A former palace insider has revealed new details about the breakdown of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship with the royal family, claiming it stemmed from Markle’s realisation that she was not a “Disney princess.”
Grant Harrold, who worked as a butler for King Charles from 2004 to 2011 and knew both Princes William and Harry as well as Princess Catherine, said Meghan’s arrival in Harry’s life marked a turning point.
“As soon as Meghan came into his life, everything changed,” Harrold told Page Six while promoting his upcoming book, The Royal Butler, set for release on September 23.
“It could be that Harry had his own awakening and suddenly decided he didn’t like the organisation, but the problem is that Meghan was with him when it happened. The biggest change in Harry’s life is Meghan.”
From Fairytale to Frustration
Harry and Meghan married less than two years after meeting in July 2016, but their time as working royals lasted just 18 months before stepping away from their duties.
According to Harrold, Meghan’s disappointment quickly surfaced when she discovered royal life was far from what she had imagined.
“I think the problem with Meghan is that she went into the organisation and she assumed that after watching all the Disney princesses that she thought it was going to be like that,” he explained. “When you join the royal family, you are given rules and protocols to follow.”
Hollywood Over Tradition
Royal author Tom Bower has voiced similar criticisms, accusing Meghan of leveraging Harry’s royal status to gain access to Hollywood circles.
Their 2018 wedding became a symbol of those clashing priorities, Bower said, when Meghan chose to invite celebrity acquaintances over family members.
“All his friends were excluded (from the wedding) and all her Hollywood contacts were included, like Oprah Winfrey and George Clooney and all her agents,” Bower noted. “Everyone was there to help her career.”
Chelsy Davy and a Different Path
Harrold also shared that Harry’s former girlfriend, Chelsy Davy, had been warmly welcomed by Kate Middleton and once blended easily into the princes’ social lives.
“There’s a local pub near Tetbury (and) we used to go in there, and you’d walk into the bar and you’d have William and Harry and Kate and Chelsy Davy, all sitting there,” he recalled. “They were just fun. As I’ve said all the way along, they were just a family that all got on really nicely.”