Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Photo / Getty Images
Meghan Markle has made headlines recently for her alleged acts of "bullying", and in the process has copped a substantial amount of vitriol.
But now the tables have been turned in a Channel 9 60 Minutes segment that dug deep into the latest royal scandal involving the claims that the Duchess of Sussex intimidated and belittled her staffers.
When the allegations first emerged, Buckingham Palace announced it was conducting an inquiry, but it has since said it won't release the findings. It's a curious move that's left many puzzled. What did they discover, that they don't want us to know about?
And could it be that the facts actually reveal instead of being the bully, Meghan is the one who's been bullied?
In the segment, 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfort asked British television host Trisha Goddard, a rare and staunch supporter of the Duchess of Sussex: "Who do you think is the victim of bullying?"
"Meghan Markle," replied Trisha Goddard, who was also a former Australian TV star featuring on such shows as Play School.
"They can't go too all out on Prince Harry, so let's go for the evil scheming woman, that whole thing about women taking men away and driving them somewhere and destroying them. I mean how misogynistic is that?
"I think what's she done wrong is not to be of the correct stock. I think what she's done wrong is to be an American, to be an outsider … also she's a strong woman.
"I'm not saying she's perfect, but I'm sorry but Prince Andrew doesn't get as much consistent vitriol."
Steinfort then asked: "So what do you think is at play here – is it sexism, racism, or a heady combo of both?"
To which Goddard replied: "It's all those and above. We know through the polling that the Sussex's poll highest among youngsters, under 25s.
"It's the dinosaurs screaming when it comes to an outsider, and a female, and a female of colour, then that is something that you are going to come down on because it shouldn't be allowed," she said on 60 Minutes.
When asked if she noticed a pattern in the kind of people that attack Meghan, Goddard said: "Yeah. White, male, pale and stale".
"Can we just stop messing around and call this for what it is – it's bullying."
She said it's quite baffling why Prince Harry and Meghan are loved in America, but there's so much controversy around them from the Brits.
"In the US people really like them they – they can't understand what's going on in Britain other than snobbishness, and I'm sure there's a lot of that going on.
"You can't blame them if they want to stay in the States can you?"
However, the bullying claims continue to swirl around Markle.
Also featured on the 60 Minutes segment was Valentine Low, the royal correspondent for UK newspaper The Times. He said it was Meghan's explosive Oprah interview that was the tipping point for several palace staffers who decided to reveal their claims of bullying to the world.
"What I was told was that in late 2018, Jason Knauf, who was Harry and Meghan's communications secretary – so one of their very closest advisers – sent an email to his boss saying that Meghan had been bullying staff," Low said.
"He said that a couple of members of staff had been driven out by Meghan's behaviour. And
he was also concerned for how much pressure was being put on their private secretary, their very closest adviser, an Australian woman called Samantha Cohen.
"Now this was explosive allegation, but the point is, nothing happened," he said.
He said the palace simply didn't know what to do.
"They didn't know how to cope with such an unusual situation, and they didn't know how to cope with Meghan."