It’s no secret that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had a testy relationship with their courtiers during their as working royals.
Indeed, the royals faced accusations that they were hard to work with and even claims they were bullying staff.
But perhaps no falling out was as dramatic as the one which occurred between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and senior royal aide Jason Knauff.
In fact, Meghan’s falling out with Jason was so bad that the Duchess did not even let him know when she was making a surprise appearance at an award ceremony, much to the anger of the royal press pack.
Writing in his biography of the royal staff, titled Courtiers, Valentine Low claims Meghan deliberately undermined him in a ‘very public way’ leading to some ‘awkward moments’ for both the Duchess and the aide.
Low said that ahead of their trip to Australia in the autumn of 2018, Harry and Meghan’s working relationship with Jason was ‘over’, but he remained employed by the couple until March 2019 despite having ‘little to do’ with them.
Before he publically stood down, Meghan was already spotted out and about with her new royal aide Christian Jones showing in a ‘very public way’ who her new ‘golden boy’ was.
The most public snubbing of Jason came in December 2018 when Meghan made a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall to present an award to Clare Waight Keller – who designed her wedding dress.
Meghan Markle at the British Fashion Awards in December 2018. The Duchess embarrassed one of her senior aides by not telling him about her surprise appearance
Senior Royal Aide, Jason Knauff found himself at the centre of one of Prince Harry and Meghan’s most dramatic falling outs
Meghan made a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall to present an award to Clare Waight Keller (pictured right) – who designed her wedding dress
Low wrote: ‘The royal press pack were very put out that they had not been told of this appearance in advance, and several of them did not hesitate to express their feelings to Knauf.’
But the reason the communication secretary hadn’t give them prior warning about the appearance was because he also did not know Meghan was attending the ceremony before she was on stage.
On top of this, Meghan also allegedly refused to let Sam Cohen or her assistant private secretary Amy Pickerill tell Jason about the event.
‘It was an astonishing example of how badly their relationship had deteriorated that Meghan did not even trust him to keep a simple confidence,’ Low said.
Not long after the drama, Jason would leave the Sussexes to take up a new role as a special adviser to Prince William and Kate in a sign that the battlelines between the two brothers were already being drawn.
Indeed, it would be Jason who would cause one of the first clashes between Harry and William when he sent an internal email raising concerns about Meghan’s alleged poor treatment of staff in the Royal Family, which was leaked after Megxit.
‘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,’ he allegedly wrote.
According to royal author Robert Lacey, when Knauf presented the Prince of Wales with a ‘dossier of distress’ about their behaviour he ‘went ballistic’ and was left ‘astonished’ and ‘horrified’ by what he heard.
Harry and Meghan with Jason walking behind them. In the autumn of 2018 Harry and Meghan’s working relationship with Jason was ‘over’ but he remained employed by them until March 2019
Harry and Meghan at the Trooping of the Colour in 2018
Jason received a public snubbing from Meghan on multiple occasions
William’s anger stemmed from the fact that a tradition of treating the staff ‘like family’ within the Royal Family had been broken and that he personally knew many of those named, Mr Lacey wrote.
Following the dossier, William and Harry allegedly had a testy phone call where the Duke of Sussex ‘flared up in a fierce defence of his wife’.
Roberts wrote: ‘The moment the Prince heard the bullying allegations he got straight on the phone to talk to Harry – and when Harry flared up in furious defence of his wife, the elder brother persisted.
‘Harry shut off his phone angrily, so William went straight round to find his brother on the Kensington campus.’
As early as 2019, rumours of a falling out between the brothers started circulating.
It was first addressed by Harry in the documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, saying ‘you have good days, you have bad days.’
But by 2020, tensions appeared to have deepened when Harry and Meghan announced their plans to step back as senior royals.
Jason is now the chief executive of William’s Earthshot Prize which was launched by the Prince in 2020 to search for and scale the most innovative solutions to tackle climate change.
Writing in his biography of the royal staff, Valentine Low claims Meghan deliberately undermined Jason in a ‘very public way’ leading to some ‘awkward moments’
Meghan holds her baby bump during the British Fashion Awards in 2018
Meghan hugs her wedding dress designer at the 2018 British Fashion Awards
Speaking in an Australian documentary earlier this year, Knauf revealed the estrangement between the two princes had been ‘hard and sad.’
He said: ‘We have ups and downs in family even when you really love someone you can have times when you don’t want to spend that much time with them.
‘It’s very difficult to have this stuff play out in the public eye but he’s chosen to keep his thoughts on it private and I think all of us who know him really have to respect that.
‘We should do the same, but I will say of course it’s been hard and sad, especially for all of us who know both of them.’
It’s not just the palace staff, where Meghan has developed a reputation of being difficult to work with.
In September 2024, an unnamed source told the Sunday Times that they witnessed ‘people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s***’.
Jason with Kate Middleton in 2021. He is now the CEO of William’s Earthshot Prize which was launched by the Prince in 2020 to search for and scale the most innovative solutions to tackle climate change
Another source claimed that Meghan ‘screamed’ at a florist down the phone for half an hour after they failed to mention in a post online that the Duchess of Sussex was working with them on a bouquet.
However, reports are conflicting.
Producer Jane Marie, who worked with Harry and Meghan during the development of Archewell Audio projects, insisted to Vanity Fair that Meghan is ‘just a lovely, genuine person’.
Other staff members have claimed that she would send her employees gifts ranging from dog leashes to skincare products.
