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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle surprised royal fans all over when they announced they were stepping down as working royals in 2020. A year after leaving their roles and moving across the pond, the Duke and Duchess shocked the world again when they sat down for a primetime tell-all interview with former talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

During their conversation, Meghan claimed that she didn’t receive any help or guidance when she became a member of the family.

“Unlike that you see in the movies, there’s no class on how to…how to speak. How to cross your legs. How to be royal,” the duchess told Oprah. “There’s not of that training. That might exist for other members of the family. That was not something that was offered to me. Even down to, like, the National Anthem, no one thought to say, ‘Oh, you’re American. You’re not going to know that.’ That’s me, late at night, googling, ‘How … what’s the National … I’ve got to learn this … I need to learn these 30 hymns for church.'”

What Meghan said has been challenged a few times in the past. Now royal insiders are specifically naming who was ready and willing to help with whatever she needed but Harry’s wife turned them away.

Insiders refute what Meghan told Oprah about others unwilling to help her

Oprah Winfrey interviewing Meghan Markle for CBS Primetime Special
Oprah Winfrey interviewing Meghan Markle for CBS Primetime Special | Harpo Productions, Joe Pugliese via Getty Images

Palace sources have insisted that the only reason Meghan did not receive guidance as a royal is because Meghan didn’t want it.

According to the Daily Mail, the insiders say the duchess “threw their offer back in their faces.” According to the sources, the royal family did everything they could to help Meghan adjust to royal life.

The Sun reported that one staffer who worked at the Palace at the time said: “It was Clive [now Sir Clive Alderton, private secretary to the king] who said that if we could get this right for Harry, we’d be creating a blueprint for future younger sons for generations. We seconded people from Clarence House, very expert people, to help them, but the duchess wouldn’t trust them.”

The sources added, “Those two [Sussexes] were offered considerable resources, and then later said that they had been offered no help. And that was completely wrong.”

Another royal reportedly tried to help Meghan as well

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Meghan Markle attend the annual Remembrance Sunday memorial at The Cenotaph
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh and Meghan Markle attend the annual Remembrance Sunday memorial at The Cenotaph | Samir Hussein/WireImage

It wasn’t just Palace staffers who offered to help show the Duchess of Sussex the “royal ropes.” Prince Edward’s wife, Sophie (formerly the Countess of Wessex), was reportedly willing to make herself available for just that but Meghan didn’t want it.

Gyles Brandreth is an English broadcaster, former politician, and friend of the late Queen Elizabeth II. In an extract from his book published in the Daily Mail titled Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait, he wrote: “The [late] queen (who, of course, had seen it all before) understood that Harry’s girl might find adjusting to royal life ‘challenging to begin with’ (as she put it). ‘It is very jolty, but you soon get used to it’ — that was Her Majesty’s experience going back many years. To help Meghan, the queen suggested that her daughter-in-law, Sophie Wessex, would be an ideal mentor. ‘Sophie can help show you the ropes,’ said the queen.”

Brandreth added that despite the offer, “Meghan made it clear that she did not feel she needed Sophie’s help. She had Harry.”