Meghan’s run-in with gardener reportedly prompted a rebuke from Queen Elizabeth

Queen Reportedly Pulled Meghan Up Over Staff Treatment

There has been widespread speculation surrounding Meghan Markle’s relationship with royal staff, from back when she was still a working royal. Reports of the Duchess being demanding and bullying staff members had earlier floated news headlines. Recently, royal biographer Hugo Vickers revealed an incident in which Queen Elizabeth II had to step in herself. Markle was allegedly rude to one of the gardeners, which led the monarch to “put her in her place”. In a podcast with Daily T, Vickers said, “She [Markle] apparently was rude to one of the under-gardeners and the head gardener went up to the queen and reported this and the queen got in her car and went down and tore a strip off her because you cannot be rude to staff.”

Duchess Difficult

Such was the intensity of Markle’s alleged mistreatment of her staff that she was unkindly bestowed with the moniker, ‘Duchess Difficult.’ The nickname was seemingly born after she sent emails to her staff at 5 am. Prince Harry wrote about the allegation in his memoir, claiming that Markle was simply talking with her friends in the US at the time, and although she sent those emails, she wasn’t expecting an immediate response.  However, royal author Tom Quinn mentioned that although Markle was given one unpleasant nickname, she had also earned other favorable names. “It’s true that her nickname for a while was the Duchess of Difficult, but she had other, friendlier nicknames, including Mystic Meg, which came about because she was so new agey, so woke, about so many things,” he said.

Complaints

A complaint against the Duchess of Sussex was reportedly made in October 2018, after which Buckingham Palace announced it would review the matter. Although the results of the review were not declared publicly, a leaked email sent by a staff member, which was subsequently published in newspapers, suggested that Markle had driven two personal assistants out of the household. Reports also alleged that she had undermined the confidence of a third member of staff.

A Reasonable Defence

Markle has spoken extensively about the mental health struggles she was facing during her time in the United Kingdom. Quinn suggested her own personal difficulties may have been the reason behind her behavior with staff, claiming, “She could be difficult because she was finding life difficult — trying to feel her way and work out the intricacies of a positively medieval, labyrinthine system."

To Be Fair

Quinn further claimed that Markle could have found it tough as an American to settle into the British way of life. “With her American background, she felt when you pay people to do something, you just issue commands, and that Harry should just issue commands as she did.” He also credited her strong nature for standing up for herself, saying, “She was very straightforward and matter-of-fact. They really had it in for Meghan and, to be fair to her, she really stood up to them.”

Her Word Against Theirs

Quinn suggested that senior members of the royal family would have sided with the courtiers over Markle, as they had known many of the staff members since childhood. “Of course, if you make waves in the royal family, the senior royals will always back the courtiers, because in many cases the senior royals have been friends with the courtiers since childhood,” he said.