Meghan Markle Found Royal Protocol ‘Silly’ and She ‘Hated Being Controlled,’ Former Palace Aide Claims
Meghan Markle “hated being controlled” by the restrictive royal protocol she had to follow, according to a former palace aide. The Duchess of Sussex found the protocol “silly,” the staffer said.
Meghan Markle was ‘disappointed’ by her royal experience, palace staff member says
According to the new book Gilded Youth, by Tom Quinn, Meghan found some aspects of royal life challenging. A Kensington Palace staff member told Quinn that Meghan was treated in a “slightly condescending way” by the firm since she wasn’t born royal.
The staff member was quoted as saying, “She hated the constraints and the rules; she hated being a second-rate princess — second to Catherine Middleton, I mean.”
They continued, “She thought she would be living in Windsor Castle, for example, and just couldn’t believe it when she and Harry were given Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace.”
The staffer added, “Most of all she hated the fact that she had to do what she was told and go where she was told in the endless, and to a large extent, pointless royal round.”
“I don’t think in the whole of history there was ever a greater divide between what someone expected when they became a member of the royal family and what they discovered it was really like. She was hugely disappointed,” the staff member said.
Meghan Markle reportedly hated the royal family protocol
A former royal aide was also quoted in the book as saying, “Meghan hated being controlled by royal protocol.”
They explained, “The fact, for example, that at Kensington Palace royals have to announce in advance when they are leaving the palace and where they are going. This is partly for security but partly also to avoid a situation where a senior royal is upstaged by a more junior royal leaving just when the more important person leaves.”
Meghan reportedly dismissed the royal rule as “silly,” despite the royal household considering it “absolutely essential.”
The former staffer claimed King Charles “agreed with Meghan on many points,” adding, “He thought much of the protocol was silly, but it is hard to change.”
They added, “Meghan wants something different from this for her children — she wants American freedom to do and say what you like and go where you like.”
Duchess of Sussex was reportedly ‘shocked’ she couldn’t ‘be first in the pecking order’
Quinn also quoted a “staffer at Kensington Palace who remembered Meghan well” who offered more insight into Meghan’s experience.
The staff member noted, “She is basically a very nice, smiley, super-positive person, but having always felt in control of her own destiny and with the sort of personality that strives to be the best, she suddenly found herself in an institution she found she couldn’t influence and that assigns roles to people that do not change.”
They added, “She was dazzled by the worldwide fame that being a princess would bring, but she was shocked by the palace protocol and by the fact that she was not and never could be first in the pecking order.”
