After forgoing her royal duties Meghan Markle is “saddened” by reports published Wednesday saying she faced a bullying complaint during her time living at Britain’s Kensington Palace before she stepped back from royal duties, her spokesman said.
The report was made by the Times newspaper against the wife of Prince Harry, which are alleged to date back to October 2018 involving members of the royal househol .
The report came in days before the broadcast of an interview that Harry and the Duchess of Sussex, as she is formally known, gave to US chat show host Oprah Winfrey about their decision last year to leave frontline royal duties.
“The duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself,” her spokesman said. “She is set to continue her work creating compassion around the world and will keep striving to set an example for doing what is right.”
The couple stated that The Times was being used to “peddle a wholly false narrative” before the television interview. There was no quick comment from Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace, where Meghan and Harry stayed with his older brother Prince William and his wife Kate until 2019.
Prince Harry, who is Queen Elizabeth II’s grandson, got married to Meghan in a glittering wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018. The former army officer’s marriage to the mixed race former television actress was seen as breathing new life into the centuries-old British monarchy.
Then came a shocker when the couple announced early last year that they were stepping back from their duties, in part because of what they saw as unfair media coverage.
They relocated to the United States and have since permanently quit as working royals, relinquishing their honorary titles and patronages. Their interview with Oprah Winfrey is due to air on Sunday. They are expected to give detailed information and raising the lid on life inside the royal family’s palace which followed their fairytale wedding and the reasons for their split.
Also as Harry’s grandfather, the queen’s husband Prince Philip, has been in hospital for several weeks under treatment for an undisclosed infection, sparking fears for his health. The 99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh was transferred to a specialist cardiac unit on Monday for tests on a pre-existing heart condition.
Since their relocation to the United States, Harry and Meghan have embarked on different commercial ventures, including lucrative tie-ups with the streaming platforms Netflix and Spotify. They have also taken legal action against a number of media publications, alleging invasion of privacy following what they described as intolerable media pressure in Britain.
