Meghan Markle’s new bullying allegations within her U.S. operation could get worse if staffers choose to sue, a PR expert told Newsweek.
The Hollywood Reporter quoted a source who said Prince Harry and Meghan are bad decision-makers, while the duke is an enabler and the duchess “belittles people.”
A senior current staffer told the outlet: “Everyone’s terrified of Meghan.”
The Duchess of Sussex’s team staged a fightback in Us Weekly led by her global press secretary Ashley Hansen, who described how supportive Meghan was when she had surgery.
The story comes after Meghan dismissed suggestions that she bullied Kensington Palace aides as part of a smear campaign by the institution.
Eric Schiffer, chair of Reputation Management Consultants, told Newsweek it is too early to know the full extent of the damage in a context where there could still be more to come out.
“I would say that this will depend on other things. For example, is there a risk of litigation from any of these people?” he said.
“Are there more things that will come out? Will other media organizations pick this up and want to do more exclusives on some of the accusers?
“The question is, what is the life of the set of allegations? If it can stay alive it becomes additional stories that start to solidify a serious image hit.
“If it’s a short-term problem, then less so. The question is, will this extend? They’re attempting to throw water on it by showing others who have been in that environment, but it will come down to, can this story stay alive?”
Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
Harry and Meghan’s former head of content, Ben Browning, told Us Weekly his experience “was positive and supportive” and added: “We all continue to be friends. The narratives we’ve seen suggesting the contrary are untrue.”
Us Weekly editor Dan Wakeford also recorded a YouTube video summarizing how one unnamed source felt about the saga. He said: “‘We’re here for a reason,’ says one of the current team members, ‘if you come for our bosses, we’re coming for you. We’re just trying to do good.'”
“We’re coming for you” may sound like an unusual way to counter bullying allegations, but it could perhaps hint at fears that there may be more to come.
One intriguing dimension of The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage is that its editor, Maer Roshan, said its journalists had spoken to 12 sources, but the article appears to primarily quote one.
“Our reporter spoke to, I think, a dozen people. Most of them are people who worked very closely with the couple in various capacities now and previously,” he told Access Hollywood.
“Our reporter talked to a very high-up source who works for the couple and said: ‘Everyone is terrified of Meghan.”
On the one hand, this could suggest that one staff member was either more critical or better placed than others; on the other hand, the magazine could have gathered more material that has not yet been published.
“We saw Ellen DeGeneres get eviscerated because new allegations continued to drop,” Schiffer said. “And I suspect that you’ll see other stories [about Meghan] that go deeper but perhaps not as intense as Ellen yet. But with Meghan, depending upon the specifics, it will cost her with brands.”
The other downside for the Sussexes is that their fightback eclipsed Prince Harry’s visit to New York, which promoted several of his biggest projects, including the couple’s new Archewell Foundation Parents’ Network, the Diana Award, the Halo Trust and the ecotourism initiative Travalyst.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s piece appeared to already be in the rearview mirror when Us Weekly published its coverage on Tuesday, a day Harry spent at the Clinton Global Initiative talking about the impact of social media on young people.
“This will eclipse almost anything,” Schiffer said. “It goes to trust now. This is someone who had these allegations, denied them initially, has worked hard to rebuild trust, and now we’re hearing from a respected news organization a pattern of behavior with employees that’s been hidden under a rock, and that’s revealing this ugliness that will haunt her.
“And it’s reputational insanity, when she already had a problem in the past, for her to want to be seen as a repugnant manager who’s orchestrating this kind of reckless environment where she’s a Godzilla to employees. It’s the last thing she wants as part of her brand.
“She’s going to really need to look at, to the extent this is true, how she’s coming across and ensuring she gets it right.”
Jack Royston is Newsweek‘s chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about Charles and Queen Camilla, Prince William and Princess Kate, Meghan and Prince Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.