In her battle against the Mail on Sunday, lawyers of the Duchess of Sussex said that Kensington Palace didn’t give the 38-year-old a chance to set the record straight and defend herself from the false stories published by the British tabloids.
According to Meghan Markle’s legal spokesperson, “The stance of ‘no comment’ was taken by the Kensington Palace Communications Team without any discussion with or without approval by the Claimant, as is standard practice for Royal communications.” Her statement that not being to say her truth is a royal family’s “standard practice” is bewildering.
After all, Kensington Palace did denounce a recent Tatler article that contained a profile of Kate Middleton and also claimed that the Duchess of Cambridge was getting tired and frustrated with her royal workload. A spokesperson for the Duchess said that the article was full of “inaccuracies and false misinterpretation.”
Buckingham Palace has also defended Prince Andrew after being tied with the disgraced financier and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who had a sex trafficking ring in the early 2000s. The Palace also denied claims that the Duke of York was forced to resign from his duties as a royal member.
Business Insider Australia reported some of the reasons the former “Suits” actress’ statement about being banned from responding to the press. At the same time, other members of the royal family like Prince Andrew and Kate Middleton had released comments about inaccuracies written about them.
“No Comment” Policy
According to royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams, the royal family will depend on what the Palace press office deems the most serious articles. They have a policy of only responding to “the most serious” issues. He told Insider, “Royal press offices, therefore, do a ‘no comment’ rule, on all but the most serious occasions and with good reason.”
According to PR agency Banc, there were 246,525 articles written about the Duchess of Sussex from May 2019 until April 2020, while Kate had 96,460 articles, and Prince Andrew only had 72,125. “If a tabloid believed it would automatically get a response from a palace, there would be an added layer of sensation,” he revealed.
Strained Relationship with the Palace
Meghan Markle also had a problematic relationship with the Palace, which may have also contributed towards the result of a miscommunication. “Her relations with her own press team sound truly dreadful. One does wonder how it reached this state,” the expert questioned. The Duchess of Sussex’s struggles with palace staff has already been reported even before she stepped down.
More Protection Towards the Future Queen
Royal commentator Aubrey Hansen also revealed that Kate Middleton is more protected than Meghan Markle, is because Kate is the future Queen. “Their idol isn’t on the same level as Kate Middleton,” Hansen wrote. “Kate is the wife of the future King of Great Britain. She’s going to be the Queen Consort.”
While the Duchess of Sussex is the wife of “the guy” who is now sixth in line in the British line of succession. She added that the Palace would not change its media policy for “a rank and file duchess.”
But Kate Middleton has a tactic as a former royal protection officer. Simon Morgan revealed that the mom-of-three had an unspoken agreement with the tabloids, where she takes pictures of her children on their birthday each year and allows the tabloid press to print them.
Morgan disclosed that it is an approach that is used to decrease intrusion in their life. “So the press ultimately don’t follow them around looking for those types of pictures. It’s a two-way scenario.” Unlike Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, they kept the christening of their son Archie’s ceremony private and were careful in distributing the official pictures.