To mark the Duchess of Sussex’s 45th birthday last week, my esteemed colleague Sarah Vine wrote a fascinating profile of her for The Mail on Sunday’s You magazine. For me, the most revealing detail about the American actress who married Prince Harry came at the end of the article. Well-connected Vine wrote: ‘If someone displeases her, they sure know about it. I was once told – this time by a friend with contacts in the Royal Household – that one day the Duchess was interviewing for staff. ‘A young girl – a perfectly harmless and nervous Sloane in her early 20s – was ushered into her presence. Meghan was sitting at her desk, reading some papers. ‘For what seemed like an eternity, she kept her eyes down, ignoring the girl completely. Then she glanced up, examined her, then went back to her work. “You can leave,” she said. And that was that.’ And in another revelation in last week's piece, Sarah Vine tells of an instance, in 2015, when Meghan berated staff at Soho House Istanbul about some kind of problem in her room, after being invited to the hotel's opening weekend.

This first anecdote may have brought back painful memories of the ‘Sussex Survivor Squad’ – that’s the nickname used by those who worked for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex since Meghan married into the Royal Family. Some dislike talking about even their brief professional relationship with Meghan because it brings with it unwelcome flashbacks. Being ignored, as was apparently the case with the job applicant mentioned by Vine, was just one of the hazards of working for the former star of television legal drama Suits. That was, however, a minor risk compared with other unpleasant aspects of working with the Sussexes.

Palace officials announced in 2021 that they were holding an inquiry into claims Meghan’s ‘belittling’ behaviour drove two female personal assistants out of the household and ‘undermined the confidence’ of a third. Staff were said to have been left in tears and feeling ‘traumatised’ – some likening their condition to having post-traumatic stress. The Royal Household hired a third-party law firm to probe the claims. The first sign that the Duke and Duchess might have trouble holding on to staff came in 2018 when I received a tip that Meghan’s personal assistant, Melissa Toubati, had quit suddenly, six months after the actress had made Harry her second husband. ‘It’s a real shock,’ a source said.

‘Why would she want to leave such a prestigious job so soon?’ Officials usually decline to discuss staffing matters, so I was taken aback when a senior Palace source paid tribute publicly: ‘Melissa is a hugely talented person. She played a pivotal role in the success of the royal wedding and will be missed by everyone in the Royal Household.’ This suggested Melissa’s colleagues were not happy with her departure. The fact she left so soon raised questions about her reasons. It later emerged that Jason Knauf, the Sussexes’ communications secretary, had written to Simon Case, Prince William’s private secretary, in 2018 to say: ‘I am very concerned that the Duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year.

The treatment of X was totally unacceptable. ‘The Duchess seems intent on having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.’ Melissa’s departure proved to be the first of many from Harry and Meghan’s staff in years to follow. Palace aides admitted in 2022 that a report into alleged bullying by the Duchess had effectively been buried, the findings would never be made public. Even those involved were not told the outcome.

Officials would confirm only that the exercise had concluded and ‘recommendations on our policy and procedures’ had been made. The allegations have always been strongly denied by the Duchess, whose lawyers described them as a ‘calculated smear campaign’. A spokesman added: ‘The Duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself and is deeply committed to supporting those who have experienced pain and trauma.’ What’s interesting is that Harry and Meghan have never publicly urged the Palace to publish the report. Surely, if they want to have no further staff recruitment problems, they should do so as a matter of urgency?