Like the cavalry rushing to the rescue of a wounded leader, former and current employees of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex rushed to the press this week to cheer on their bosses.
In the pages of Us Weekly, an influential American showbiz magazine popular with teenagers and teenage mothers, print and online readers are breathlessly informed by Tim Sussex that Prince Harry is a great man, no airs and graces, just a man ordinary boy, rah-rah-rah.
Meanwhile, what about Meghan’s girlboss? According to those who worked for him and lived to tell, he was amazing. No, really. Pass me that hello and let her duchessy love light shine.
The Gushing staff tribute featured the Duchess of Sussex as Mother Teresa of munificence
Because he is kind and wise. They make wonderful gourmet snacks. “Some of my favorite memories,” said former Archewell president Mandana Dayani, who lasted 18 months until she left in 2022, “were at the weekly gatherings at her Montecito house, where Meghan always served the most incredible lunches and the latest concoctions. the best.’
I imagine delicious food such as ‘vegetable soup’ and ‘green salad’, maybe an ‘egg-based omelette’ that comes from home-grown rescue chickens.
While the Sussex staff described the positives for generations, it is difficult to determine the true nature of the relationship with the boss. Prosecutor-client, doctor-patient, prisoner-prisoner, star-civilian, duchess-servant?
And is it my imagination or are the outpourings of the drones of these workers remember the rising hysteria of people chained to the radiators in the basement of Archewell Towers, hoping to go home by Christmas?
According to their gibberish parti pris, Meghan was the Tinker Bell of titbits, a Mother Teresa of munificence; This gift-giving goddess lavished staff with bow-tied presents and on-brand sharing and caring.
‘When I adopted a dog, the next day I luxury-brand leash and new collar in front of my doorstep,’ said one former staff, who amusingly thought the gift was for her puppy.
‘They want to take care of us,’ one current employee told Us Weekly. ‘Meghan will do something like: ‘You mentioned on the phone that your skin is bothering you. I put together a kit for you.’
What is kind and helpful? Are you prone to lame pimples – or a tacit message to up your game?
For those of us who have spent our lives working in offices and various workplaces, along with good and bad bosses, the thought of someone superior sending us wrinkle cream or some self-improvement unguent makes me want to die. .
But listen, there’s more. Meghan, one staffer said, was known for giving compliments.
Former Archewell president Mandana Dayani with the Duchess of Sussex in 2022
“When you’re in a meeting and a good idea is brought up, they always give props (respect and appreciation) to the person who came up with the idea,” he said. ‘And after the big trip, every employee gets a personal email thanking them for their contribution to making it a success.’
Email! Oh, that’s great. Isn’t this low level of respect most undeserved for staff members?
This fawning response in Us Weekly comes in riposte to a damning article in The Hollywood Reporter, which states that the Duchess’s ‘terrible behavior’ is the root cause of the high turnover rate of staff at the couple’s Archewell company.
A report in the entertainment industry bible earlier this month said many who work and work for Meghan are “fearful” of her. It included quotes from sources who called him a ‘highly entitled dictator’ who ‘humiliated’ people and reduced ‘adults to tears’.
I must point out here that Us Weekly is to Sussex what Pravda is to Stalin and what The Guardian is to Labor MP Jess Phillips – a bugle of uncritical support. So we heard in detail about the Archewell team’s visit to the couple’s Montecito mansion, where Meghan gave them all a basket of flowers, fruit and eggs to take home. So dear to him! He also passed his hand-me children. Is there no end to his generosity?
One employee even told Us Weekly that despite Meghan’s reputation as a mini-tyrant, he had never heard her yell. Instead, the Duchess gives her staff “clear, solution-oriented direction” – which makes her seem like a very good, well-rounded bottle of glue.
And when it comes to hiring staff, another vociferous Archewell acolyte insists that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will always “pick the best from every field and water the seeds to grow”.
But what did Harry and Meghan grow for their offspring in California – the Archewell empire or a damp squib? Seeds, solutions, eggs. . . what’s up
Of course, these accusations are nothing new to royal watchers in the UK. The Duchess of Sussex has long been dogged by reports that she promoted a toxic work environment, as well as repeated accusations of what her lawyers have said so far has been described as ‘difficult’ behaviour. In 2021, reports that the former actress was accused of harassing and undermining staff members at Kensington Palace were dismissed by the Sussexes as smears. But it’s no secret that the pair have lost 18 employees so far in their short time as corporate entities in the UK and the US.
A new US-based source has blamed Meghan’s ‘uncontrollable’ and ‘condescending’ nature for the alarming rate of ‘churn and burn’. These rumors won’t go away – but the difference this time is that it’s a US news outlet that’s making the claims.
Maer Roshan, co-editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter, said he stands by the story after the backlash that included one Sussex source saying the claims were ‘fabricated’.
Former and current employees of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were rushed into print this week to cheer on their bosses
Roshan told Access Hollywood: ‘Our reporter spoke to a very high-level source who works for the couple and said: ‘Everyone is scared of Meghan.’
‘Difficult Duchess is a nickname that has followed Meghan Markle for several years. What’s new is this idea, since it came to America, that a lot of these rumors are being made up by the Palace – the reports we’ve made show that they’re not true and there’s still fear.’
Many of you may remember Prince Harry, in his high-pitched, strained voice, telling the world in various documentaries and interviews that: ‘There is a hierarchy of the (Royal) Family. You know there’s a leak, but there’s also a story plant.’
Even The Hollywood Reporter, a neutral observer, is now raising an eyebrow at this. This is devastating for a couple whose reputations have survived so far by blaming their troubles on the Royal Family and the British Press, rather than examining their alleged bad behaviour.
Just a few issues ago in Us Weekly, the Duchess of Sussex straightened the pleats in her kilt of no-guilt and told everyone that she opened up about the ‘joy thing’ in her life and that it was all hunky in her dory.
But now – yet again – Sussex is back at square one; wasting time, energy, favors and friends to defend yourself against the impossible.
We’ve been here before, we’re back here again; swimming against this avalanche of bad press, slaloming though the snowdrifts of snark.
It makes me wonder if the flight to the west by the Sussexes – the trip that burned this bridge to what they thought would be a better and better world, patrolled by powerful friends such as Oprah and billionaire Tyler Perry – was only driven by the air lust for praise and admiration that they felt it because?
But Meghan and Harry cannot present themselves to the world as a beleaguered couple, a pair of smirkers who feel they are victims of racism and bullying.
The Hollywood Reporter has described him as a ‘poor decision maker’ who ‘changes his mind often’, adding that Harry is a ‘very nice person’ but a ‘very active person’. The poor fool.
Distressed Princess and Active Prince? It looks like something out of a terrible Harry Potter novel, only now there is no magic spell that makes this fresh smell disappear into the California air.
No matter how successful, adored and famous a pop star is, there’s always a grump in the corner moaning that they can’t see what all the fuss is about. Usually the grump is me, but not when it comes to Taylor Swift. I love Taylor’s songs and her amazing, demented work ethic, which crested this month with the release of two new albums – The Tortured Poets Department and The Anthology – both written, recorded and produced while she was in the middle of her Eras world tour, performing at stage for three hours straight at each show.
