"Everyone is scared"

Meghan scandal clouds Harry’s 40th birthday

Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry have been married since 2018 and have not been senior royals since 2020. They have built a new life for themselves in the USA. A report now sheds a bad light on this.

(Bild: Dutch Press Photo Agency / Action Press / picturedesk.com)

On Prince Harry's big birthday weekend of all days, as he celebrates his 40th birthday on Sunday, a revelation about his wife Duchess Meghan is making international headlines. 

As the "Hollywood Reporter" revealed, citing an anonymous source, Hollywood is said to be turning its back on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The reason: their chief of staff and PR guru Josh Kettler, who is well connected in US celebrity circles, threw in the towel in exasperation just three months after being hired by the couple to polish up their image. 

"Sussex Survivors Club"
He joins a growing list of former employees who are known as part of the Sussex Survivors Club. Before him, Toya Holness, her former global press officer, and Christine Weil Schirmer, her head of PR, had already left the team.

Duchess Meghan now also has the US media against her.

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Sunday Alamba / AP)

"She's just awful"
Why are so many leaving their positions with the Sussexes? "Everyone is scared of Meghan," an insider close to the couple told the magazine, offering a less than kind explanation.

He elaborated, "She makes fun of others and doesn't take advice. They're both bad decision-makers, they change their minds a lot. Harry is a very, very charming person - no airs and graces at all - but he's a great enabler. And she's just awful."

Palace investigated bullying reports
Even when Meghan was still in the UK, there were similar allegations. The couple's former communications secretary, Jason Knauf, is said to have lodged a complaint with Buckingham Palace in October 2018 about bullying against assistants.

The latter launched an investigation, but did not want to make the results public. It was only stated that policies and procedures had been changed in line with the recommendations resulting from the investigation.

Harry is said to have planned a trip to the mountains with close friends without his wife and two children for his milestone birthday this weekend, in addition to a party to which his wife is said to have invited celebrities from the neighborhood in Montecito, such as Oprah Winfrey.