What’s striking about the Windsors’ completely obvious and pathetic smear campaign against the Duchess of Sussex is how little they actually have on her. They’re literally manufacturing vague, context-free accusations of “bullying” out of thin air, and they’ve gone back four years to regurgitate some stupid old stories. This particular story was pushed off the top headlines pretty fast, and I think I know why. The story is a four-year old gem about how, as an actress, then-Meghan Markle accepted freebies from designers. The Daily Mail freaked out about that at the time, like they had never heard that celebrities get free shit. Literally every actress with a profile gets free sh-t. Then, when Meghan married Harry, she was told she could not accept freebies from designers ever again. Thus, this story:
Meghan Markle clashed with aides after furious rows over freebie designer clothes sent to Kensington Palace, The Sun can reveal. The palace has launched an investigation into allegations the duchess “bullied” staff when she was a working member of the royal family.
The alleged claims are believed to include rows sparked when the former actress was told by aides that keeping clothes sent by fashion labels was against royal protocol. Sources say boxes of designer garments were sent to Kensington Palace for Meghan after she was unveiled as Harry’s girlfriend.
One said: “As an actress it was perfectly acceptable to take freebies sent by fashion chains and designer labels. But Meghan had to be told it was not the done thing when you are a member of the royal family.”
Where exactly is the part where Meghan “clashed” with aides? It sounds like she was told she couldn’t accept freebies and she… didn’t. The thing is, as with every single one of these dumb stories, everything boomerangs back on the Keens. Kate isn’t supposed to accept freebies and she’s not supposed to wear or use gifts. She breaks that protocol all the f–king time. She accepts gifted jewelry and wears it. She wears free stuff filtered through a third party, her sister, all the time. I guess it’s not noteworthy when Kate does it because she’s white, keen and lazy though.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
They’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. This is sad.
At this point they are making things up. I’d bet all royals accept ‘freebies’.
This is getting desperate 😂
They couch it as “special relationships” or “royal *deals*” (like Land Rover, Jaguar and Audi cars).
If I remember correctly, years ago Sarah Ferguson did an interview for a magazine (Vogue??/ Vanity Fair??/) and she said she was not allowed to accept free clothes from designers directly for her personal*** use but could accept heavy deep discounts. Sarah Ferguson ask Zandra Rhodes for a discount on several dresses for a tour and was told “No” by Zandra Rhodes.
***When Sarah officially toured NYC she did an “engagement” at Macy’s promoting UK designers and UK textiles. Macy’s gave her several sweatshirts for the York Princesses which the palace accepted and passed on to Beatrice & Eugenie. Sarah also used Donald Brokeahontas Trump’s helicopter on this junket. I guess that free use of private planes from The Duke of Westminster and helicopters from Brokeahontas by the BRF are allowed.
Plus, actresses have to return their red carpet dresses. They’re loans.
Expect more of this nonsense. I fully anticipated the papers to increase the amount of articles on Meghan from 50 a day to a 100 but we don’t care. That interview WILL be broadcast and Meghan’s social proof will continue to rise.
If this is what they have on her, if this is the big smoking gun, that she wanted to wear free stuff, sent emails early in the morning, and maybe hissed at someone (LOLOLOL), then she really must be a saint because you know if there was even an iota of real scandal they would have exploited it long ago like they did with her father.
“because you know if there was even an iota of real scandal they would have exploited it long ago”
@Sunday – You hit the nail directly on the head without even lifting the hammer!
The sending e-mails early in the morning still gets me tbh. Like. Wow. Okay. I guess I’m going to hell for scheduling my e-mails at 6 am LOL.
There was another story around the same time about how she bought an espresso machine for her staffers to use, because apparently that’s….bad?
I’m guessing the avocado toast story will make an appearance any second……
One would think that Meghan had never worn designer clothes in her life, especially pre Harry. The irony is that the other duchess actually never wore designer clothes prior to her marriage. Her pre RF wardrobe was terrible.
Meghan wore designer and owned a Cartier tank watch, bought with her own money no less. They really don’t want to go down this path, because Kate’s lack of employment as well as her parents’ finances will be investigated by real journalists. Even in my pro-Cambridge royal watching days, before they forced a magnifying glass on Meghan which deflected onto them and their laziness, I wondered how Kate’s family became wealthy off of a party supply company. I told myself it’s because they started before ecommerce took off, so they had that first mover’s advantage and made most of their money in the early days, plus I’ve never lived in the UK so I wouldn’t know if PP was a popular brand. But now, I just wonder. I really wonder.
@Commonwealthy: PP was originally a mail order company, as in, through a catalog. Mail order is hardly ‘first movers’ as Sears, Roebuck & Co., and Montgomery Ward’s were quite successful with this as early as the 19th century. More recently, Harry & David made a bundle selling the world’s very pest pears through mail order. All former catalog companies have shifted to e-commerce (although they still send out paper catalogs). It’s not completely out of the question that PP would make a pretty successful company, but…. The more I read of these people, the less I believe they’ve ever been on the up & up.
the one where it’s her fault that the cartels are committing murder getting into the avocado trade?
This is ludicrous. Woman accepts new job, is told parameters of new job which are slightly different to her previous job. It’s hardly a thrilling tale.
Whenever i see that ring on Kate i am so happy William and Harry swapped,its god awful. Maybe it was ok for Diana in the 80s. PWT really was too lazy,unaffectionate and unromantic to design or even pick something special.
Like why choose the ring from your parents’ failed marriage as the engagement ring for your new bride? I’m sure Charles would have paid for a new engagement ring for Kate.
The one Diana picked out for herself from a tray of rings (selected by an impersonal jeweler no less) presented to her by the Queen and Charles and then died wearing. I remember a palace source leaked at the time that both the Queen and Charles weren’t surprised that she chose the gaudiest (to their minds) and most expensive ring in the tray. Sure there’s a ring with a lot of loving sentiment around it. Yeah, that’s the ring I would want to hand someone I loved. That ring should have been buried with Diana.
The sapphire was less expensive IIRC. Only $60K back then. My theory is the real Diana ring is in a vault somewhere and Kate wears a reproduction. Diana’s ring is priceless because she wore it. Kate shoves the ring she wears into the dough (on one of the few Scout outings) and wears it ziplining and sailing. Can’t imagine they’d let her do that (not that she has a lot of sense) when the real ring is irreplaceable. I don’t know why anyone would want to wear it, but Kate likes to cosplay Diana.
I’ve never understood this – why would you want to wear a ring that was from your parents (or in-laws) failed marriage? I have the engagement ring that my first husband gave me and my daughter said she wants it – but I’ll strongly encourage her to repurpose the diamond into something else (come to think of it…this would be a nice 16th birthday gift).
@dee, kate is def wearing a replacement for most events. I won’t be surprised if Meghan has it too. I know some A listers do this because of possible robberies.
At the VERY LEAST, he should’ve had the stone reset in another design, or completely repurpose it (make it into a pendant, and get Keen CEO her OWN sapphire ring to go with it….SOMETHING).
But lazy is as lazy does…he couldn’t even be bothered to do that. And Keen Katie takes the Krumbs…as always.
Nah Waity Keen would not have wanted that rock reset or even a different ring for her engagement, the entire point of carting around that Pop Ring is that it reminds people of Diana, as Keen has nothing of her own to offer, no charm, no charisma, no work ethic, no empathy or enthusiasm. It’s to get people to believe she is the heir to Diana’s legacy without having to do any of the work.
It’s funny, I barely notice the ring when I see pictures of Kate. She makes something that was so iconic on Diana, look ordinary.
The message of that ring is “My father was forced to marry my mother, and now I’m forced to marry you.”
Ouch! Correctimundo.
Again, didn’t swap it. William stole it out of the vault; Harry was publicly surprised by both the engagement and the use of (his) ring.
WAIT FOR IT: When Keenie does it, she is “saving taxpayers’ money.”
If Meghan had done it, even once, she’d be a soulless greedy grifter hurting the queen by cheapening the family and the entire kingdom.
I’m confused. When are they planning to roll out the stories about actual bullying? I really hope Harry and Meghan are planning to sue all of these people.
I hope so too. I hope they at least put out that they are considering lawsuits so anyone better have back up before making accusations a year or two later.
LOLOLOL. They really are scraping the bottom of the barrel here, and yes, they need to be careful because people are going to look at Kate and say, what about that specific story that Emily Andrews had to take down because it was about Kate accepting freebies, and the palace threatened lawyers? What about that one Emily, care to tell us more? (WE KNOW YOU’RE HERE)
But anyway this is so much like the “Meghan wears Saudi jewelry!” story where it took people about 2.5 seconds to say, “but so do all the royals?” At this point, they’re just going to out all their freeloading ways.
That tweet from Emily Andrews has been preserved by many. So we all know that the KP lawyers were threatening her over the Kate and freebies story. And if I recall correctly, Emily was pregnant at the time so she didn’t push back because she really didn’t need the stress.
She accepted and wore jewelry from an Irish shop.
Kaiser, you’re doing the Lord’s work. What the hell is the palace thinking with this steady stream of own goals???
Anyway, thank you for your efforts, which entertain and enlighten. It’s fun and escapist, and it’s smart. My mental health during the last year is better because of your writing on royals, politics and the Kardashians. Now that more mainstream people and publications are paying attention to palace intrigue I hope you and this site blow up in a big ass way.
Lol, thought this would be first comment. Sixth comment makes it sound weird. But I stand by my words!!
All us CBers stand by your words!
Amen to this, sister! 👏🏻.👏🏻.👏🏻.
Too right, this is the place to be!
Come on in new folk, it’s great here.
Watch out. Next they are going to lament how she took her tea…WITHOUT cream.
Meghan had a shower in actual water, causing drought among the Royal Rota and Carole Middleton, they had to remain parched for several days. News at eleven!
That explains her reptilian skin.
I’m currently embroiled in a twitter battle with some halfwit over this HR bullshit and it’s insane. They really believe this crap.
If allowed by Celebitchy, please post the link!
I thank you in advance for the entertainment.
I tried, it wasn’t allowed. 🙁 @Foodie517
They are scrapping the bottom here. I would not be surprised if PP is announced dead on Sunday.
He’s been moved back to the non-specialist hospital, so I think they’ve decided to let him live.
Or make it easier to say they didn’t have access to the technology that could save him.
I freely admit I know nothing about medicine, and only a little about the care of the very old, but isn’t moving him to a third hospital a really bad idea, especially given his age?
I’m beginning to wonder if all the moving is in hopes of him contracting some random, stray virus, or weakening him even further. I agree with Lady D: the constant moving is not good for a man his age. I’m sure they’re moving him by ambulance, or limo at least, so he’s not in discomfort. All the same, let the man rest, for crying out loud.
If they don’t kill him they will kill the pope or someone else to prevent oprahgate. Bojo better sleep with one eye open.
Until they come with actual details of what she has said and done instead of vague nonsense like “she didn’t pick up the phone and i was terrified” or stupid articles like this, im not believing those bullying accusations. This is so obvious at this point. Yo, KP pr person (cuz i know you people read this too) tell your boses to admit defeat and retreat.
They keep it so vague so you can use the talking points when smearing. They don’t want you to think too much about it. Good thing too because some of Meghan’s haters do not like to think.
And this all comes out now. It will just make people think badly of the palace.
Meghan probably just lamented how she was now getting the freebies she really wanted and would never be able to wear them and that was that.
Or perhaps Kate told her that she wears freebies all the time and she’ll be able to do the same, and then Meghan asked a staffer why Kate could, but she couldn’t?
Stop it. Like I said in the other article that some of the people who admit they don’t like Meghan or believe the bullying claims are seeing through the timing and believe it all to be suspicious.
This should have been ended once BP announced the investigation
“The alleged claims are believed to include rows sparked when the former actress was told by aides that keeping clothes sent by fashion labels was against royal protocol.”
The alleged claims are “believed” to include? We are so past any semblance of actual journalism. Either the claims do or do not include this asinine story. At this point they really are plucking random details out of thin air and applying outrage to them. This is awful.
That’s how they word their stories in the tabloids. Its how they skate around the libel claims. These folks are professional gossips, well skilled at their craft.
Cough Andrew cough
Exactly, this interview could have been 5 minutes top, Megan just has to say they used my ass to cover up for Andrew LOL
@kaiser, how are your molars? I know I seem to be grinding my teeth all the time each time one of these pathetic stories comes out.
You don’t even have to tie this back to kate wearing freebies. Don’t they think it’s a little obvious that all of these “stories” are coming out of Kensington Palace? And that people with a functioning frontal lobe will think it’s sort of odd that there are all these (old, stale, questionable at best) tales of Meghan flouncing around KP being awful and zero, zip, nada to say about her after the split from KP? Does that not stand out to them? Are they saying this just happened with KP, or are they saying they’re way less professional than the staff at BP that’s keeping quiet? Bc neither makes them look great. These smears don’t stand up under even the slightest bit of common sense scrutiny, it’s baffling. The breadcrumbs lead right to your doorstep, keens!
Sounds like Kate was used to be the only young pretty woman in the royal family. She must have hated sharing the spotlight.
It’s in the Tatler article that Kate was worried because she knew Meghan would outshine her.
There sheer desperation on the palace to try to Convinced the public that they didn’t do anything wrong by leaking anything they can think of at the 12 hour .
All of this because William couldn’t keep it in his pants.
The Occam’s Razor of comments. I hope he enjoyed his little romp, because the pain and misery and destruction that’s happened as a result could very well bring down the Firm he’s destined to run one day.
Ooh, nice.
But, but… Keen Lamebridge is helping to conserve resources!
Not only does she wear free stuff she gets via Pippa, but when she’s done wearing something it finds its way over to Chez Meddlingtons, to be worn proudly by pimp mama Karen Midd!
(full disclosure: I recently saw a thread from one of the big Squad accounts that did a side-by-side comparison of dresses and coats)
We ALL remember CarolE (and Pips) showing up in things worn by Keenly Frazzled Katie. All. The. Time.
I’d love to see this thead!
Here’s how it probably went: Someone sent her a freebie. She was told she couldn’t accept it. She asked why. Was told it’s against protocol. Then she asked: “why is this protocol? Doesn’t it make sense to accept the freebies instead of wasting taxpayer money on my royal wardrobe, especially since I won’t be repeating my outfits much?” And was told no, again.
Boom– argument.
This is ridiculous. Not only do royals sneak freebies, but they should! It saves taxpayer money! Why does nobody see that?
Meg, as usual, did nothing wrong.
As someone who worked in a us embassy, i think she would have got it immediately.
She may said she wished she could wear it, or asked if it was okay to do what Kate does
But i think it’s just a narrative intentionally created to make her sound Hollywood.
Yeah, this is a non-story.
At this point, this has to be an inside job, right? Like an anti-royalist has infiltrated the Palace and RR and are feeding them the worst strategies???
These people are so ridiculous and the fact that they can’t see how ridiculous they are, is the story that should be focused on. I truly used to think that the Brits were just way sophisticated but watching the last several years between Brexit and Meghan joining the BRF has been an eye opener.
I thought I saw something on twitter yesterday (likely posted by one of the squad) about them having to change some of the rules about gifts due to all the swag Camilla accepted when touring Saudi Arabia? Surely that is worse!
They have absolutely nothing legitimate on MM
I am still waiting for something that remotely sounds like bullying. Maybe they have a different definition of what bullying is in the U.K. and they think this qualifies.
My flipping mustard has Her Maj’s crest on it, and my hairbrush. They’re seriously claiming that there’s no kickback for that?
I didn’t realize until today I still followed the Cambridge’s (Kensingtonroyal) account on Instagram. They posted some lame story about how Will and Kate did some sort of talk with a couple who were ailing with health issues blah blah bs. The comments were full of hateful comments about Meghan. Some even went as far as calling her a home wrecker which I thought was ironic considering William very publicly cheated on Kate and made her hang out with the mistress later on. I unfollowed, but not before I took note of their followers and compared it to Sussexroyal, which has been inactive over a year. The Sussex’s have more than 2 million more followers than the Kensington account. I got great pleasure from that and had to troll the comments letting everyone know of this fact and that their beloved prince married a black American woman. They can never hear that enough lol. Yes I was being petty but I really can’t stand how Meghan and Harry are being treated by obvious racist trolls.
Note that official account doesn’t delete the racist, hateful remarks about Meghan but deletes any reference to Roses.
Yeap. My comments were deleted too lol. Figures.
I actually don’t think they are freebies, it’s more “we’ll offer you this if you wear it and publicize it”…Which she does… She doesn’t pay for them, but hey… They sell because of her…