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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former team call themselves the ‘Sussex Survivors Club’, book says

September 25, 2022

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Former staff members who worked on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s team before stepping down as senior royals in 2020 have called themselves the ‘Sussex Survivors Club’ due to difficulties in dealing with them , according to an excerpt from a new book.

The Duchess has also been called a ‘narcissistic sociopath’ by her team behind her back, Sunday Times royal reporter Valentine Low writes in her book ‘In Courtiers: the Hidden Power Behind the Crown’ which will be released next month, citing sources .

In one specific instance, Low writes that Kensington Palace was in a ‘panic’ after Meghan abruptly left a scheduled 15-minute meeting at a market in Fiji in 2018 for a women’s aid project run by the UN group. Women.

The Palace first said Meghan left after just eight minutes for security reasons, then claimed it was because of ‘crowd management issues’, but it later emerged Meghan was unwilling be associated with the UN Women brand, according to Low.

‘DIFFICULT’ DUCHESS MEGHAN MARKLE COMPLAINTED ‘NOT GETTING PAID’ FOR ROYAL TOUR, BOOK CLAIMS

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex during the State Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on September 19, 2022 in London, England.
(Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage via Getty Images)

“I can’t believe I was put in this situation,” Meghan reportedly complained to an aide before leaving, encouraging a staff member to call her “crazy” and the situation “crazy.”

The Duchess was seen moments later in a car crying.

Low writes that the Palace needed to assure Scotland Yard that Meghan had adequate protection during the journey across the South Pacific after reports emerged that she had been rushed from the market.

The author noted that it was unclear why Meghan would not want to be associated with UN Women and her lawyers denied the claim.

“That’s completely untrue,” representatives for Meghan told The Times last year. “The Duchess is a strong supporter of UN Women and has never opposed their branding. The only reason the Duchess was removed from the event was due to security concerns. It was a decision taken by his head of security… [she] met other UN Women leaders later in the South Pacific tour.”

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Meghan told Oprah last year that she felt suicidal in the early years of her marriage but was not supported by palace staff in her depression, but Low says many who worked for she wanted to help him but soon felt “even his most heartfelt pleas for help were part of a deliberate strategy” to leave royal life behind.

These staff members felt she wanted to be able to say, “Look how they failed to support me,” Low writes.

In one example, Meghan told Oprah that she went to ask the palace’s human resources manager for help, but was turned away.

Low writes: “It was unavoidable: HR is there to deal with employee issues, not the royals. Meghan probably would have known this, so what was she doing there? Laying down a trail of evidence would be the cynical response.”

Meghan Markle greets a mourner outside Windsor Castle on September 10 after Queen Elizabeth II died two days earlier.
(Chris Jackson)

A former staffer told Low that Meghan wanted to drive the narrative that she was being “rejected” by the palace.

“Everyone knew the institution would be judged on their happiness,” the staffer told Low. “The mistake they made was thinking she wanted to be happy. She wanted to be rejected, because she had been obsessed with this narrative from day one.”

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Low writes that some staffers believe the former actress wanted to leave the palace so she could return to the United States and start earning money again.

Since leaving the UK and settling in California, the couple have launched production company Archewell, signed a deal with Netflix and most recently Meghan launched her own popular podcast ‘Archetypes’.

Staff members allege they were ‘played’ by the Duchess and no one knew what to make of her alleged bullying. “When someone decides not to be civil, they don’t know what to do,” a source said, according to Low. “They were crushed by her, then crushed by Harry.”

There was a mutual dislike between two senior aides and Meghan and Harry, who the Duchess considered “bureaucratic”. A source claimed Harry “used to send them horrible emails. So rude.”

Queen Elizabeth II, pictured with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in the summer of 2018.
(Max Mom/Indigo)

Finally, in January 2020, two months after the couple left for a holiday in Canada, staff members said they felt “played” by Meghan as almost none of them had been told the two had planned to leave permanently in November.

Low writes that Meghan’s nanny didn’t even know the two had left the country until they were in the air.

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“Shortly before the end of the year, Meghan confided in a member of her staff that the couple would not be returning,” Low writes. “The rest of the team didn’t know until they had a meeting at Buckingham Palace in early January 2020. They found it hard to accept that they were being dumped like this. Some d ‘between them were in tears. ‘It was a very loyal team,’ one said.

Kate Middleton, Prince William, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle greet mourners outside Windsor Castle on September 10, 2022.
(photo by Mark Kerrison/In pictures via Getty Images)

The couple returned to the UK in June for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, during which they mostly kept themselves apart from the rest of the royal family. They last returned this month for several charity events and then stayed after the Queen died.

Harry and Meghan appeared outside Windsor Castle with Prince William and Kate Middleton, in a unity show two days after the Queen’s death.