MEGHAN Markle is feeling “abandoned” following the 18th staff member quitting working for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, claims an insider.
Josh Kettler has left his role as Prince Harry’s chief-of-staff after only three months – just days before their faux-royal tour to Colombia.
Veteran PR supremo Kettler had reportedly been brought in to “guide Harry through his next phase”.
But the staff member stepped down after three months in the role in what Team Sussex insisted was a “mutual decision.”
However, according to Closer source, the latest staffing change has been a “humiliating and demoralising blow” for Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 43.
The source claimed: “Of course they’ve tried damage limitation but, behind closed doors it’s utterly humiliating and demoralising.
“Meghan’s secretly feeling quite abandoned after this keeps happening.”
This comes as Meghan – who lives in a £12million mansion in Montecito with Harry, Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three – is preparing to launch her American Riviera Orchard brand and has a Netflix cooking show coming out next year.
It seems a notable number of their staff have struggled to meet the demands of their roles.
In late 2018, just months after their fairytale wedding — and arguably at the height of their popular appeal — Meghan’s personal assistant Melissa Toubati quit after reports she had been “reduced to tears” by the Duchess of Sussex’s demands.
Not long after, private secretary Samantha Cohen, a seasoned royal aide who worked for the late Queen Elizabeth for 17 years, resigned, reportedly frustrated by the couple’s demands.
She likened working for them to “managing teenagers”, describing an environment where she was pushed to her limits and allegedly screamed at during their official tour of Australia and the Pacific.
Cohen’s departure was followed by a string of other exits.
In January 2019 Meghan’s female bodyguard of six months, who has never been named for security reasons, also quit.
By March, senior communications secretary Jason Knauf jumped ship amid a string of unsubstantiated bullying complaints against Meghan. He went to work for Prince William and Kate’s Royal Foundation.
Fifteen Palace staff were fired by the Sussexes when they stepped down from royal life.
Harry and Meghan’s PR chief Sarah Latham, who was highly regarded and worked for former US Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left the couple after they quit the UK in 2020. Sarah was then recruited for special projects by the late Queen.
Meghan has previously been defended by friend and make-up artist, Daniel Martin, who broke down in tears as he said that the Duchess is not a diva.
He said: “What’s so frustrating is that you hear these stories and there’s no truth to them.
“It’s not the same person. In the years I’ve known her, the years I’ve worked with her, she’s never had a diva fit, never.
“I think because I know her so well, and I know she doesn’t deserve all this negative press.”
And one of Meghan’s closest pals Janina Gavankar has backed her long-time friend amid the fallout of Megxit and bullying allegations.
Janina, who is close with Meghan and took the Sussexes’ Christmas card photo in 2019, said the Duchess was “not a bully.”
“I have known Meghan for 17 years,” Janina said in a tweet.
“Here’s what she is: kind, strong, open. Here’s what she’s not: ‘a bully’.”
Lindsay Jill Roth, who had Meghan as the maid of honour at her wedding, also said “goodwill runs in her bones”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been contacted for comment.
The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.
He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.
Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009 before Kate joined two years later shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further increased rumours of a fallout.
Harry also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.
Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.
In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.
Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan, in his memoir.
In Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.
Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the following day – without seeing Wills.
In May he visited the UK for a three-day visit without seeing King Charles or Prince William.
