@wonderingconcerned
Is this the ‘report’? It’s my first time reading it fully. I really didn’t want to get into all this and I’ll answer your post but then I’m leaving it there. It’s not a settled matter. We aren’t talking about something that we know definitively happened.
Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan
Plus, how an Echo glitch turned Alexa into a “commie operative” and Dimitri, the million-dollar maitre ‘d, rides off into the Sunset (Tower).
Would you work for Harry and Meghan? Ex-employees say run away. Adobe Stock (2); Samir Hussein/WireImage; Karwai Tang/WireImage
Plus, how an Echo glitch turned Alexa into a “commie operative” and Dimitri, the million-dollar maitre ‘d, rides off into the Sunset (Tower).
(The column covers 3 separate topics. 1. Meghan and Harry’s ex employees, 2. Alexa is a ‘commie operative’ due to a technical glitch, and 3. a story about Dimitri the maitre ‘d)
“Looks like Harry and Meghan have done it again — they’ve chewed up yet another American adviser.
Josh Kettler, the Santa Barbara-based consultant who’d been serving as chief of staff to the Duke and Duchess, reportedly resigned in August — after just three months on the job — becoming the latest member of the ever-expanding “Sussex Survivors Club,” as some former employees have taken to calling themselves. Before Kettler, there was Toya Holness, who was their global press secretary until 2022, and Christine Weil Schirmer, the onetime Pinterest communications director who quit as Harry and Meghan’s PR head in 2021. Samantha Cohen, Markle’s top aide and private secretary, departed the same year.
Earlier, there was Keleigh Thomas Morgan, a Sunshine Sachs partner who started repping Meghan when she was still a commoner (well, a TV star on Suits), adding Harry to her client roster when they became engaged and then helping them set up their own internal comms operation when the couple moved to California.
(Sources tell Rambling Reporter that Morgan stopped repping them around 2020, because the Sussexes stopped paying Sunshine Sachs for its services, though the PR firm denies that was the case.)
Other members of the Survivors Club include Catherine St-Laurent, who lasted a year as head of the Sussexes’ charity Archewell; Archewell COO Mandana Dayani; content chief Ben Browning (who got Harry and Meghan’s documentary on Netflix before bolting for FilmNation); and marketing chief Fara Taylor.
Why’d they all leave? What explains the churn? “Everyone’s terrified of Meghan,” claims a source close to the couple. “She belittles people, she doesn’t take advice. They’re both poor decision-makers, they change their minds frequently. Harry is a very, very charming person — no airs at all — but he’s very much an enabler. And she’s just terrible.”
In 2018 Markle’s treatment of two royal aides prompted Buckingham Palace to investigate the then-princess for “bullying behavior.” Though the results of the inquiry were never released, Markle denounced the effort as a “calculated smear campaign.” But some of the couple’s stateside staff-members also reserve special bile for Markle, whose reported penchant for noisy tantrums and angry 5 a.m. emails has earned her the in-house moniker ‘Duchess Difficult.’ “She’s absolutely relentless,” says one source. “She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.”
Their unsparing portrait of her is in marked contrast with the kinder, gentler image Markle has been painting of herself. In recent years the former princess has become an ardent admirer of best-selling Texas self-help author Brené Brown, who urges readers to cultivate gratitude and joy in their lives. While touring Colombia with her husband last month, Markle said her new attitude of gratitude had lead her to a “chapter of joy.” “If you’re going to be grateful for your life, you have to be grateful for all aspects of it,” she said.
And in a recent episode of her Archetypespodcast, Meghan spoke about the challenges she has faced asserting herself and overcoming her natural reticence in professional situations. “I find myself cowering and tiptoeing into a room and – the thing I find most embarrassing – when you’re saying a sentence and the intonation goes up, like it’s a question. And you’re like, ‘Oh my God, stop stop like whispering and tiptoeing around it. Just say what it is that you need. You’re allowed to set a boundary. You’re allowed to be clear, it doesn’t make you demanding. It doesn’t make you difficult, it makes you clear.'”
Harry and Meghan’s current spokesperson declined to comment.”
The column throws a lot of shade on Meghan but again, no one willing to come forward. No one who says they actually belong to the ‘Sussex survivors club’ - actually it doesn’t tell us if any of the people actually belong to this ‘club.’ 3 of the people are from their original KP office. 2 of those 3 were the original 2 that apparently prompted Jason Knauf to officially complain. One, Samantha Cohen left their employ in 2021 according to this article. Isn’t this incorrect? Harry and Meghan left the UK early 2020.
they quoted a ‘source’ as saying this, “She marches around like a dictator in high heels, fuming and barking orders. I’ve watched her reduce grown men to tears.” This reeks of misogyny, and I was left wondering if this is a remotely serious piece of journalism. Of course, a man could be reduced to tears by a woman but how many ‘ grown men’ in her employ did Meghan reduce to tears exactly? Then I realized this is in the equivalent of the gossip column of a newspaper.
I counted there were 11 people (not 12) referred to. I just couldn’t be disciplined enough to read it again to check. But some of these people were just noted as having left Meghan and Harry’s employ. No reasons given. The column didn’t tie anyone to actually being a bullying victim. In my opinion they’ve implied all 11 were victims with a lot of twisty writing as far as I can tell. Truly, I’m sick of this sort of writing.
(I tried to link the actual Hollywood Reporter article but it wouldn’t link) so I’ll reference it the old way;
The Hollywood Reporter September 12, 2024 authors Benjamin Svrkey editor, and Julian Sancton, Editor.
Meghan and Harry don’t sue the media willy nilly although it feels like it because churnalists are always referring to their ‘habit of suing.’ Meghan has only sued once as far as I know. Harry 3 times - 2 of which are ongoing.
Not suing someone is not an admission that the story is true, nor is it an admission of guilt in any way.
With all the bad things Meghan is accused of doing by the media and on sm, she’d have to be 50 people just to get it all done.