Fresh from Meghan Markle and Prince Harry being called “disaster tourists” for visiting the smoldering ruins of people’s homes lost in the Eaton fire, the couple face new scrutiny over the personal, professional and reputational challenges they’ve dealt with in the five years since they left royal life and moved to California.
Unfortunately for the Montecito-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex, “American Hustle,” a new cover story in Vanity Fair, confirm previous reports about Meghan being a “terrible,” “difficult” and even “bullying” boss to her employees. For the 8,000-word piece, the magazine spoke to dozens of people, a number of whom could only be interviewed anonymously because they were required to sign non-disclosure agreements.
While Harry can be “charming,” if giving off the air that he “has no inner life” other than polo, Vanity Fair reported that Meghan seems eager to be “a good person” and to engage “in world-improving (if also brand-building) activities.” And yet, the former TV actor has become a polarizing figure in America. She also tends to engage in what writer Anna Peele described as retaliatory behavior against “people so below her in status.”
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex member of the British royal family with mayor of Pasadena Victor Gordo at a home at 2858 Highview Ave. and Altadena Dr. that was destroyed during the Eaton Fire in Altadena on Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County Register/ SCNG)
Someone who struggled to work on Meghan and Harry’s troubled Netflix and Spotify media projects told Vanity Fair that her relationships with employees tended to follow a familiar pattern. She would “be warm and effusive at the beginning, engendering an atmosphere of professional camaraderie.”
When something didn’t work out, often due to Meghan and Harry’s own demands— such as a teaser for her Spotify podcast being released months before she had even taped any episodes — she “would become cold and withholding toward the person she perceived to be responsible,” the source told Vanity Fair.
The source said it was “really, really, really awful. Very painful. Because she’s constantly playing checkers — I’m not even going to say chess — but she’s just very aware of where everybody is on her board. And when you are not in, you are to be thrown to the wolves at any given moment.”
WINDSOR, UNITED KINGDOM – MAY 19: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex wave as they leave Windsor Castle after their wedding to attend an evening reception at Frogmore House, hosted by the Prince of Wales on May 19, 2018 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Steve Parsons – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Meghan’s treatment of underlings could be “undermining,” the source also told Vanity Fair. “It’s gnawing at your sense of self. Really, like, ‘Mean Girls’ teenager.”
Before working with Meghan, the person had a hard time believing the stories about Meghan bullying palace aides or yelling at them after she married Harry in 2018. The initial reports came from the Times UK in 2021, a year after Meghan and Harry left Britain, decrying cruel and racist treatment by the tabloid media and the royal family. But after working with Meghan, this person found such behavior happened “on any given Tuesday.”
Vanity Fair reported that one person took a leave of absence after working with Meghan on three episodes of her Spotify “Archetypes” podcast, while “several others’ said they took extended breaks, left their jobs or underwent long-term therapy after working with the former TV actor.
“I think if Meghan acknowledged her own shortcomings or personal contributions to situations rather than staying trapped in a victim narrative, her perception might be better,” one person told Vanity Fair, before the person half-jokingly said, “But who am I to criticize Meghan Markle? She’s doing great.”
The Vanity Fair report comes at a crucial time for Harry and Meghan’s efforts to make a success of themselves as media moguls, entrepreneurs and global do-gooders.
Britain’s Meghan (C), Duchess of Sussex, and Britain’s Prince Harry (R), Duke of Sussex, arrive at a charity polo game at the Ikoyi Polo Club in Lagos on May 12, 2024 as they visit Nigeria as part of celebrations of Invictus Games anniversary. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP) (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)
Meghan’s plan to launch herself this past week as a lifestyle guru, with her new Netflix series “With Love, Meghan,” was put on hold following the outbreak of the deadly wildfires in Los Angeles on Jan. 8. Meghan announced the series would be pushed to March 4, “as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California.”
Her critics said she and Netflix clearly had no choice but to delay a show that would depict the duchess celebrating her lavish, Southern California lifestyle with her celebrity friends, after so many others in Pacific Palisades and Altadena had lost everything.
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan initially received glowing headlines for dropping into Pasadena last Friday to serve meals, leave donations and give hugs to Eaton fire survivors. But they soon began to engender harsh criticism online from actor Justine Bateman and others who were outraged that they were photographed, receiving a personal tour of burned-out neighborhoods from Pasadena’s mayor.
Bateman called them “disaster tourists” and “ambulance chasers.” TMZ founder Harvey Levin and his producers also lambasted the couple on their daily show earlier this week. “I find it crazy that there are people, most people cannot get into these areas, especially Altadena and don’t even know if their homes are still there,” Levin said. “For Meghan and Harry to show up from Montecito, and they get a tour? For what purpose?”
Executive producer Charles Latibeaudiere agreed that it seemed like “an ill use of resources,” while senior news producer Charlie Neff said their visit isn’t “sitting well with people in the community…. To be going there doing that feels not genuine and not necessary.”
It remains to be seen whether the “disaster tourist” criticism will stick. But the Vanity Fair story raises questions about their marriage, with Harry depicted as a naive, lonely figure who has failed to make any friends and is desperate to reconnect with his family. One source suggested that he did not necessarily realize the damage his tell-all memoir, “Spare,” would have on his relationship with his family. He’s also described as not being that interested in working, except on his charity projects.
The story could also revive Meghan’s bullying controversy. Her representatives initially brushed off the 2021 TImes UK report as part of a “calculated smear campaign,” hatched by a royal establishment and British press that had grown hostile to her. The bullying allegations seemed to die down after Buckingham Palace said in 2022 that it would not release the findings of an internal investigation in Meghan’s alleged bullying.
But The Hollywood Reporter resurrected the issue with a scathing report in September, in which one source said that Meghan “belittles people,” doesn’t take advice and is a “dictator in high heels” who fumes and barks out orders. Both she and Harry are “poor decision-makers,” a source also said, which would explain why the two only managed to produce one 12-episode podcast after two years and a reported $20 million contract. The Daily Beast followed up with another report that quoted employees who described her as “a demon” who had “psycho moments.”
For its report, Vanity Fair talked to people who had good experiences working with Meghan, including producer Jane Marie, who tried to help them develop podcasts for their Archewell productions. “She’s just a lovely, genuine person,” Marie said about Meghan.
Peele, the Vanity Fair writer, tried to offer a sympathetic take on why Meghan might have trouble managing employees or have a chip on her shoulder about people judging her or looking down on her. It goes back to when she claims she was an outsider in high school, Peele noted.
“Is it any surprise that a sense of victimhood and righteousness could continue to exist in a person who had been treated so horribly by the press and her husband’s family?” Peele wrote.
Meghan also may view certain people as enemies or interlopers, and not just “the loathsome” media or “her pitiable father and half sister,” who sold stories about her to the tabloids, Peele said. Meghan’s enemies also could be professionals who work for her, from palace aides to those who “actually knew how to make a podcast,” Peele suggested. She might begin to see them as more powerful than she is, “despite her immense fame and wealth and privilege, “Peele wrote.
“And then whatever happened to them, well…they shouldn’t have gotten between Meghan and her good work,” Peele concluded.
