Reporter who broke Meghan bullying claim says don't blame her

But The Times Royal Correspondent Valentine Low admits the Harry and Meghan saga is "complex," with the Duchess of Sussex nursing a sense of victimhood, and fault on both sides.

"Meghan came along and thought she could beat the system, she could have been slightly revolutionary, given it a tweak on the tiller, but she's not that kind of person," he says.

The Times Royal Correspondent Valentine Low will give a talk about his book Courtiers at The Proms at St Jude's lit fest on June 24. (Image: Richard Pohle)

"It's pretty evident from Spare that long before Harry met her, there was frustration and questioning about whether he wanted to be a member of the Royal family. You can't blame everything on Meghan, but I think she also had a sense of victimhood and possibly entitlement and the two of them fed off each other.

"There's fault on both sides; their strong feeling that they weren't being listened to, allied to a fundamental inability on the Palace's part to know how to deal with them. There were ways in which they behaved badly, but the Palace mucked it up. I question the Meghan narrative about asking for help and being refused, but there was an obvious sense of unhappiness a year before Megxit and the Palace didn't spot that it was a big problem."

Low says a year before Megxit around the time of the Cirque du Soleil fundraiser in January 2019 there were signs of the Duchess' unhappiness but the Palace failed to realise how serious it was. (Image: PA)

Low believes strategic failures lie with Charles and The Queen's private secretaries over Megxit negotiations, but questions whether there was ever a compromise that The Queen would have tolerated.

"They were too far apart."

"I don't think it's a disaster that they left the Royal Family, their leaving was inevitable really, it's the damaging manner of it. It could have been sorted out in a more conciliatory way without all this rancour."

He says being a Royal Correspondent is "a funny job," because "the people you write about don't talk to you".

"Sometimes it's not terribly exciting, and sometimes you are absolutely at the heart of the newspaper, writing front pages about amazing dramas like the Andrew scandal and Harry and Meghan. When big events happen like the death of The Queen it's quite momentous, a bit of history."

Unlike all the leaks and briefings in politics, those closest to the Royal Family - their private secretaries - rarely talk.

"It's very frustrating, it does drive you mad at times, which is why when you do get something, it's even more pleasing."

The key events of the bullying accusations against Meghan happened two and a half years before Low's story, and it was only Harry and Megan's impending Oprah interview that brought them to light.

It is 'not a disaster' that Harry and Megan left the Royal Family but the manner of their leaving might not have been so damaging. (Image: PA)

"What's fascinating is quite a few people knew, yet no-one had blabbed. If it had been a private secretary accused of bullying, they would have known how to deal with it, but with a member of the Royal Family, they didn't know how to cope, so it stayed buried for years. 

"These people felt they had been a victim of Meghan, who was about to go on Oprah to portray herself as a victim of the Palace machine. Meghan would have seized the narrative and if their claims had come out after that it would have been too late."

Low's riveting, well researched book Courtiers: The Power Behind The Crown examines what Princess Diana called 'the men in grey suits,' the workings of a constitutional monarchy and the so-called 'Golden Triangle' between Number 10, the Cabinet Office and Buckingham Palace.

Courtiers The Hidden Power Behind The Crown is published by Headline (Image: Courtesy of the publisher)

"Who are these people being complained about? What is this relationship, how does it work and how powerful are they?" He asks.

The answer depends on which Royal family member, at which period of time. The Queen's relationship with her private secretaries changed even during her reign, while King Charles is reportedly hard-working, demanding, with an explosive temper, who responds well to humour.

A good courtier, says Low, has to be attuned to their boss, but "have a sense of the real world because they don't".

"You have to be a supreme diplomat and manipulator, convince them to do things which they don't realise are in their best interests - to save them from themselves. They are very powerful but the ultimate decisions are made by the Royal Family. You can't manipulate them against their will. The corridors of Buckingham Palace are littered with the bodies of private secretaries who were out of tune with their boss."

He thinks the recent Coronation was "a good show" and believes the vaunted 'slimmed down monarchy' will happen through natural wastage rather than redundancies.

"If you look at Andrew and Harry, they've slimmed themselves down quite effectively already."

Some will be glad to know he thinks we will hear less from Harry and Meghan in future: "People in their camp have said they want to move on and do other stuff," while The Princess of Wales may show more steel than her "demure, unchallenging" image suggests.

Low believes that Prince William's desire for more informality is at odds with The Royal Family's USP to be special. (Image: PA)

"I think we will see more changes under William's reign than Charles', he might question more of the fundamentals," says Low.

"In a sense the Royal Family is ridiculous; who are these people and why do we look up to them? The fundamental challenge is that you see with William a desire for more informality, but the whole premise is based on them being special.

"The more you increase the informality, the more you chip away at the idea of them being special. It creates a tension and a question about where are we going."

Valentine Low is at The Proms at St Jude's Lit Fest on June 24 at Henrietta Barnett School, Hampstead Garden Suburb.