This week has been full of (manufactured) drama about the Duchess of Sussex. The Hollywood Reporter’s September 12th report on the Sussexes’ business is still so strange to me, even moreso because THR’s editor is doubling down on their reporting and still claiming that the magazine spoke to current and former Archewell employees here in America. That’s what I keep getting stuck on, especially now that Archewell’s current and former employees have gone on the record to Us Weekly to say that Meghan and Harry are great bosses, and that Meghan isn’t running around, throwing tantrums and making grown men sob at their desks.
The only way THR’s reporting makes any sense is if THR’s editors are lying about their sources or their sources are lying to them about when & where they actually worked with Meghan. THR’s report so heavily mimicked the years of smears from the Windsors and the British media, it’s astounding that new American employees would have the exact same classist, racist, dehumanizing insults for Meghan, and that none of them would go on the record as a named source to THR. That was reinforced this week when a “courtier” ran to the Daily Beast and called Meghan a “demon” who had “psycho moments.” That’s part and parcel of the palace’s character assassination, and someone is trying very hard to convince everyone that Archewell’s employees feel the same way.
Currently, outlets like the Sun and the Daily Beast are trying to say that Us Weekly’s cover story is suspect because it’s Sussex-authorized pushback. As in, Meghan and the Archewell team put together a plan of how to combat yet another wave of character assassination – smears which affect Meghan’s professional reputation in California – and executed that plan by authorizing people to speak on the record to Us Weekly. That’s what’s being dismissed by British outlets and British commentators, who want you to believe their unnamed palace sources with an egg-shaped ax to grind.
Meanwhile, Us Weekly continues to repackage their exclusive, pointing out in a new piece that five current and former Archewell staffers have spoken to them on the record, and all of the people they’ve spoken to have sung Meghan’s praises as a boss and as a person. They told Us Weekly that Meghan has “never” yelled and she “gives clear direction and is solution-oriented.” Former Archewell COO Mandana Dayani also told Us Weekly: “Part of the profound injustice of having to speak publicly on this in light of these endless and damaging narratives is that so much of the kindness, mentorship, and support that Prince Harry and Meghan share with others happens quietly behind closed doors.”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images. Cover courtesy of Us Weekly.