Meghan Markle was angry about being given the moniker ‘Duchess Difficult’, it was claimed today.

The former Suits star was given the unkind nickname by Palace staff after it was claimed she would send ‘demanding’ and ‘angry’ emails to them, sometimes as early as 5am.

She was blamed for multiple palace aides leaving royal employ amid allegations of bullying and allegedly even made staff cry. 

Meghan, who turns 44 today, has always denied the allegations of bullying while she was working as a royal, which she described as an orchestrated smear campaign against her. Supporters insisted that she was ‘well liked’ by royal aides who were inspired by her energy and enthusiasm.

Veteran royal correspondent Valentine Low broke the bullying story in May 2021, just before Harry and Meghan were to appear on screen with Oprah Winfrey to discuss Megxit.

He said: ‘There had been one or two stories which suggested there were difficult relations between Meghan and her staff. We’d seen them and the phrase “Duchess Difficult” had been used.

‘We knew Meghan was angry about those stories. We knew she challenged that narrative’.

Meghan Markle has dismissed bullying claims as ‘smears’ and was said to be ‘angry’ about being called ‘Duchess Difficult’

Meghan and Harry have gained a reputation for being tough bosses with one commentator claiming the turnover of staff in the US shows they remain ‘difficult’

One explanation by supporters of Meghan was that the early emails to London staff was because she got up early to speak to her mother in California due to the time difference

He said when The Times ran the Meghan bullying story and ‘doesn’t get sued’ it means ‘there’s probably something in it and suddenly you realise all those tabloid stories earlier suggesting she might be Duchess Difficult, actually maybe they’re true’.

Her friends claimed at the time that Meghan’s early emails, often with emojis, were sent at 5am onwards because she would get up early to speak to her mother Doria due to the eight-hour time difference with California. There were also claims that her first pregnancy disturbed her sleep.

Royal author Omid Scobie said in his book Finding Freedom that the ‘Duchess Difficult’ nickname was perpetuated by people inside the Royal bubble who wanted to hurt her.

Yet a brutal report the Hollywood Reporter claimed last year that Meghan ‘belittles’ people and ‘marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders’.

The Sussexes have lost 25 staff members since they emigrated to the US in 2020. Six have left in the last four months, including two senior PR execs.

Mr Low has claimed: ‘If they [the Sussexes] were difficult to work for then, they’re difficult to work for now’.

The veteran royal reporter claims that some of the royal staff who had worked with the Sussexes were still in a ‘very fragile state’ more than two years later – and despite the royal couple having emigrated 5,000 miles away to the US.

‘They were very worried about what Meghan would do to them. They viewed her capacity for revenge as infinite’, Mr Low said.

‘They’d left the employ of the Royal Family and they still were in a psychologically delicate state as a result of what happened to them at that time’.

He added: ‘If they [the Sussexes] were difficult to work for then, they’re difficult to work for now’. 

Mr Low was speaking to American royal commentator Kinsey Schofield’s Unfiltered YouTube show.

He told her that he believes that Harry and Meghan tried to stop and then discredit his story detailing allegations of bullying, adding that he believes that the fact they have lost 25 staff since 2017 shows they remain tough to work for.

‘‘It was a very important factor, the litigious nature of Harry and Meghan. I had sight of various bits of documentary evidence. I saw things which totally backed up the story. I had utter confidence’, he said.

‘Before publication we put the allegations to Harry and Meghan and we got a very very long letter from their lawyers. Sometime later we got another slightly less long letter from their lawyers. It was very very feisty, very strong, saying basically “watch out”.

‘Then we published and after that we didn’t hear a word from them’.

Valentine said the story had to be published before the Oprah interview.

‘If the story had come out after the Oprah interview, it would have just looked like sour grapes. It’d be lost in the noise. Meghan would come across as this this heroine, this person who’d been victimised’, he said.

Accusations that Meghan is difficult to work with have also plagued her during and after royal life

Rows over treatment of staff were part of why Harry and William fell out. William still employs the aide who accused the Sussexes of bullying 

Harry and Meghan during their sit down interview with Oprah Winfrey, which many say only damaged their increasingly fraught relationship with the Royal Family further

Mr Low was speaking to American royal commentator Kinsey Schofield’s Unfiltered YouTube show.

‘The whole narrative would be about what she and Harry said about their experiences with the royal family. It would just get lost and no one would really care.

‘You look back to the Diana years. Stories had come out that the marriage was in trouble. No-one knew for certain until Andrew Morton’s book came out. People then realised that it was the truth.

‘That is what happened with my bullying story’.

He said when a newspaper ran the Meghan bullying story and ‘doesn’t get sued’ it means ‘there’s probably something in it and suddenly you realise all those tabloid stories earlier suggesting she might be Duchess Difficult, actually maybe they’re true’.

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused Mr Low of ‘recycling false, offensive, and long-discredited allegations’ and spreading ‘harmful gossip’.

‘These claims—rooted in anonymous, unverifiable sources—form part of a broader and deeply troubling agenda that seeks to dehumanise a woman who has consistently stood up for fairness, dignity, and truth’, they said.

The spokesman said Meghan ‘has faced years of unfounded attacks’ part of a ‘never-ending smear campaign’.

‘Meghan remains undeterred by the noise and firmly focused on her family and work’, the spokesman said.  

Jason Knauf, who is CEO of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, was once exceptionally close to the exiled couple. 

The New Zealander was one of just two people Harry told he was proposing to Meghan before they fell out over the Duchess’ alleged poor treatment of staff.

He and his colleagues have since been dubbed the ‘Sussex Survivors’. 

He quit the royal household after accusing the Duchess of Sussex of mistreating two colleagues and undermining their confidence.

Meghan during her Oprah Winfrey interview in 2021. Royal author Valentine Low claimed she ‘hijacked the narrative’ which at first quashed any complaints about her own behaviour 

Jason Knauf (left) is pictured with Harry and Meghan attending the Invictus Games in Toronto. He accused Meghan of bullying staff and then quit the royal household after Megxit

Meghan has been haunted by claims she bullied royal staff – and Mr Knauf has repeatedly stood by his claims. 

In February this year, Jason insisted he ‘wouldn’t change a thing’ and has ‘no regrets’ after he accused Meghan Markle of bullying staff ‘out of the royal household’.

In his first TV interview he stood by his complaint about the alleged ‘totally unacceptable’ behaviour of the Duchess of Sussex that leaked just before the couple’s Oprah interview in 2021.

‘The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights’, he had written in an 2018 email where he accused Meghan of ‘bullying’ and undermining the confidence of two staff.

Harry later addressed the bullying claims in the Sussexes’ Netflix docu-series, saying it was false and all the result of him and Meghan speaking truth to power. 

“I can’t think what my mum went through all those years ago by herself’, he said.

‘To see this institutional gaslighting that happens, it’s extraordinary. And that’s why everything that has happened to us was always going to happen to us because if you speak truth to power, that’s how they respond’.

Jason quit the royal household in 2021 but in April this year Prince William made him CEO of his beloved Earthshot Prize.

Mr Knauf, a New Zealander who worked as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s press secretary, appeared in a new documentary for 60 Minutes Australia, Where There’s A Will – broadcast four months ago.

In 2018, he had sent an internal email raising concerns about Meghan’s alleged poor treatment of staff in the royal family, which was later leaked after Megxit.

‘I am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X was totally unacceptable,’ he allegedly wrote.

‘The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.’