Meghan Markle Used to Ignore Advice From Other Senior Royals, Duchess’s Friend Says
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their bombshell decision to step back as senior royals in 2020. The pair has since moved to California where they live with their two young children. When the couple sat down with Oprah Winfrey nearly a year after they completed their final royal duties the Duchess of Sussex opened up about not being given any guidance or advice on what was expected of her during her time as a royal. However, that claim has been challenged by commentators as well as a friend of Meghan’s who pointed to specific instances in which Meghan got advice from not only top aides but also other senior members of the family.
Here’s who reportedly tried to help Harry’s bride navigate aspects within Britain’s most famous family.
What Meghan told Oprah about not recieving any guidence on how to be a royal
From Princess Diana to Sarah Ferguson, outsiders who join the Firm through marriage don’t always have the easiest time adjusting to the constraints and demands of royal life. Meghan felt the same way and explained that during her sitdown with Oprah.
“There were certain things that you couldn’t do,” Meghan told the former talk show host. “But, you know, unlike what you see in the movies, there’s no class on how to… how to speak, how to cross your legs, how to be royal. There’s none of that training. That might exist for other members of the family. That was not something that was offered to me.”
But it has been claimed that Meghan was given solid advice and guidance on what to do and how to cope with the pressures of royal life from Prince Harry’s stepmother, Camilla Parker Bowles.
The duchess reportedly ignored the advice from Camilla
Someone who could have really helped Meghan deal with the turbulence of royal life was Camilla, and according to reports she did.
Few know better than Camilla just how brutal the press can be. Not only did she have to know how to deal with that, but she was also a target of public scrutiny following Princess Diana’s death. “I couldn’t really go anywhere,” the Duchess of Cornwall once said via The Mail on Sunday‘s You magazine. “It was horrid. It was a deeply unpleasant time and I wouldn’t want to put my worst enemy through it.”
When the tabloids started to focus on Meghan, Camilla stepped in to offer her wisdom.
“Meg was really grateful to Camilla who was very supportive and invited her out for private lunches, particularly around the time of her marriage,” a friend of Meghan’s told the Daily Mail. “She listened to her and understood that it’s really difficult joining the royal family from an otherwise ‘normal’ life. She was very sensitive to Meghan and provided her with support, advising her to ride out the storm and that it would all pass — but ultimately Meghan didn’t listen.”
Experts say Meghan was ‘not willing to listen and she was not willing to learn’
It wasn’t just Camilla, a number of top royal aides also offered Duchess of Sussex advice on things she should and should not do. The Sun noted that included advising Meghan not to wear jewelry gifted from the Saudi Crown Prince weeks after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which is something she did anyway.
In the documentary Meghan at 40, commentators Tom Quinn and Emily Andrews discussed Meghan’s tenure and attitude as a senior royal and opined that she either didn’t want or think she needed help.
Quinn said: “The thing is, this is someone who wanted to be a feminist on her own terms. She was a maverick, and it’s very difficult to be a maverick in the royal family.”
Andrews then added: “I think all those positive attributes that Meghan had meant that she was not willing to listen and she was not willing to learn. She wanted to do everything herself.”
