Think about everything that was happening to Prince Harry and Meghan in the last months of 2018. They returned from a wildly successful South Pacific tour, where huge crowds came out to see them wherever they went. They were expecting Prince Archie, their first child. And following the pregnancy announcement and the successful tour, Clarence House, Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace all lined up against Harry and Meghan in a huge way. There was leak after leak, briefing after briefing, outrage after outrage. This was when the “Meghan made Kate cry” lie appeared. This is when Jason Knauf began planting the “Meghan is a bully” seed. It was just headline after headline, abuse after abuse during November and December 2018.
Well, on December 10, 2018, Meghan stepped out solo at the British Fashion Awards. She didn’t walk the carpet, she just came out on stage to honor her wedding dress designer, Clare Waight Keller. For the brief appearance on stage, Meghan wore a one-shoulder black Givenchy gown, designed by Waight Keller. Meghan held her bump and wore dark nail polish. The British press had a hysterical meltdown over all of it. The bump-cradling, the nail polish, the dress, the appearance itself. Piers Morgan nearly gave himself a stroke. Apparently, all of the royal reporters were SHOCKED that Meghan would turn up unannounced, and they all bitched out Jason Knauf, who was then the communications guy at Kensington Palace. This is all another piece in The Mail Remembers series, although I don’t think I’ve ever heard this story before.
It’s no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a testy relationship with their courtiers during their as working royals. Indeed, the royals faced accusations that they were hard to work with and even claims they were bullying staff. But perhaps no falling out was as dramatic as the one which occurred between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and senior royal aide Jason Knauff. In fact, Meghan’s falling out with Jason was so bad that the Duchess did not even let him know when she was making a surprise appearance at an award ceremony, much to the anger of the royal press pack.
Writing in his biography of the royal staff, titled Courtiers, Valentine Low claims Meghan deliberately undermined him in a ‘very public way’ leading to some ‘awkward moments’ for both the Duchess and the aide.
Low said that ahead of their trip to Australia in the autumn of 2018, Harry and Meghan’s working relationship with Jason was ‘over’, but he remained employed by the couple until March 2019 despite having ‘little to do’ with them. Before he publicly stood down, Meghan was already spotted out and about with her new royal aide Christian Jones showing in a ‘very public way’ who her new ‘golden boy’ was.
The most public snubbing of Jason came in December 2018 when Meghan made a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall to present an award to Clare Waight Keller – who designed her wedding dress.
Low wrote: ‘The royal press pack were very put out that they had not been told of this appearance in advance, and several of them did not hesitate to express their feelings to Knauf.’
But the reason the communication secretary hadn’t give them prior warning about the appearance was because he also did not know Meghan was attending the ceremony before she was on stage. On top of this, Meghan also allegedly refused to let Sam Cohen or her assistant private secretary Amy Pickerill tell Jason about the event.
‘It was an astonishing example of how badly their relationship had deteriorated that Meghan did not even trust him to keep a simple confidence,’ Low said.
Not long after the drama, Jason would leave the Sussexes to take up a new role as a special adviser to Prince William and Kate in a sign that the battlelines between the two brothers were already being drawn.
I have no idea if any of this is true, because as I said, this is my first time hearing this particular story. I remember how Meghan’s appearance at this event was a huge “controversy” in the press, because everything Meghan did, said or wore was a “controversy.” It was already perfectly clear that there was a coordinated, palace-led smear campaign against her (I even mentioned in my coverage back in 2018). Gee, do you think that’s why Meghan was cautious about who she told about her events? It must have been pretty clear to Meghan that a lot of those Kensington Palace staffers were working against her, leaking about her and making up stories about her. Think about this as well… those f–kers took her passport and her driver’s license. Are we supposed to believe that she just hopped in a cab and went to the British Fashion Awards? Of course she told some staff about it. She probably didn’t tell Knauf though.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales attends the “Leading with Impact” event, as part of London Climate Action Week, at Bloomberg headquarters in London, Britain, June 24, 2025.,Image: 1014472476, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: – Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
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- Britain’s Prince William, Prince of Wales and former Mayor of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg attend the “Leading with Impact” event, as part of London Climate Action Week, at Bloomberg headquarters in London, Britain, June 24, 2025.,Image: 1014472485, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: – Fee Payable Upon reproduction – For queries contact Avalon sales@Avalon.red London +44 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles +1 310 822 0419 Berlin +49 30 76 212 251 Madrid +34 91 533 42 89, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red/Avalon
So he’s better off with huevo. They seem so happy in those pictures
He is happy with Peg! I think very happy. They sure are digging deep to find anything to smear Meg to cover up for the palace in fighting over greek yachting vacations.
Jason’s job has always been to promote William at any and all cost and he does his job very well. I think he encouraged Kate’s unwillingness to work because he didn’t want her getting more press than William and I think he was the head of the operation to drive Meghan out the country. He just never thought Harry would go with her.
I loved that appearance by Meghan. They/Jason were just pissed off because it was so fabulous and Meghan looked every bit the modern day princess. Overshadowed lazy Kate once again.
“The most public snubbing of Jason came in December 2018 when Meghan made a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall to present an award to Clare Waight Keller – who designed her wedding dress. Low wrote: ‘The royal press pack were very put out that they had not been told of this appearance in advance, and several of them did not hesitate to express their feelings to Knauf.”
Hey rat – and all the other courtiers – YOU ARE NOT THE MAIN ATTRACTIONS IN THE WINDSOR SHITSHOW.
Meghan owes these unprofessional backstabbers nothing. They dished out awful treatment and expect Meghan to lick their boots. Fuck off.
Jason comes across as a control freak while the Lowly one has no idea what boundaries are. What a playground.
So she already had a new staff member and Jason Knife-in-the-back was working for the Cambridges by this point? She had already figured out that Jason Knife-in-the-back was selling her out to the tabloids? She was already under fire for every single thing she did and didn’t want the person with the rota on speed dial to know her plans? She had already seen that Jason Knife-in-the-back was not loyal to her and Harry even though he worked just as equally for them?
And wow, shocker, she didn’t want to share her plans with him.
So much manufactured outrage. Valentine Low is trash. Yes, the Sussexes had a “testy” relationship with their staff because the staff were loyal to someone else and were leaking about them to the press constantly. Their staff were putting the Sussex family in mortal peril (Archie’s nursery fire). And even then, I’ll bet that Meghan was polite and kind to the staff because that’s how she treated everyone she’d ever worked with.
Christian Jones was Jason’s junior. Harry and Meghan didn’t have their own staff until they left KP.
And Christian Jones was the one leaking to his bf who was then getting paid to pass that information to Dan Wooton at the Sun. Jones also pressed Scobie about releasing early information from his book about the sussexes to distract from the Rose cheating story. So between Jones and Jason, Meghan was surrounded by snakes.
And don’t forget Simon Case, William’s private secretary at the time. A few years later, Case was appointed head of the civil service, a cabinet position, but was forced to step down for, yes, leaking, and also for shady financial goings-on. Meghan was surrounded by Bulluam’s nest of vipers.
I still can’t believe Simon Case was rewarded with a peerage this year. What did he do for William or what does he have on William?
I remember reading about rumblings the press did not know Meghan was going to go to this event. Happy she had this moment.
The press thinks “well we/our trusted leakers didn’t know therefore absolutely no one knew. Not a single person” and that’s… not how these things work. (V)VIPs like Meghan cannot and do not just show up on the day and go “surprise!!!!” There is a lot of behind the scenes planning in terms of logistics, timings, security etc and it is kept to a “those who need to know will know” so the circle is small and if anything does leak you have a short list of suspects.
W&K operate in the same way with their “surprise engagements” that are actually planned weeks if not months in advanced and is only a surprise because the press isn’t told the day of. Which is what happened here too but for some reason (gee no idea why /s), the Fail are acting like Meghan is the only person in the whole world to do it and she’s bad and wrong.
In the case of Will and Kate’s “surprise engagements” I’m guessing the press knows beforehand even if the public doesn’t. But in the case of Meghan, they weren’t given a heads up and apparently lost their sh-t over it. And proceeded to malign everything about the appearance, her dress, her nails, her belly-cupping etc. Even then, they really wanted intimate access to her. Welp, it backfired bc she said no and left. And now they have far far less access than ever. It’s called consequences.
The thing about Meghan’s event is that it was an event that was during her private time and was a surprise to her friend. It wasn’t a royal engagement and there was no reason for Jason to be told about what she was doing privately, especially since as they even admit, he was no longer really working for her at that point.
In the pre-cancer days, the Wails especially Kate canceled some events. As a result the events would be written on the circular calendar once completed and the public wouldn’t know about the cancellation. The surprised engagement are not really a surprise to the press.
In other words, William and Kate had no idea therefore the press did not. This was a private engagement for Meghan that did not warrant any publicity. Perhaps if the other royals did something they would not need to reach into the archives and continue to complain about a 2018 event.
The Meghan streams are drying up, they’re eating one another on YouTube, 6 years of the same BS.
Katie Nichol from VF, fighting breast cancer and her husband left her, just maybe if she was not lying about Meghan, she would know what was happening in her marriage.
Nana the one that wears that dreadful wig and grey makeup, got engaged to guy that spent 17 years in prison, and the bottom feeders attended, Jeremy Vine etc.
Why is Knauf’s name popping up again?
Bc VL has a new book and Jason has always been a source for VL. VL could easily reframe all his stories as look at how JK was plotting against Meghan. It’s what it reveals anyways.
This also reveals that not only has he freely been allowed to speak openly about her supposed cancer, with their approval, but that he is the one who has been leaking lies about Meghan being a bully. In that interview he still didn’t provide any factual details that prove that Meghan was a bully. Like the 5am email story proved, this story about her not sharing information about a nonworking engagement with a man that they say was no longer working for her isn’t her being a bully or doing anything out of line. It was an event that she was doing on her own personal time to surprise a friend. There was no reason for Meghan to have to share any of that information with JK especially since the complaint is that he wasn’t able to share it with the media. It was a surprise for Klare and all went according to plan regarding the event so JK not knowing and not being able to leak it to the press has nothing to do with anything Meghan did, but with what Will and Kate through JK and the media wanted to do and were unable to do to stop her from being seen out publicly and celebrated and treated with grace. This proves that they were trying to keep her hidden from the public and control all of her movements regardless of whether it was work related or not. This proves that JK was helping Will and Kate from the start to sabotage Meghan because this was also around the time that her letter to her father was leaked and when she had written to him to stop working with the media. JK was supposed to be his middleman and he’s the one who voluntarily tried to help the Fail in the court case but failed them when the emails she sent showed that she didn’t want her letter shared with anyone and that she was concerned with leaks already prior to Archie’s birth.
So these other staff members could be trusted not to leak to the media and Knauff couldn’t. Seems to be the gist of the story.
Right?! They’re always telling on themselves!
Valentine Low is provoking Meghan to write her book on what actually happened during her time as a senior working royal to set the record straight.
Oh my goodness who cares! She clearly told someone because she got there safely. I don’t think she took the Tube. She was able to come on stage so they clearly expected her. Why are they rehashing this at this point? Jason doesn’t work for Kensington Palace and hasn’t for years, and Meghan hasn’t been a working royal getting close to 6 years.
They are dying for content, because I otherwise cannot understand why the lack of communication between two ex employees of a company 7 years ago would be newsworthy.
I think you answered your own question – they are dying for content.
They’ve learned that the Chuckles and his mistress queen don’t sell. And they’ve learned that The Other Brother, Keen, and even the Wails children don’t sell. Unless they’re willing to start reporting on everything that they actually do know about William, the only thing that earns them clicks and cash is Meghan. They have no access for any new stories so all they can do is rehash and lie about the past.
The shelves here need to be filled with something. They’re desperate and it’s what’s called “royal silly season” only they don’t realise just how silly they themselves look.
This country’s media is an absolute joke
It’s in the news because Jason is helping keep it there. He doesn’t work at KP anymore yet went on Australian TV and gave the most detailed interview of anyone connected to the royals about Kate’s illness. Unfortunately, he is actually now more dangerous outside the institution than he was in it, when he could be checked by BP or others. He’s now entirely William’s attack dog.
Not true he is now the CEO of Earthshot, hence the photos of him together with Willy and Bloomberg.
The DM and Valentine Low are being economical with the truth. Christian Jones was second in command behind Jason Knauf. Harry and Meghan didn’t have their own staff until they left KP. Anyway can anyone blame Meghan for being distrustful about Jason Knauf? He was already leaking and smearing her in the press by that time.
They are making it even more obvious that JK was working on behalf of Will and Kate almost from the very beginning because he’s the one who claimed that there was bullying from Meghan in 2018 but the claims went nowhere because there wasn’t any bullying from Meghan. It would have also been JK who was in talks with Tatler when they wrote the story about Meghan making Kate cry. Tatler made it very clear before they made changes to that article to help make Kate and Will look good that they had been in talks with them about the article for months and even got their approval before printing it. It was JK who Meghan sent her email to when he was trying to get her to talk to Omid about his first book, which tells us that they already knew about the making of the book long before it’s release and that Meghan was very hesitant and only confirmed very little that was already public knowledge about her. It was JK who tried to insert SC in the communication about Meghan’s letter to her father and that it was JK who was the middleman who was supposed to help with getting the press to leave her parents alone. Those emails to JK also confirmed that Meghan’s 5am emails were in part because she was on tour and so in a different time zone and that she was apologetic about being an inconvenience to anyone. JK is revealing more about the smear campaign that he and his real bosses, Will and Kate, have started since the beginning.
Great way to test who’s leaking what though. If you suspected your comms officer was not actually on your side; don’t tell him and see if there’s the same rash of spiteful articles about your plans. This probably pretty much confirmed for them he was the one selling them out.
Exactly @CJ Meghan was right to not to trust Jason who was a real snake in the grass from day one.
Unfortunately Jones was also deeply compromised – it’s his partner that was leaking to Wootton, and that the Byline Times proved was on Wootton’s payroll. The rot is immense.
Exactly. Jones was deeply compromised. Does anyone know what happened to him? Did he move to a private sector job or a govt. job?
I don’t know but some believe that he was seated in the passenger seat of William’s care when he did his hospital drive by when Kate was supposedly in the hospital for abdominal surgery. Like all of the snakes that the Wales employ, they usually aren’t too far away from them or other seedy people.
So Meghan figured out who was on her side and who was working against her pretty damn quick and that’s reflected in who was included in her plans and appearances. And Knauf wasn’t one of them.
This incident actually explains a lot – Knauf was supposed to provide Meghan information to keep the press happy in exchange for them not reporting on W&K. Meghan attends a very high profile event and Knauf doesn’t tell the press about it because he doesn’t know about it. press gets ticked, so Knauf (with the approval of William) gives the press permission to go even harder on Meghan – destroy her for her nail polish, her one shouldered gown, everything – as both an apology to the press and payback to Meghan for cutting him out of the loop.
And honestly this just reflects so poorly on KP. What a cesspool.
This man is just one of the worst. Jason Knauf they could never make me like you. NEVER!
The fake crying story had come out by then so Meghan knew who she could trust and who she couldn’t.
If this is true it would explain why Jason Knauf has such a grudge against Meghan. I am not sure but I believe at that time Meghan and Harry were still represented by the same team as Willi and Kate in Kensington Palace. Harry and Meghan got their own team at the beginning of 2019. It was Kensington Palace which leaked like a sieve to the royal rota about Meghan and created this very toxic environment for Meghan. KP then refused to correct the lies they spread. I seriously believe that Meghan did not trust anybody in KP at that time.
When Harry and Meghan left in 2020 they looked imo very isolated in the royal family. I did not think that Harry and Meghan did trust anybody in the royal family or their representatives at that time. Harry and Meghan had only each other in the royal family.
Volatile behavior isn’t unheard of in the RF. We had William canceling the last minute his speech at Constantine’s memorial. We had Kate not show up at Ascot and her staff had no idea what was going on. One incident with Meghan doesn’t explain Knauf’s implacable hatred. What does explain it is William’s implacable hatred and Knauf is his minion.
Yes, one incident does not explain or change behaviours. What I was trying to say is that there was a lot going on in Kensington Palace (KP) at that time. Harry and Meghan were still represented by the PR team of KP. It was the height of the abuse of Meghan by the BM. A lot of negative stories about Meghan were leaked by someone in KP to the BM. Harry and Meghan could not trust anybody in KP. So imo it was understandable that Meghan might have reasons not to trust Jason Knauf and this incident contributed to the break down of the relationship between Harry and Meghan on one side and Jason Knauf on the other.
Your examples of not turning up to events are very recent. I am not sure but I cannot remember that the royal family were so unreliable to turn up to events when the late Queen was still alive.
Willi and Kate now make it a habit to leave the BM guessing if they turn up or not with the excuse of Kate’s recovery of cancer .
@Eurydice
Exactly so. BillyIdle is a bully, incandescent with jealousy, and with rage that his constant outlet for abusive behavior and his meat shield, his little brother, has escaped his control.
Harry had the temerity to fall in love with and marry a woman smart and independent enough to show him what a tiny, sterile gilded cage he was trapped in.
Even though she was ready and willing to stand with him in that cage and do the job — simply by her reactions and observations, and what he saw being done to her, his eyes were finally opened to the true awfulness of that life.
I think William saw that dynamic building from the very beginning. If it’s true that Meghan told him “kindly take your finger out of my face” in one of their early interactions, and Harry didn’t immediately chastise her and defend Billy, that alone would have been enough. Bullies and abusers have a keen sense for when their victims are slipping away from the abuser’s control.
BillyIdle hates Meghan and despises Harry, and Knauf the Knife is his enabler, fixer, and enforcer. So Knauf will always look to hurt Meghan if he can.
I have no idea what the actual relationship between the two men is, nor do I care, but their public appearances together as well as their “work” history show them to be very tight, and comfortable together. Bully and bully’s toady, all the way.
@Monika – ah, I get what you’re saying. And yes, things seemed to be more strict and organized under Elizabeth. Charles is a stickler for punctuality and organization, but he can’t control things the way Elizabeth did. It will be interesting to see how things are run when William is king.
@Eurydice Willi treats Charles with so much disrespect and Charles does not have the strength to counter Willi.
To be clear I believe that Jason Knauf did William’s bidding at that time, he was the one leaking the stories to the BM.
Knauf didn’t like them because his friend Melissa toubati was hired to work for the Sussexes and she screwed up during the Oceania tour. Remember the tags still on the clothes? That was one of many things. Toubati was let go early on after that tour and Knauf got vicious after that.
He may even have sent Tominey the fake crying story for kate.
Followup/Edit: I couldn’t recall if that face-finger incident was reported in an unreliable tabloid story or what — then I double-checkec and Harry wrote about it in Spare. So I think that underscores my point…
Like many “journalists and royal commentator”, I find Valentine Low really problematic. This is a man who not admitted to knowing that Meghan was suicidal and still ran with his bullsh*t stories, but also, is a man in his senior years obsessing over a woman of colour.
That’s what really bugs me (and I live in the U.K. so I have to see the rubbish tabloids everywhere), all of these “grown” (debatable) men obsessing not only over a woman of colour but also somebody else’s wife.
They do it with Kate aswell when they infantilise her and idk I just find it so disgusting, the only difference is with K, William is okay to keep encouraging it 🤢 (sir that is your wife they are talking about) (also idk if those articles are still running, haven’t seen them much lately but there was a lot two-three years ago) and with Meghan it makes me even more glad that H took her away and out of the toxic hell-hole that is the British court
Does Kate view Jason as her minion too because they is a photo of them laughing at some event when she shoving a specimen at Will? Or is she jealous because Will says Jason is MINE!
Is Knauf William’s soul mate?
Imagine being this salty because a grown ass woman who you aren’t even married to goes out for the evening and doesn’t tell you so you can tell your fellow rat colony about her whereabouts. These people are not alright at all .
Aside from the “advisor with benefits”, job, the snake Knauf and Bulliam are well suited for each other, both evil, conniving malicious jerks. They deserve each other.
Meghan Made Jason Cry story any minute now.