Sussex Staff Revolt: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Labeled 'Hard to Work for': 'It's Not a Coincidence' Employees Are Quitting
It's not easy working on Team Sussex.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were both deemed "hard to work for" in the wake of their latest workforce shakeup, as chief of staff Josh Kettler dipped on the pair after only three months.
This led royal historian Hugo Vickers to observe how the Sussex walkouts are "certainly not a coincidence."
He added: "Obviously they are very difficult to work for, and it's always in the sense it's always the worst possible sign. If people can't keep members of staff or household secretaries, advisors, and so forth, this invariably means that there's a clash of personalities, and if they've lost 18 people, which doesn't actually surprise me. I think it's definitely their fault and not the fault of these people who come in."
Kettler's resignation comes only three months before Harry and Meghan's second "faux royal tour," this time to Colombia, which no doubt will need someone running the itinerary behind the scenes.
Vickers continued: "And the interesting thing, of course, is that it's being suggested the latest casualty, Josh Kettler is not leaving on account of the Columbia tour, which again is worse because it implies that he's leaving for another reason. You could imagine that it would have been a very good excuse. That looks very serious to me."
Kettler played "a huge part" in 2024 Sussex events, such as the Duke's trip to Britain on May 8 to attend the 10th anniversary commemoration of the Invictus Games in St Paul's Cathedral. He also organized and guided the duo's tour of Nigeria that same month, which became "something of a PR success dependant on who you ask," according to a royal insider.
The Duchess' American Rivera Orchard is failing to blossom thanks to a lack of applicants that meet the Suits star's standards.
"The result of Meghan's tough outlook is that she is having difficulties finding staff for her new brand — she wants them to be full of ideas of their own, but also totally compliant to her wishes," royal author Tom Quinn told a publication.
"Meghan has absolute self-belief... But to make her brand a success, she needs to take and accept advice and allow staff who know far more about these things to make some of the decisions," he added. "This is really difficult for Meghan, as she is not a natural delegator."
The scribe then expressed details of what made Meghan unpopular during interactions with royal servants during her 22-month stint as a working royal. "One of Meghan's biggest problems when she lived at Kensington Palace was that she believes that staff should jump, when they're told to jump she doesn't have the ultra-polite old-fashioned English habit of asking staff if they would mind ordering a pizza, or ringing for a car, or organizing a lunch."
Vickers concluded by sharing how the pair are "doing it for their own causes" and not the good of the initiative in question.
The Sun reported on Vickers' comments.