Buckingham Palace plans to hand over an investigation into allegations that Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, may have bullied staff during her time as a frontline royal with Prince Harry in Britain to external investigators, a UK media report said.
Earlier this month, the palace had confirmed that a probe would be conducted after ‘The Times’ published a leaked email from a staff member alleging that the former American actress drove two personal assistants out of the royal household and undermined the confidence of a third member of staff. Now, it has been decided that the inquiry would be handed to a third-party law firm to conduct an independent investigation, rather than an inhouse inquiry. Several former and current royal aides who could not give evidence in court during Meghan Markle’s recent legal case about privacy against a British newspaper are expected to speak to the inquiry. The complaint against Meghan dates back to October 2018 when an email was sent by a member of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s staff to a senior courtier. The email was forwarded to the HR department, but the complaint did not progress.
The palace inquiry into the exact circumstances was announced days before Harry and Meghan’s explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey was aired last weekend, in which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made a series of shocking claims around the lack of mental health support offered to a suicidal Meghan and unnamed royals raising concerns about the skin colour of their mixed-race son Archie.
