Report: Prince Harry ‘slammed phone’ on William during heated call

Prince Harry ‘slammed the phone down’ on Prince William after being confronted with witness statements portraying Meghan Markle as a vicious bully of female staff, a new French documentary claims. In turn, William – ‘who already didn’t like his sister-in-law very much’ – became so angry at his brother’s insistence on protecting his wife from criticism that he jumped in a car ‘towards Kensington Palace to go and confront Prince Harry’. The explosive claims are contained in a documentary televised by the most popular TV news outlet in France.

BFM TV displays emails – disclosed as part of the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy claim against the Mail on Sunday – in an investigative documentary series called ‘Red Line: William and Harry, the enemy brothers’. It claims that traumatized staff resigned from the Royal Household and set up a WhatsApp group called ‘The Sussex Survivors’ Club’. The documentary is timed to come out next week, on the 25th anniversary of the death of William and Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.

The series firmly blames ‘The behavior of Meghan for being at the heart of the break-up between William and Harry.’ It says the Duchess of Sussex, 41, used her position in the Royal Family to bully and intimidate staff while living in Kensington Palace, with Harry, 37.

An email in the autumn of 2018 written by Jason Knauf, former communications secretary to Harry and Meghan, to Simon Case, the Duke of Cambridge’s then private secretary, first shone light on the scandal. Mr Knauf claimed Meghan had ‘bullied’ two female personal assistants ‘out of the Household’. One of the unnamed staff members is referred to using the letter Y. The documentary claims: ‘The Duchess seems intent on always having someone as a target. She’s bullying Y, and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have been witnessing this unacceptable behavior towards Y.’

The Knauf email reads: ‘I am very concerned that the Duchess had been bullying and harassing two personal assistants, to the extent that she provoked their resignation during the course of the last year.’ The documentary narrative continues: ‘During 2018 there was indeed a spate of resignations among Meghan Markle’s team. ‘Former members have even set up an informal group that they called between them, the Sussex Survivors’ Club. Some of them still remain traumatized.’

Pierrick Geais, a Royal author who has written a book about the Duke of Cambridge, told the program: ‘William, who already didn’t like his sister-in-law very much, became furious. He called Harry directly, and Harry slammed the phone down. ‘Harry didn’t want to know anything, and so William jumped in a car towards Kensington Palace, where he was going to confront Prince Harry.’ 

Valentine Low, The Times Royal correspondent, is also quoted in the documentary saying: ‘There was a person who was so terrified by a conversation she was about to have with Meghan that she said, ‘I feel sick’. Some of these young women have been broken.’ Buckingham Palace announced earlier this year that it would not be releasing details of an internal investigation into the claims of Meghan’s bullying, and this led to accusations of a Royal cover-up.

A spokesman for the Sussexes previously said, in response to The Times who originally reported the allegations, that they were the victims of a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation. Her representatives also said that the Duchess was ‘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’.

Meghan, who recently launched a new podcast focusing on female stereotypes, strongly denied the bullying allegations. She and her husband have ‘stepped back’ from Royal duties and now live in Montecito, California, with their two young children. The couple are due to return to Britain in September, when Meghan is set to speak about ‘female empowerment’ at a conference in Manchester. MailOnline attempted to approach the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for comment. A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge declined to comment on the claims.

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