has leaked and won’t leak until it’s released so no one knows whats in it, who it’s targeting and how bad it will make the royal family look. I wonder how much Charles and William are paying these various “authors” to write these books specifically to make Harry and Meghan look bad?

      • BayTampaBay says:

        @Izzy – I am looking forward to reading the Lady Colin Campbell book too. I really want to read what she has to say and then I will judge for myself what I think is true and what I think is made up BS. There is booth truth and made up BS in all Royal Books. I have all her her books and all her books are VERY gossipy.

        Lady Glenconner’s book was excellent and there was nothing in it about William Kate, Harry or Meghan. The book is basically about being a born Turnip Toff, life at court in service to Princess Margaret, her crazy marriage to Colin Tennant and development of Mystique.

  23. Ginger says:

    So the same staff that complained about Meghan WORKING are the same staff that complained that Kate DIDN’T work? Interesting.

    They are upset that Meghan made Will and Kate look like lazy brats that lived off the taxpayers and enjoyed all the perks but didn’t want to work.

  24. Tessa says:

    Kate took eons to “research” the charities. She sat back and did little the first year.

  25. S808 says:

    I’ve gotten work email at all times of the day and night— I just ignore them as I’m not working. Working isn’t the problem, it’s the fact the fact that she wouldn’t work less than W&K which I don’t understand how she was supposed to do that because they don’t do anything. They have 0 projects between the two of them. How do you do less than 0? It’s not like they were gonna give Meghan a grace period so what else was she to do but roll up her sleeve and throw herself into the work? Did Harry get this pushback when he created Sentebale and IG? Those are 2 big self sustaining projects to William’s 0.

  26. one of the Marys says:

    It reads to me that Meghan didn’t show enough deference to the courtiers and protocols of the various palace offices. They wanted to train her in how things were done but she persisted in doing things her way especially when she saw how ineffective they were. Their egos were bruised and *then* she had the audacity to turn her back on them, double whammy to their pride!
    I agree with all the other posters who feel this is not at all flattering to the courtiers

    • BayTampaBay says:

      @ one of the Marys – You hit the nail on the head and knocked it through the plank with one blow! THIS+1000! Excellent summary of what I believed really happened.

    • Lowrider says:

      “It reads to me that Meghan didn’t show enough deference to the courtiers and protocols of the various palace offices.”

      That is how I see it too. Meghan didn’t bend the knee and profusely express her gratitude to be part of the institution. The need to “put her in her place” was at an extreme high. I think the courtiers plan was to trash her in the media then expect her to run back to them for help.

  27. BUBS says:

    I send emails even in the middle of the night. Of course I’m not expecting an answer at that time; but I trust that it’ll be one of the first things you work on, when you eventually resume for the day!
    And I know that Meghan did not demand an answer at 5am because the courtiers would have definitely made that public! The fact that they’re only focusing on her sending out emails at 5am and not stating that she demanded a response, tells me she didn’t!!!
    These articles make Brits look like whiners and perpetual complainers. It’s bad enough that they’re catching flak for not taking time to find out what Brexit actually entailed. The courtiers are further tainting the image of their country; while thinking they’re making Meg look bad!!!

  28. ABritGuest says:

    I get emails at all times of day and it doesn’t bother me as I won’t action them until it’s time to start working. Given that palace staff work for people who do international tours& are patrons of charities working in different regions eg Tusk you’d think that on occasion they would have emails or text messages come from different time zones so would be used to that concept too.

    I just think they had a problem with Meghan generally and could probably only have dealt with her if she was happy being a quiet token who they could wheel out for diversity points for the monarchy now and again.

    • Jay says:

      Same here in regards to email – I have notifications turned off for work email to more clearly delineate “work” and “home” time, especially as I’m working from home for the foreseeable future. I work for a company that has people across all different time zones, and I’ll admit that I get a sense of satisfaction from clearing out my inbox first thing.
      Also, for anyone who hasn’t yet discovered the joys of Gmail’s schedule send feature, I highly recommend – I can give feedback on something when I have time, but it won’t be received until, say, 7:30 am the next morning, which saves me from getting bombarded by follow-ups right away.

  29. Valiantly Varnished says:

    They keep hitting the same tired notes and no one cares anymore. Meghan is a worker and expected the people who earned a salary to work as well. How shocking

  30. MerlinsMom1018 says:

    Really off topic here and I apologize, but…
    Is it just me or has the Markle’s gone radio silent since the Sussex’s landed in California?
    Again, off topic and apologies, but I was just wondering
    As far as the Duchess’s “work ethic” and “gung ho” attitude? She DID work on a tv show and don’t they usually have to show up very early for make up and wardrobe and such???

    • Mary says:

      @merlinsmom, yes to both and I am just waiting for Scammy and Pa Markle to jump out from under the rock they have been hiding. Or, has someone paid them off? Nah, that would not work. They would keep coming back for more!

      • BayTampaBay says:

        The Daily Fail and Piers Morgan quit paying Scammy and Pa Markle because they are no longer effective tools in the vendetta against the Sussexes.

      • MsIam says:

        More like no one is paying them. Or it could be that if the Fail will be calling them as witnesses their lawyers probably told them to STFU. Daddy Toxic basically admitted to being a liar on his Tv “special “ so where is his credibility?

      • Original Penguin says:

        Piers Morgan has reinvented himself as an nhs loving left wing hero. He can’t risk that by going after Meghan for now.

      • 809Matriarch says:

        I think the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with the murder of George Floyd have pretty much derailed the Tubby Scammy Markle money train. While I think Schillings may have something to do with Morgan’s suddenly seeing he had “gone too far”, the world is now becoming more aware of the bigotry that ran the Sussex family out of Britain. Think about it. Most of the vitriol was on social media & driven by UK tabloids. After using Meghan as a way to claim the RF “spoke out” about BLM, it is a little more difficult to continue on the same path. On Twitter the other I saw a tweet by a hater publishing the contact information to Camb Derangers and encouraging them to bombard the Harry Walker agency with complaints about working with Meghan. The global audiences are now getting a clear picture of the insanity Meghan dealt with. They swarmed the IMDb page of Disney’s Elephant with derogatory reviews and even outed themselves as liars, claiming Meghan’s voice made people walk out of the theater. This – in the middle of a pandemic, when theaters are closed added to the fact that THE MOVIE WAS RELEASED as a Disney streaming movie to watch at leisure, not in a theater. The vicious verbal assault these folks hurl at charities that work with the Sussexes has many US, global and Commonwealth people side eyeing the UK and feeling absolute disgust for the RF as they continue coddle Andrew and encourage attacks on the Sussexes. Omid’s book will be a runaway best seller.

        Since the RF and the UK RRs and gossips know that some serious tea will be spilt, they are trying to come up with new STUPID reasons to justify the documented machinations of Charles and William. As a recent article stated, the RF displayed EPIC STUPIDITY in the way they handled Meghan. The repercussions will be interesting to watch play out.

        But back to what I started this little essay about. I doubt that we will see anymore of the Markle circus any time soon. No one in America has ever been enamored of those hillbillies and the world is in a different place now. It’s so funny how that fat arse Daddy Tubby boasted about doing an interview every 30 days to force Meghan into accepting him in her life on his terms. lol.

    • Ginger says:

      It is interesting. I do wonder if their lawyers got a hold of them. Just like Piers being pretty quiet about them and admitting to taking it too far.

    • Jaded says:

      I wonder if Meghan has taken some sort of legal action against them? They were literally harassing and slandering her, revealing private matters, etc. so I’m sure they were told to cease and desist or face an ugly and costly lawsuit which they could never hope to win.

      • Lowrider says:

        I doubt it or she would have sent a cease and desist at the height of the harassment. The Markles were a tool and there’s no use for them anymore.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Or they are named as part of her lawsuit against the Fail. If she can prove the Fail set-up and paid her estranged family members, that gives her case weight. The Fail might be backing off paying them for now, to try (too late) to distance themselves.

    • Lowrider says:

      The Markles were a tool to harass and drive out Meghan from the BRF. That’s it. There is no use for them now.

      • HeatherC says:

        The scamming sister still claims she’s publishing a book. This time she says it will be released or available for preorder in August 2020. Watch yourself, you may pull an abdominal muscle laughing I know I almost did.

    • morrigan01 says:

      The Markle’s have never been interviewed/accepted on American TV, except for tabloid shows like Inside Edition (and even not there very much). No reputable news network has ever talked, spoken or interviewed them. Even Fox News has ignored them.

      Now that Harry and Meghan have walked away (and clearly aren’t ever going back) Scammy and Daddy yapping on UK TV isn’t going to get the same traction as before, and I think UK outlets know that. Daddy pulling the stunt he did back in the run up to the wedding and then going to TMZ to get his side of it all out I am firmly convinced is what made US news and other shows avoid and ignore the Markle’s all together. No news organization or newspaper in the US worth their salt respects TMZ in the slightest. Him going there for his first ever public comments/interview told *everyone* in the US what the Markles were about.

  31. SKE says:

    Okay so this is a nitpicky detail but did anyone else notice the line “the mother of one’s wedding to Prince Harry…”? Its probably just a very awkward attempt to vary the phrasing but given what we know if Meg coverage, it struck me as trying to make it sound like she was an out of wedlock mother marrying Harry. Which is certainly an odd way to frame it.

    • Harla says:

      I noticed that too and thought it was an odd way to phrase it.

    • CL says:

      I saw that, stopped, and reread it to be sure I read it correctly. Even though everyone knows she was not a mother when she married Harry, the Daily Mail’s phrasing is derogatory and seems to imply that she and “her” child are not “really” a part of the royal family and somehow wormed their way in.

      Also, did the article writer get paid more every time the word “Hollywood” was used? Sheesh!

    • Ellen Olenska says:

      Yes, jumped out at me right away.

    • anon says:

      They are othering Archie as not truly being Harry’s son. He belongs to Meghan. He’s an outsider to them.

  32. taylor says:

    Even if every single thing from this excerpt was true, it’s not enough to launch a smear campaign against a woman that peaks during her pregnancy and ultimately convinces large swathes of the public to virulently hate her. Not a single thing she’s allegedly done was irredeemable, and if it weren’t for the courtiers and their jealous bosses trying to put her in her place, we’d never know it because her work was spectacular and her patronages love her. They destroyed her reputation and forced her out for what? As if there isn’t at least 1 predator they’ve allowed to misbehave for decades that still receives public funding and grace from that country. I’ll never get over it, but I really hope she thrives in spite of them.

    • S808 says:

      That’s a good point. They’re giving all these excuses and even if they were true, NONE justify the abuse she received every day for 3 years straight and especially the last 2. This makes them all look much worse than her.

      • L4frimaire says:

        And note, they are talking about ONE email. Remember the 3am phone calls during the 2016 election? This is some misogynistic BS because she actually believed that her work as a Royal was actually work, not being a decorative clothes hanger.

    • February-Pisces says:

      Even if Meghan was the most awful person ever, it wouldn’t justify them trying to smear her whilst she was 37 and pregnant with her first baby. Stress is the worst thing for an expectant mother, and they hoped she would miscarry. It also just justify that they go out of their way to pay for troll bots to leave racist comments about her and her one year old baby. William and Kate are still archies uncle and auntie and they pay to have racist comments about their one year old nephew on social media, I have seen them and screen grabbed them. It’s truly disgusting. We can say that the Cambridge’s just threw the Sussex’s under the bus to cover the affair and they had no choice, but that doesn’t excuse the bots, they have nothing to do with the press. There is nothing that Meghan could have done that is worse than that. And the fact all they have is “she sent an email at 5am”, wore dark nail polish, made poor Kate cry over tights, shows KP/keenbridges are clutching at straws to excuse their hate.

  33. Rapunzel says:

    All these “how dare someone send emails at 5 am” folks…. y’all would make lousy teachers. I get student emails at every time of day– midnight, 2am, 4 am– I would never dare tell my students “don’t send me emails at 5am” I simply don’t answer till morning – if I see the email. I just tell my students anything sent after 5pm might take until the next morning. And leave my damn notifications off. Which is how it should be anyhow.

    I swear, y”all a bunch a babies, whining about work email that you aren’t even expected to respond to. We teachers been dealing with this communication at all hours thing since the advent of email. And we just handle our business and cope.

    • L4frimaire says:

      This is so ridiculous, I live on the west coast and worked with business partners in Hong Kong and India, so I’m getting emails at 10 pm and 5am due to time differences. Everyone understands that it will be answered during business hours. I think half the people who work for the royals use the job to get a side hustle selling stories to the press. This is why the Sussexes got their own team. They wanted people who actually worked and didn’t leak for cash.These people are bitter and unprofessional.

      • Ginger says:

        I agree. That’s where they make most of their cash.

        Off topic but the KP lawyers seemed to have gotten to Byline Investigates. They said they would have an exclusive on Meghan’s unfair treatment in the press and the Christian Jones story is hidden on their website and the tweet is gone.

      • Liz version 700 says:

        Agreed. I have a boss who emails me at 1 am…sometimes I respond at 3 am (not usually just on nights I can’t sleep). When you have a job you account for others and vice versa.

      • Liz version 700 says:

        Agreed. I have a boss who emails me at 1 am…sometimes I respond at 3 am (not usually just on nights I can’t sleep). When you have a job you account for others and vice versa.

    • Chica1971 says:

      Yep.. Better yet the parent whom emails at 1am in the morning

  34. LunaSF says:

    If (and it’s a big if) she was sending texts at 5 am that’s not ok. Emails are fine because you can turn those alerts off and they are usually less urgent. People need sleep! These stories seem like Brits have no work ethic which I don’t think is true. Maybe as Americans we do work more because our healthcare is tied to jobs and we often value stuff over time with loved ones but this isn’t the case. It’s not like Meghan and her staff are working 12 hour shifts in a hospital on their feet. I don’t exactly understand what royal “work” is other than showing up for photo ops and promoting charities but I don’t think Meghan is some horrible ball busting boss. The disgruntled staff sounds super lazy and should look into the real work that frontline workers are doing these days and then reevaluate if they were being worked too hard.

    • S808 says:

      It’s also unprofessional as hell to not talk to her but instead to go to the press about it.

      • blue36 says:

        S808, yes 100% to your comment. If they were really having an issue with the emails, or texts why not just talk to her instead??? I think this book is going to be a regurgitation of Harry and Meghan being bad and evil, while William/Kate are good, saviours of the monarchy, awesome saints.

  35. KellyRyan says:

    The BRF vs the World 🙂 Isolated, insulated, outdated, irrelevant, useless, grifters, say what. 🙂 Meghan’s a working woman, who believes in and practices charitable work. I think if we polled cele posters we’d have a consensus.

  36. Anne Marie says:

    Basically regurgitating old “duchess difficult AKA the uncontrollable black women” narrative. Only in England is having a work ethic considered as a negative. Does the writer know about the massive protests against racism worldwide?? I hope people go after him and all these rrs

    • L4frimaire says:

      They keep dragging up old smears and rumors because they have no access to them and don’t have the depth or bandwidth to write about their current work, and are being scooped by other more relevant news outlets.

  37. Ennie says:

    Ha! Those royal staffers qould shrivel and die if they saw the times and days my school’s admin whatsapped us during quarantine while we were working online with the sts, morning, day, night, twilight, whatever, let alone our own students, I was a walking zombie even if I tried to set times. Poor British sausages, they are ridiculous and so are the people who buy the tabloids lies.

  38. Lisa says:

    Utter trash being recycled yet again.

  39. L4frimaire says:

    So wanting to work hard, expect the people who work for you to actually do what their job description says, and being invested and enthusiastic about your patronages is a bad thing? This is ridiculous. As for not doing research on her patronages, that is pure BS. There was another news article that said she visited and checked out the organizations before signing on as patron. Also, look at her actual patronages. How are any of those controversial? Community kitchen, university educational organization, animal shelter, organization that helps women get into the workforce and National Theatre. These are just sour grapes.They just wanted her to show up, smile,and shake hands, not have an actual working relationship with them. These people are so full of it. This so called gung-ho attitude is just called working for the rest of us. All these people making money off Meghan Markle, then get bitter when she and her husband decide to make money for themselves. They’re all getting in on the Sussex gold rush.

  40. Case says:

    My mom has told me about how when she went to work for the state fresh out of high school, her supervisor told her not to work so much because it made the other girls look bad.

    I sincerely believe that’s what happened to Meghan.

    • MsIam says:

      Yeah, I totally think Meghan was a victim of “new girl syndrome “. Everybody hates the new girl. But these people went completely off the rails when they leaked to the press. Then it became a vendetta.

  41. Noodle says:

    This is one of those situations where the organizational culture plays a big role in how things get done. I imagine that MM comes from organizations where emailing at 5am is just something that’s done. When she came into the Royal machine, she applied her expectations, based on her prior experiences, to the role. I can see how it might be negatively interpreted if the culture of the Royal machine is different, and especially so given the priorities of protocol over everything else. I’m sure that their staff, if they came from KP, are used to dropping everything and doing what is asked of them when the Cambridge’s or other Royals make their needs known. Whereas MM didn’t apply these expectations to her staff (she probably would email and just expect staff to do tasks whenever they started their workday), the existing culture there interpreted these morning missives as “Stop sleeping at 5am and do what the duchess has asked.”

    If I worked in an organization where the culture dictates that whenever I get an email my boss, I have to drop everything and do it immediately, I would too be irritated by a 5am missive. In my current organization, we all email at all times of the day and night, but we aren’t expected to respond right away. We have 24 hours to respond, as a way of respecting and protecting our own boundaries. When I started here, I was told that, so I’m not at all flustered by an email at 2am, because of course I’m not expected to work all day and night.

    It comes down to organizational culture, and how well people joining that culture are trained in how to work within that culture. I can see how they wouldn’t have told MM any of this when she joined the machine, and just sit back and criticize or gossip when she doesn’t follow the existing protocol of the organization. Then again, as a boss within the organization, she also has the right to establish her own office culture, and train others on how she expects things to go.

    • Ylajali says:

      I think you’re on to something. Reading org culture is hugely important, whatever your role or seniority. My takeaway from this is that she was really eager and gung-ho (nothing wrong with that) but didn’t take the time to understand how her new workplace was run.

  42. MsIam says:

    I know right off the top this book is nothing but lies. I won’t even call it fiction, it doesn’t deserve that much respect. These two writers work for InTouch magazine. Last year, InTouch had a big cover story of how “ Meghan and Kate had a big showdown at Balmoral”. I read it standing in the grocery checkout line, lol. It was very colorful complete with Meghan refusing to eat with Kate and taking Archie and storming out the door. Only problem was H &M didn’t go to Balmoral that year, so…. Anyway, save your money and buy a copy of InTouch if you’re dying to read this trash.

    • anon says:

      This comment should be the only comment on this thread.

    • ABritGuest says:

      @Msiam lol thanks for that. yes I don’t think these authors have much credibility. Also the bit about rushing her patronages doesn’t ring true at all. The CEO of SmartWorks was quoted in an article recently that Meghan met them when she first moved to London in 2017 and over course of a year had quiet meetings with them before they asked her to be patron. The Mayhew head also said she had done a number of private visits before her patronage was confirmed.

      The Queen passed on National Theatre I guess which was a fit because of her theatre degree& ACLU because she’s been an advocate on education for a while.

      With the Hubb her visits were first reported in February 2018 which was 7 months before the cookbook. So can’t see how it can be said her patronage’s were rushed except that someone had a problem with Hubb project for reasons mentioned above. I remember at the time cookbook was launched some royal experts were saying that royals don’t fundraise this way. I assumed they were being salty because they were bypassed in its promotion but sounds like the royal household had a problem despite royals like Charles and Camilla having very similar projects in past eg Charles having a children’s book with proceeds to Princes Trust and Camilla selling honey with proceeds to charity.

  43. The Recluse says:

    The only valid complaint her former staffers could have, if true, is the receiving of work related texts etc. before or after work hours. When you are off the clock you shouldn’t have to deal with any employer’s intrusions and i am thinking mostly of the corporate world.
    There are exceptions of course, but these royal staffers could use a bout of real unemployment among the regular citizens.
    It’s so interesting that the RF could not handle a professional person who was going to use her position to make a real difference for society.
    The monarchy needs to end. They don’t deserve their privileges if they won’t roll up their sleeves.

  44. Andrea says:

    There is a distinct societal difference between American and Canadian/UK society regarding work/life balance. I grew up in the US and have lived in Canada nearly 8 years now. A Canadian friend has a husband who got a fellowship in Michigan at a hospital. She is appalled that he leaves 630am and doesn’t come home until 7 or 8pm. She expected 5pm. She says they are desperate to get back to Canada after the 2 years is over with and that Americans do not understand a work/life balance, not to mention they are all about making money within the healthcare system in the US.

    My first big exprience working for a small Canadian company was eye opening. I regularly stayed a half hour later to finish my work to ensure I didn’t have so much the next day and was praised by the boss but developed deep resentment from colleagues who left exactly on time or sometimes an hour early if they could help it. It wasn’t that they were lazy, but their life outside of work was valued more. The thing I have found difficult is that it has been so hard to make connections, that my work has been all I have up here. I want to move back to the US because I ache for the connections, but I do believe it will be a step down in life/work balance why I am getting dual citizenship so that I can retire in Canada.

    Meghan just had a different work ethic and it was simply cultural differences.

  45. mk says:

    ” The Palace is run by a hierarchy of advisors, aides and equerries who hold the real power.”
    ~~~~~~~~~~ So powerful they were able to control Meghan and Harry and bend them to their RF and RR will – THEY WISH! They are weak and stupid.

  46. Elizabeth K. Mahon says:

    All this stuff about Meghan sending off emails at 5 am pissing off the staff is ridiculous. Prince Charles is notorious for sending off memos, emails etc. at all hours of the day and night. It’s clear, as several commenters have said, that the KP staff were used to Prince and Princess Do-Nothing, and get their noses bent out of shape because Meghan hit the ground running. Within months, she had the Together cookbook put together and launched. How many years before Kate launched anything on her own? It wasn’t until Meghan married Harry, that Kate all of a sudden started launching things.

  47. kelleybelle says:

    Gee, I’m glad they reminded us again of how much Tyler Perry’s house cost. Would’ve forgotten had it not been for the reminder. How many times have they printed that horseshit now? They are nauseating.

  48. Alarmjaguar says:

    This is all ridiculous trash! Also, as a West Coaster, they’ve got their regional stereotypes all wrong. West Coasters are mellow and laid back, East Coasters are the type-A demanding types. Come on now. But, as folks have said, this is all about her being a black woman who had the nerve to have opinions and ideas.

    • Call_me_al says:

      This article makes my blood boil. “There is a different degree of respect in the royal household.” Indeed! A lesser degree of respect for black women!
      Can you imagine these stories gaining traction on a white male?

  49. JRenee says:

    I see something or need something, I send an email. Management works all sorts of weird hours. I have never expected a response after hours but I didn’t want to lose the idea, request etc

  50. Chickaletta says:

    Years ago, Emma Thompson talked about how ambition and a “busy” work ethic was somewhat frowned upon in the UK. Obvs this was her personal experience but I wonder about that every time the press wants to come at Meghan for actually expecting to put the WORK back in “WORKing royal”.

    • February-Pisces says:

      I think that’s the case with some people definitely. I have a friend who comes from a very perfect stable white middle class family and she has since married a man who is very nice with a good job, and has seamlessly transitioned in that same set up in adulthood. Her life has always been steady and secure . She has always had a pretty steady job, but has absolutely zero ambition herself. Her husband is the breadwinner by a mile and she works part time. I always had parents who worried about money, and although I had everything I needed, my parents would never spend on things that all my friends used to get. So I guess I always wanted to work extra hard in adulthood, and always had dreams and passions I wanted to follow. I have another friend who is biracial and from a poor single parent family, and never had anything. She has always been extra ambitious too and has even bigger dreams because she grew up with nothing. Anyway me and my ‘poor friend’ are business owners, and my white middleclass friend has always been salty about it, she doesn’t really say it to my face, but I know she thinks it’s so unfeminine for women to have ambition. I know she secretly hopes I fail, or is scared that I might succeed. She doesn’t really get that I’m the one that has to support myself, no one else. My white friend has her parents to fall back on and a husband who earns good money to support her, so like ‘Kate’s she is very secure financially. My biracial friend always had to support herself, and her mum and family too. She doesn’t have anyone to fall back on.

  51. Feeshalori says:

    I’m putting my two cents in as well on the email topic. Before I’d leave work for the evening, I’d read the last of my emails for the day. When l walked in the next morning, l fully expected more emails in my inbox, having been generated during the night not only by my fairly manic boss but also by other members of my organization. Was I expected to act on them during the night when they were written? Absolutely not. But they were certainly there waiting for me in the morning when action would be taken. So old these spoiled courtiers and members of Megan’s staff just need to sit down and take several seats.

  52. Liz version 700 says:

    I bet the American culture was a bit of a clash. I like a lot of “American” traits. We are a hard working lot and not bound by titles or obsessed with how things are done. That being said… we can come across as condescending to other countries in the ever present American desire to tell other countries what to do (geopolitically speaking). Our lack of obsession with protocol can be perceived as rudeness. When I was 19 and living in London for a semester I had dozens of people tell me I was so much nicer than most “Americans.” We have a rep. Mind you after Trump we might need to back off that a bit. We owe the world an apology for inflicting Trump on the planet.

    I kind of love that Meghan Americanized her fairy tale. She rescued her prince and taught him how to be independent. Literally independence is the ultimate American fairy tale.

    • Greywacke says:

      I studied at Oxford for two summers and was told by the “scouts” aka cleaning staff for our rooms that the American graduate students were a dream compared to the regular British students who were just “terrors” and “awful.” It could have been because were were older and more mature by graduate school. Also, I’ve traveled the world with people from Australia, Canada, and many Europeans, and they all said the British were the worst of tourists to my surprise because I had heard as an American by Americans were considered the worst.

      • Mary says:

        @greywacke, I am an American but lived in Europe when younger as a student. Seeing and hearing some American tourists would make me cringe (talking loudly, table manners, etc …) but some Britons were really off-putting: loud, boorish, condescending and sometimes downright rude. Yes, even more so than most of the Americans I encountered! Indeed, the first person I had ever met up to that point who boasted about how much money he made was a Brit. It was at a party and I remember thinking how crass he was and being so surprised because I had always heard that the Brits were so polite (this was a loooong time ago when you were never to discuss money in social situations). And, don’t get me started on the British neanderthals that would come over for soccer games – women would have to barricade themselves inside!!

  53. BlueToile says:

    Ok, so my impression of all this is that Meghan assumed all these people were living in the 21st century with her, but they are all stuck in circa 1900. Got it.

  54. Sarah says:

    All that’s missing is the word uppity.

    As an American, can someone who is not explain, preferably a Brit, why they keep referencing the 5am email? Is work life balance different in England or is there an expectation
    when working for a royal that if they contact you that you must respond regardless of the time? There’s something to this because it keeps getting repeated.

    I know for me if I send or receive an email at 5am, it doesn’t matter because I’m nowhere near a phone with contact information that my boss has access to and the nature of my job is
    such that whatever it is can be answered when I start my day. However, I’m thinking in Hollywood terms that when someone has an assistant, they’re usually at the beck and call of their
    employer all hours of the day and night and the salary is trash so I’m wondering if this why the term Hollywood is being thrown around so much when describing Meghan’s work ethic.

    Charles and Anne are listed as some of the hardest working royals, do they mean to tell me that no once have either shot off an email to staff at an unreasonable time in the morning?

  55. Nina says:

    Palace aides are lazy little trolls used to do the bare minimum with their lazy bosses

  56. Marivic says:

    This only goes to show that the BRF is a sloth. The lethargy and sluggishness of all the members of Royal Family have rubbed off on their courtiers who abhorred work. So when Meghan came into the scene with her industriousness and diligence all of them hated her. Because she woke them all up from their apathy and deep slumber and whipped them hard to do real and meaningful work.

    • Liz version 700 says:

      Agreed, they wanted to hate her and her work ethic was used to trash her.

    • RoyalBlue says:

      this is all true. the plebeians work and the royals do the bare minimum.

  57. Smices says:

    Dylan Howard is a National Enquirer vet who, according to Ronan Farrow, would catch and kill unflattering Trump stories. So I don’t believe anything this extreme right winger has to say about Meghan.

    • ravynrobyn says:

      I thought of that too 🙄

    • anon says:

      Dylan Howard was also involved in the blackmailing of Amazon’s boss Bezos with dick pics. This is the sort of person we’re handling here: pure trash.

  58. whybither says:

    lazy people who so used working for the other lazy people threw tantrum when meghan asked them to actually work
    that is all

  59. Rani says:

    Well thanks everyone for all your anecdotes that obviously prove how hardworking Americans are compared to the unambitious British lol.
    Also why is everyone going on about 5am emails when the article references “5 am starts” and “text message bombardments”?
    5 am starts for whom? If Meghan wants to start the day early what’s the problem, so long as the staff have appropriate hours. 5 am emails are fine. ‘Text bombardments’ (at 5 am especially) are not fine. Obviously depending on the work culture.
    As others have noted, this all is BS designed to make Meghan look bad, and not in her right place. So while it’s possible she did some annoying things like bombard her staff with texts (lol just because it’s a repeated and specific story), obviously it would not be a big fucking deal if she wasn’t black.

    • Carrie says:

      My boss is an insomniac and often works at odd hours of the night and sends us txts and emails. The thing is he doesn’t expect us to respond to them then. We respond when we start OUR working day which is anywhere between 7 – 9am. I don’t see the big deal. All a stick to beat her with.

      • Rani says:

        @Carrie, I totally agree with you that all this is a stick to beat her with. It’s totally ridiculous of course.

  60. Rani says:

    Re: Meghan’s work ethic. It’s become a thing that her detractors use to beat her with (roll eyes), and her fans use to laud her. But is she really that hard working? I don’t mean in the context of royalty or celebrities. I mean compared to us peasants.

  61. yinyang says:

    I know this is off topic, but I heard some guys say Meghan looks like Stacey Dash. I know a lot of people put Stacey Dash up there as one of the hottest, but I honestly think Meghan is more beautiful!

  62. longtime reader says:

    I’ve read (here, I think?) that H anticipated that he and Meghan might need to leave The Firm since before the wedding. This makes a lot of sense, imho. While I’m fully Team H&M, I would not expect any corporation with a very traditional CEO (the Queen) and executive team (Charles, Camilla, W & K) to quickly, comfortably or happily adapt to two new executives with a VERY different style. In business situations, it’s typically the outliers who Ultimately leave. Looks like H anticipated their energetic & engaged style would make them outliers, and that combined with “spare” status, made leaving a better option than staying…and this before all the backbiting, betrayal & racism!

  63. JulieCarr says:

    I don’t buy this. William, Kate and Harry always had utterly pathetic schedules, but the older royals work a lot, significantly more than Meghan did as a royal. There were many months where Anne alone was doing far more than all 4 younger royals combined.

  64. Rage647 says:

    If she didn’t want to care about others, she wouldn’t have done all those projects! Hating ass hoe. She’s done more than Mrs. DoLittle in her first two years! So if the courtiers thought she was working too much, who are you to say the opposite? GTFOH