Harry and Meghan accuse Palace of continuing to leak stories as they reveal conversations with Charles and William were 'not productive'
The Duchess of Sussex has risked heightening tensions with the Royal Family by accusing the palace of continuing to leak “disparaging” stories about her.
Meghan, 39, is alleged to have told close friend Gayle King, an anchor on US network CBS, she was “upset” that royal aides continued to brief against her despite stating that they would work out their differences privately.
She also revealed that Prince Harry had now spoken to both his father and his brother about the allegations made in their interview with Oprah Winfrey but claimed the conversations were “not productive.”
The Duchess is said to have complained that no member of the Royal Family had yet contacted her directly, despite claims that she received no help when feeling suicidal and that a family member had raised “concerns” about the colour of their son’s skin.
Ms King made the revelations on her television show on Tuesday morning, disclosures that are unlikely to go down well at Buckingham Palace and further erode trust.
She also reiterated that Meghan had "documents" to back up everything she told Ms Winfrey - a claim first made by actress Janina Gavankar, another of the Duchess's friends, who told ITV’s This Morning that there were "many emails and texts" to support Meghan’s allegations.
Ms King told CBS that she had contacted the Sussexes for an update.
“Well I'm not trying to break news, but I did actually call them to see how they were feeling, and it's true, Harry has talked to his brother and he has talked to his father too,” she revealed.
“The word I was given, those conversations were not productive. But they are glad they at least started a conversation.”
She added: “And I think what is still upsetting to them is the palace keep saying they want to work it out privately, but yet, they believe these false stories are coming out that are very disparaging against Meghan, still.
“No one in the Royal family has talked to Meghan yet, at this particular time.
“And I think it's frustrating for them to see that it's a racial conversation about the Royal Family when all they wanted all along was for the Royals to intervene and tell the Press to stop with the unfair, inaccurate, false stories that definitely have a racial slant.
“And until you can acknowledge that, I think it's going to be hard to move forward. But they both want to move forward with this and they both want healing in this family. At the end of the day, that is Harry's family.”
Ms King, who attended Meghan's baby shower in 2019, went on to defend Meghan from the allegations of bullying made by members of her former staff.
The claims, which Buckingham Palace originally planned to deal with internally via its HR department, have been passed to an external legal firm, suggesting that the Royal Family now considers the potential fall-out too sensitive to be handled internally.
Independent lawyers will carry out a review of the allegations, speaking to employees both past and present.
The couple were labelled “outrageous bullies” by one former employee, according to a litany of claims reported earlier this month.
“Broken” royal aides described feeling humiliated, “sick”, “terrified”, left “shaking” with fear. Others were said to have been reduced to tears by the Duchess.
Meghan is understood to have written to the palace asking for evidence of the claims she bullied staff.
Ms King said: “The bullying thing was raised in 2018 and now there's an ongoing investigation about bullying from Meghan Markle, when anyone who has worked with her will tell you exactly who she is.
“You know, she's really a very sweet, caring person. And as I say, Meghan has documents to back up everything that she said on Oprah's interview. Everything.”
