Meghan Markle challenges Royal Family to offer evidence of bullying

Meghan Markle during the interview with Oprah Winfrey

(Image credit: Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese via Getty Images)

last updated 15 March 2021

Meghan Markle is demanding to see evidence from Buckingham Palace relating to the bullying complaints against her that surfaced just before the screening of her tell-all interview with Prince Harry.

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A senior palace source told The Mail on Sunday that Markle had “written to request evidence” including “documents, emails or text messages” about the allegations by royal aides. The move is “a clear indication that the Duchess is preparing to fight back against what she has termed ‘a smear campaign’”, says the paper.

The Queen has reportedly “passed the request to the Prince of Wales”, whose “closest aides are now conducting a search of files”.

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Meanwhile, an insider source told The Sunday Times that “the actual worst incidences haven’t come out”. As tensions continue to escalade, the Palace “has decided the investigation will be handed to ‘independent’ external investigators, instead of the in-house inquiry initially announced”, the paper reports.

The “original plan” was to launch an investigation led by the Palace’s HR director, Elisabeth Hunka, adds The Telegraph, which argues that the rethink is a sign that “the Royal Family now considers the potential fallout too sensitive to be handled internally” and that “royal aides fear the stakes are now too high”.

A royal spokesperson last night refused to comment on the investigation, saying that while the probe “is being taken forward”, the Palace “will not be providing a public commentary on it”.

Lawyers acting for the Sussexes have previously described the bullying claims against the duchess as “a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation”.

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Joe Evans is the world news editor at TheWeek.co.uk. He joined the team in 2019 and held roles including deputy news editor and acting news editor before moving into his current position in early 2021. He is a regular panellist on The Week Unwrapped podcast, discussing politics and foreign affairs.

Before joining The Week, he worked as a freelance journalist covering the UK and Ireland for German newspapers and magazines. A series of features on Brexit and the Irish border got him nominated for the Hostwriter Prize in 2019. Prior to settling down in London, he lived and worked in Cambodia, where he ran communications for a non-governmental organisation and worked as a journalist covering Southeast Asia. He has a masterâ€™s degree in journalism from City, University of London, and before that studied English Literature at the University of Manchester.