Friend questions Vanity Fair’s “divorce” story

The brutal Harry and Meghan divorce allegations in this week’s bombshell Vanity Fair article have made “a bad time worse” for the couple, an old friend of Harry’s who still lives in the U.K. has told The Daily Beast.

The storied publication made an astonishing claim that a member of Meghan’s team spoke to publishers regarding her writing a book about divorce if she were to split from Harry.

The friend, who remains in contact with both William and Harry, despite the brothers’ bitter feud, told the Daily Beast: “The Vanity Fair divorce story seemed very unfair. There was a book but there wasn’t a book, she was planning for life after divorce, but they are totally in love. What? There was not a shred of evidence.”

The article, by Anna Peele, alleged that “a rumor” has circulated in “the book world” that “Meghan’s team had a conversation with a publishing house to gauge interest” in a book about “a post-Harry divorce.” Peele says that the unidentified person allegedly acting for Meghan made it clear that the couple were not getting divorced, but was seeking to know, if such a divorce did happen, “would this publisher theoretically be interested in a book that took place in its aftermath?”

The article says that nothing was ever put on paper and that “no offer was ever made, and no manuscript was produced.”

In another section, however, the article said “everyone” testifies that Harry and Meghan appear to be deeply in love and are “so hot for each other.”

The friend told the Daily Beast, noting that Meghan’s new cooking show has been ridiculed and postponed, and that Harry has a grueling court case coming up (more on which below): “Things aren’t easy for them right now. Vanity Fair have succeeded in making a bad time worse.”

Harry and Meghan did not comment to Vanity Fair, and have not responded to inquiries this week from the Daily Beast about the article.

Meghan and Harry hater-in-chief Piers Morgan slams couple

Piers Morgan, the former CNN anchor who now runs one of the biggest YouTube news channels in the world, has accused Meghan Markle and Prince Harry of “cynical” self-promotion over their public visits to Los Angeles fire relief centers.

In an interview with the Daily T podcast, Morgan said of the couple who have been accused of being “disaster tourists”: “I’m afraid I’m very cynical. I think it’s purely for self-promotional reasons.”

Morgan argued that the fact they have kept their titles is “ridiculous, given the damage they’ve caused to the institution that bestowed them upon them.”

He added: “Nothing they’ve tried since which doesn’t involve trashing their family has worked. So now they’re running around trying to behave like a rival royal family, and I find it pretty sickening, actually.”

Harry could be headed home this week

Prince Harry could make a return to the U.K. as early as this coming Tuesday for yet another blockbuster trial against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of U.K. tabloid the Sun, which Harry claims used deeply unethical and illegal methods to gather stories about him for years.

Friends of Prince William told the Daily Beast he had absolutely no intention of meeting with his brother, whom he has not forgiven for publicly betraying him in his memoir, Spare.

The trial is due to last seven weeks and involves multiple plaintiffs. However, the detailed schedule has yet to be published, so it is not certain when Harry will give evidence. But, in his case against the Mirror, which he won, Harry showed up for the opening day before coming back to give evidence later.

Meghan’s menacing whisper shout

Meghan Markle used a “whisper shout” to aggressively berate employees so Harry wouldn’t realize what was going on, according to a new claim by one of the first British journalists to report Meghan bullied her staff.

Camilla Tominey, a senior editor at the Daily Telegraph, who was formerly a royal correspondent, also posted a gloating message to X saying that her reporting had been vindicated by the report in Vanity Fair, which alleged that her treatment of staff has been so poor since relocating to America that at least one ended up in “long-term therapy.”

Tominey first reported that Meghan and Kate fell out over a bridesmaid dress fitting for Kate’s daughter, Princess Charlotte.

This weekend, citing “multiple sources,” Tominey concurred with a line in the Vanity Fair piece in which a former staffer said: “You can be yelled at even if somebody doesn’t raise their voice.”

Tominey said a former employee had told her: “Meghan has a habit of using a whisper shout, so when Harry is in the room, he just hears her talking normally and doesn’t understand why people describe her as aggressive.

“His default response is always ‘Meghan is misunderstood’.

“She’d throw around phrases like ‘lack of accountability’, ‘disappointment’ or ‘we know what you did, and yet we still decided to support you’. But when staff tried to get clarity, asking what exactly they had done wrong, she’d dismiss them with lines like, ‘I think it’s best we keep it to ourselves and not advertise it in front of the team,’ ‘We’re here to protect you, not throw you under the bus’.”

Tominey quips that “other people’s truth may finally be catching up with Meghan.”

The VF article says that one person “took a leave of absence” after working on three episodes of Meghan’s podcast and adds that “several others described taking extended breaks from work to escape scrutiny, exiting their job, or undergoing long-term therapy after working with Meghan.”

Meanwhile, former employees of Meghan’s—the so-called “Sussex Survivors Club,”— who told The Daily Beast in September that Meghan was a boss who had “psycho moments” and could be a “demon” have told The Royalist that they feel “vindicated” by the astonishing claims in Vanity Fair.

One source told the Daily Beast in September: “I always thought she was a classic narcissist and getting her staff to tell a magazine how amazing she is only confirms that in my mind. She is lovely when it is all going her way but a demon when the worm turns.”

The Vanity Fair profile makes a similar claim, with one ex-employee saying that Meghan’s relationships with staff tend to be “warm and effusive” until something goes wrong, at which stage Meghan will become “cold and withholding.”

The Daily Beast touched base this weekend with some of the sources we spoke to back in September to garner their views in the wake of the VF piece.

One said: “I feel desperately sorry for the people affected, because I have been there, but I also feel vindicated. All those people saying she is the world’s greatest boss should be ashamed of themselves. It’s obviously very tempting to work for her when you are being wooed and love-bombed, but people should be in no doubt; she is a nightmare. I would think the atmosphere will be particularly hellish now everything is going to s—. She doesn’t do disappointment well.”