As the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations last week to discuss climate change, his wife Meghan looking on in support, the couple no doubt expected to make news around the world. And they did. But not, perhaps, in the way they’d hoped.
While some headlines highlighted Prince Harry’s stance on the future of the planet, most column inches were filled with spectacular revelations from new biography Revenge: Meghan, Harry And The War Between The Windsors.
Written by journalist Tom Bower, who interviewed about 80 sources close to the couple for the unauthorised biography, the book paints an unflattering picture of the Sussexes who, just four years ago, delighted the nation when they wed in a beautiful ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.
As a caveat, Tom admitted those who helped with the book were people who were less fond of couple. “She made it pretty clear to all her friends and people who work for her not to talk to me, so it was quite an uphill struggle,” he said.
Tom’s book sets out to reveal the “truth of who Meghan Markle is” and “what she seeks to achieve from her new and extreme level of power”.
Speaking exclusively to OK! about the controversial biography, the former BBC reporter explains, “I’m fascinated by the power that Meghan has been able to assume. In my opinion, she’d taken too many chances in telling her story. The public needs to know the truth.”
The author, who has also written biographies of former prime minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles, adds, “I was very keen to talk to old boyfriends, people who knew her in Hollywood. Meghan did everything she could to stop me from talking to her friends and people that worked with her. It was foolish of her to ignore me, because they would probably be happier with the book if they could tell their story.
“I began researching by going over the gaps in the narrative from that shoot in Canada,” Tom says, referring to a 2016 campaign Meghan did for Canadian fashion brand Reitmans. “Something had clearly happened [but] we soon discovered that everyone [who was] there refused to talk.”
Tom also writes in Revenge about the infamous bridesmaid fitting for Princess Charlotte. Press reports said the princess’s mother, Kate, was left in tears by it, although Meghan later told Oprah Winfrey it was the other way around.
“Kate thought [the dress] was too short,” Tom writes in Revenge. “Meghan’s assistant and the dress fitters witnessed Meghan emphatically reject Kate’s observation. Compromise was not a trait Meghan embraced. Kate burst into tears.” He claims Meghan also compared the then-three-year-old princess’s bridesmaid’s dress “unfavourably” to that worn by another flower girl.
Revenge examines the rift between Harry and William, which was allegedly sparked when the Duke of Cambridge told his younger brother to take things slowly with Meghan. By the time Meghan and Harry decided to step down as senior royals, Tom claims, “Relations between the four [Harry, Meghan, Kate and William] had broken down. At the heart of their divergence was Meghan’s unwillingness to be part of a team. There was no intimacy.”
He adds, “Meghan had convinced Harry that William’s staff were smearing her. Whispers about a tiara, that Kate had cried, her own demand for aerosol in St George’s chapel and now the staff’s outrageous complaints about her behaviour were, she said, invented to undermine her.”
Tom tells us he thinks it is “too late” for a reconciliation between the brothers because of “Meghan’s tendency to play the victim”.
However, the author admits he is in awe of the power 40-year-old Meghan has managed to levy from relatively humble roots.
“I never deny Meghan’s successes,” he says. “She’s an intelligent operator who has thrown down the challenge. She wants to control the narrative. It will be interesting to see how she copes with the truth, the criticism and the revelations.”
While reflecting on the bombshell claims in Revenge, including one in which the Queen allegedly said – according to unnamed sources – “thank goodness Meghan is not coming” to the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral, Tom says the most difficult thing to expose was the Duchess of Sussex’s relationship with her father, Thomas. “I was most horrified to hear her father’s account of the way he’d been treated,” he says. “For a daughter who owed her father everything to turn so viciously against him – and reduce a proud, successful man to such misery – was a shocking and terrible thing.”
Meghan has portrayed her relationship with Thomas Markle as estranged, troubled and emotionally disheartening, hinting they grew apart after being close during her childhood in Los Angeles. Thomas has never met 37-year-old Prince Harry.
Tom paints a different picture to Meghan, detailing numerous occasions when the future duchess’s father had offered to visit or had hoped to meet his son-in-law-to-be, but according to Tom he was be rejected by her on the basis that he should “lie low” to avoid unwanted media attention. The author claims Prince Charles encouraged Meghan visit her father in Mexico to “patch things up”, but suggests she shot down the idea.
“Thomas Markle had become upset by the portrayal of him online and in newspapers across the world as a scruffy, obese, alcoholic hermit,” Tom says. “In a rare telephone call, Thomas told Harry he wanted to make a short speech at the wedding reception. Shortly after this, Meghan called to say this was not possible.” Tom claims Thomas told him, “That hurt – that was the worst blow.”
In Tom’s opinion, Meghan’s treatment of her father “reflects appallingly on her”. “She can plead that she is a philanthropist and an activist, but if you treat your father like that, then you’re none of those things.”
Speaking of the effect Harry and Meghan’s actions have had on the British monarchy, the biographer claims, “Harry is so confused, it’s a tragedy. He’s deeply in love with Meghan and he’s deeply grateful for the lifestyle she’s given him, so he’s been blinded.”
Speaking to Oprah last year, Meghan and Harry made the damaging claim that a senior royal expressed “concerns and conversations about how dark [their son Archie’s] skin might be when he was born”.
Tom believes this was a step too far. “The allegations of racism rebounded across the world and the damage can never – and I believe will never – be repaired.”
Tom believes “[Harry’s] been self-indulgent and spoiled. He has caused great harm to the people he owes everything. He’s been disloyal to his family, his friends and to Britain. Meghan controlled the entire narrative. He lost a lot of people because of her.”
One example of this is recounted in Revenge, when Meghan met some of the prince’s childhood friends during a shooting weekend.
“She challenged every guest whose conversation contravened her values,” Tom writes. “According to Harry’s friends, again and again she reprimanded them about the slightest inappropriate nuance. Nobody was exempt. Harry’s world would not be her world.”
So what does Tom believe the future hold for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex?
“I can’t see them ever being apart – they are joined at the hip – so there will be no time or space for Harry to reflect and regret the severe levels of harm that they’ve inflicted on to their own families.”
At the time of the going to press, OK! had not had a response from Harry and Meghan’s representatives.
Revenge: Meghan, Harry And The War Between The Windsors, by Tom Bower, is out now in hardback, eBook and audio (Blink, £22)
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