Meghan Markle is once again under scrutiny for her behavior during her time in the United Kingdom, with claims resurfacing that the Duchess of Sussex sought to control royal staff and carefully managed the narrative around her relationship with Prince Harry.
Royal biographer Tom Bower has alleged that Markle was intent on orchestrating situations to her advantage. “In Meghan Markle’s life, little happened by chance. Beyond the empathetic smile was a woman who disrupted spontaneity and liked to control every aspect of her life.
In late September 2016, nothing was more important than her relationship with Harry,” Bower wrote. The comments appear in his book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, where Bower also claimed that Meghan was eager to make her romance with Harry public.
“Most at the party were in no doubt that Meghan was ‘outing’ Harry. For her own good reasons, she wanted the relationship to be publicised. In media hype, some would call it the ‘Greatest Story since the Abdication,’” he added.
These remarks echo earlier accusations that Meghan bullied staff during her time as a working royal, charges she has consistently denied. Critics argue that her need for control often clashed with palace traditions and expectations.
At the same time, Meghan herself has spoken of how she and Harry initially sought privacy in their courtship. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, she recalled their final Halloween night before their relationship became public knowledge.
“He came to see me in Toronto, and our friends and his cousin Eugenie and now her husband Jack, they came as well, and the four of us snuck out in Halloween costumes to just have one fun night on the town before it was out in the world that we were a couple.
It was a post-apocalypse theme, so we had all this very bizarre costuming on, and we were able to just have one fun final night out,” Meghan told the talk show host. The contrasting accounts of Bower’s claims of a calculated push for publicity and Meghan’s description of attempts at secrecy highlight the enduring divide in perceptions of her role within the royal family.
To critics, she was intent on controlling narratives and staff alike; to her supporters, she was a woman navigating love under intense public pressure. As with many aspects of Meghan and Harry’s journey, the debate remains sharply divided, with each revelation reigniting discussion over the couple’s departure from royal life and their strained ties with the monarchy.