The Hollywood Reporter published their “Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan” piece on September 12. The NY Post picked up the story quickly, but it took a week for the British media to really start circulating it. In THR’s piece, it felt like some very misogynoir smears were being recycled from the 2018-19 era, when Meghan and Harry were living in the UK and being subjected to a full hate campaign from the palace and press. There were mentions, in the Hollywood Reporter piece, of “5 am emails” and “Duchess Difficult” and “the Sussex Survivors Club” of former staff members. One source told THR: “She’s absolutely relentless. She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.”
I was really concerned that the Sussexes would do the same thing they did last year about Spotify and Bill Simmons: absolutely nothing. I worried that they would stick their heads in the sand and ignore the festering wound to their professional reputations in America. Thankfully, they’re pushing back – Us Weekly’s cover story this week is full of first-person accounts of named former staffers, all talking about how the Sussexes are lovely, considerate and thoughtful bosses. Unfortunately, this week, suddenly people are talking about an Access Hollywood interview. Access Hollywood did an interview with Maer Roshan, co-editor-in-chief of THR. The Mail picked up the interview:
A US report claiming Meghan Markle is a ‘dictator in high heels’ came from someone ‘very high up’ still working for the couple, a senior journalist has claimed. The source said that Meghan ‘doesn’t take advice’ and has reduced ‘grown men to tears’, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Maer Roshan, Co-Editor in Chief of the publication, has said he stands by the story after a backlash amongst supporters and friends including one Sussex source who said the claims were ‘fabricated’. Meghan herself has also always denied claims of bullying staff.
Mr Roshan believes that their insider has revealed that it ‘probably isn’t true’ that claims Meghan is ‘difficult’ to work with and the nickname ‘Duchess Difficult’ were ‘manufactured’ by the Palace after Megxit. The allegations about her behaviour emerged in a piece on the exodus of staff who have worked for the Sussexes, including the couple’s chief of staff Josh Kettler who resigned from his role in August after just three months.
Mr Roshan told Access Hollywood: ‘Our reporter talked to a very high up source who works for the couple and said: “Everyone is terrified of Meghan”.
‘Duchess Difficult is a nickname that has trailed Meghan Markle for quite a few years. What is new is that this notion, since coming to America, that a lot of these rumours were manufactured by the Palace and the reporting that we did suggests that probably isn’t true and there is still this undercurrent of fear’.
Mr Roshan told Access Hollywood: ‘Two things can be possible at once. The couple does help a lot of people. Meghan and Harry declined to comment on our story. I think Meghan would have said that barking around orders is something that we expect from men and it would never raise an eyebrow’.
I think it’s notable that THR is standing by their reporting and the EIC is saying no, we have a source here in America who currently works for Harry and Meghan. A lot of people wanted to believe that this was “commissioned” or manufactured by the British media (I saw that a lot in the comments), but THR doesn’t work like that. They’re not, like, Fox News. I’m not saying that I believe THR’s story or anything, but I believe something else is going on here. For the EIC to back up their reporting and stand by their source? It’s really strange. I’m also reminded of that weirdness around Archewell’s “delinquent” status because of a missing check, which was bizarrely publicized too, remember that? My Spidey sense is telling me that there’s a mole in Archewell.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.