Meghan Markle faces blistering scrutiny over ‘serial brand flops’ as Diana’s pal weighs in

Royal author Tina Brown has given another frank verdict on Meghan Markle and her attempts to rebrand her image – but said there could be one way for her to ‘save face’

Meghan Markle has faced scathing scrutiny over her rebrand yet again from Princess Diana’s biographer pal who says there is one way she can ‘save face’.

Tina Brown, a former editor of Vanity Fair and Tatler, has been critical of the Duchess of Sussex in the past, saying has she “the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world “. Now, the author behind the book The Diana Chronicles has given Meghan her advice on what could happen next.

The full launch of Meghan’s brand American Riviera Orchard has still yet to happen, despite being teased eight months ago as she has now run into difficulties securing a trademark for it. And Ms Brown believes that if a situation arises where Prince Harry and Meghan could return to royal duties, she should take it.

Writing on her substack blog, Fresh Hell, the editor poses the scenario where King Charles’ private secretary Sir Clive Alderton has left his post, which she believes would “create a new, friendlier path for negotiations with Harry to be given the security protection he seeks and to resume some curtailed version of his royal duties.”

She explains: “It could also represent a great face-saver for Meghan who must realize by now that the dull demands of second-division royalty are less onerous than grinding out serial rebranding flops.”

Ms Brown’s words come just weeks after her appearance on The Ankler podcast with Janice Min, she had more frank words for the couple. The biographer told the host: “The trouble with Meghan is that she has the worst judgment of anyone in the entire world. She’s flawless about getting it all wrong. All of her ideas are total crap, unfortunately.”

However, she had some praise for Harry and explained: “The thing about Harry is he’s very good at being Prince Harry. And that’s the tragedy of all of this; he is the most talented member of the royal family, without doubt, in terms of being a prince, which is all he does know how to do. He’s really sort of flawless at it.”

But she labelled him a “very impetuous man” and said many who worked at the Palace knew he was always going to leave the royal fold. She added: “He was so fragile, so combustible, he was so unhappy, frankly, in the constraints of the Royal Family.”

In her book The Palace Papers, Ms Brown claims Meghan struggled to find her role in the royal family after her first royal tour to Australia, which she “apparently hated every second of”. A former palace employee told the author that Meghan found the engagements old-fashioned, and would have rather put the spotlight on causes she wanted to highlight.

She writes that Meghan drew the conclusion “that the monarchy likely needed her more than she needed them,” and wanted her Hollywood “leading-lady status to be reflected in lights.

Ms Brown’s claims come after several former staff members of Meghan have praised the Duchess of Sussex, including her former bodyguard Steve Davies, who described her as a “good person” with a “big heart”.

Speaking last month, he said: “She gets a bad rap for being a not very good person to work with, that she was this evil person in the Royal Family.” However, Mr Davies recalled her engaging with people from all walks of life, “working with charities to working with dog walkers and cleaners.” He said he learned one big lesson from Meghan — “give respect to get respect”. He also admitted he “felt sorry for her” when she first joined the Royal Family.