Both current and former staff of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been lifting the lid on what it’s like to work for them after fresh allegations about how she treats staff – and in one episode of her previous Spotify podcast she appeared to hit back at the label of her being ‘difficult’
A war of words has erupted between current and former employees of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle about their experiences of working for the couple.
Since moving to the US four years ago, the pair have earned a reputation for having a high staff turnover at their Archewell organisation. And last week, allegations that Meghan “belittles people”, “doesn’t take advice” and has the nickname “Duchess Difficult” surfaced in the the American title Hollywood Reporter, prompting other staff to leap to her defence.
It comes several years after claims from when Meghan was still a working member of the Royal Family that she was also called ‘Duchess Diffiicult’ then. However, it seems that Meghan once tackled this unflattering moniker head on – and it came during her former Spotify podcast, Archetypes.
In one episode of Archetypes she “explores the origin and plague of ‘the B-word’ and the label ‘difficult’ and how these terms are often wrongly applied to a strong minded woman”.
In the episode, Meghan examines why women are sometimes branded a b**** and says: “What these people are implying when they use that very charged word, is that this woman, ‘Oh, she’s difficult’. Which is really just a euphemism or is probably not even a euphemism., it’s really a code word for the B-word. She continues later in the podcast: “So, perhaps the truth is that labelling a woman as the B-word or as difficult is often a deflection.
“A way to hide some of her really awesome qualities, her persistence, her strength, her perseverance, her strong opinion, maybe even her resilience and those are the very qualities we are going to be uncovering today.” She added: “Okay, so calling someone the B-word labelling them as difficult, it’s often a way to insult and dismiss someone.
“I was talking to a good girlfriend of mine this past weekend and when I saw her, she said something I had never heard before and she said, ‘well, isn’t that a convenient villain, an assertive woman in a position of power, being called the b word’ ‘How very convenient’. But that’s what happens when we label someone, a woman especially one of these words, it becomes a way to take their power away, keep them in their place. A lot of times it’s tied to the very women who have power and agency.”
Meanwhile near the end of the episode, in which she chats to businesswomen Mellody Hobson and Victoria Jackson, she also says: “I was just chatting with my girlfriend’s recently and I was asking them for the show, what a sort of archetypes, you think we should discuss and almost immediately unequivocally they all jump to difficult. That’s the word you have to talk about difficult.
“They said it gets thrown around so casually now and as a woman, my friend said to me, there’s a certain point when you come to terms with the fact that not everyone is going to like you. The goal can’t be for everyone to like you but the goal can be for them to respect you.”
After the claims emerged in the Hollywood Reporter, other former and current staffers of the Sussexes painted a very different picture of working for Meghan when speaking to American magazine US Weekly. One of the most notable people to also speak to the publication is Josh Kettler, who lasted just three months in the role of Harry’s chief of staff before his departure last month.
Eyebrows were raised when the seasoned public relations professional left his role after just weeks. He was reportedly hired to “guide him [Harry] through his next phase”. News of him stepping down came on the eve of Harry and Meghan’s high-profile trip to Colombia.
Mr Kettler, who had previously been chief of staff and head of strategic partnerships at the communication platform Cognixion, revealed that he was “warmly welcomed” by both of them and their Archewell team. He added: “They are dedicated and hardworking. It was impressive to witness.”
Another staff member who also talked to the magazine is the couple’s current global press secretary Ashley Hansen, who says her bosses could not be more supportive. She explains that she was forced to take time off work following a serious surgery – and was afterwards inundated with supportive phone calls, care packages and flowers from Meghan.
She said: “When I told them, I was met with the kind of concern and care a parent would express if it were their own child.” She added: “Most profoundly to me, Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support. It meant so much to him and even more to me. You don’t realise how much that kind of kindness and thought means until you need it.”
Meanwhile, others say they’ve been “dumbfounded” by the latest “Duchess Difficult” claims with one anonymous staff telling the magazine: “This is the first company I’ve worked [where I] liked every person. Harry and Meghan picked the best of the best from every field and watered the seeds for them to flourish. We have an enormous microscope on us. But good things are happening.”