
Prince Harry is totally whipped by Meghan, even the King knows it – she'll hate his reduced status now, expert says
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
PRINCE Harry is totally "whipped" by his wife Meghan Markle and even King Charles know it, a royal expert has claimed.
Writer and broadcaster Esther Krauke also added that the Duchess of Sussex, 43, will also hate her reduced status among the Royal Family.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
5
Prince Harry, is 'whipped' by his wife, Meghan Markle, seen here from earlier this year, a royal expert claims
Credit: Getty
5
Esther Krauke says King Charles has commented on his son's relationship with Meghan
Credit: Getty
5
The country's opinion of the Duchess of Sussex has evolved, our royal expert says
Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk
Ms Krauke, made the comments while appearing on the Royal Exclusive show with The Sun's Royal Editor Matt Wilkinson, alongside co-guest royal biographer Phil Dampier.
She said: 'We know that King Charles said something about him being whipped.
'We keep hearing things consistently coming out from courtiers and people that are close to the Royal Family.'
It is stressed that the implication here was that Harry was under the thumb of his wife, rather than any suggestion of physical abuse.
Ms Krauke added that both the late Queen's and the country's opinion of Meghan Markle had evolved over time.
She said: 'The Queen's opinion of Meghan involved, and it's much like how the country's opinion evolved.
'And much like the public, I think the Queen thought Meghan was a breath of fresh air.
'Very intelligent, very well-spoken, obviously from her acting background.
'And she worked, she welcomed her. I think, like much of the country with open arms, I think where things went wrong was clearly the cultural clash.'
She added: 'And I think in some ways Meghan thought she was marrying a billionaire, but was marrying a millionaire with like sort of a reduced status.
'So that might have been not appealing eventually.
New Meghan allegations are dynamite, they prove she sees Prince Harry as a stepping stone
'But also I just I don't think she fully understood or was even interested in what the role was supposed to become.
'She hadn't earned enough brownie points to actually be able to choose the tools she wanted to go on in the way that she wanted to do or curate her image in the same way, you know, most people would just be like, oh, you have to kind of have skin in the game.
'You have to have, I'm sorry.
'Open schools in Wales on a rainy day for a number of years before you ingratiate yourself and garner that goodwill.
'But I don't think she had that approach or attitude. And you could say it's very American, you know, very can-do spirit.'
Mr Dampier previously gave his opinions on the views expressed by royal biographer Bedell Smith that Queen Elizabeth II had shared her alleged doubts over the new Duchess, and feared Harry was "weak".
Mr Dampier said the author was extremely close to Lady Elizabeth Anson, who was a confidante and a cousin of the Queen.
"And Liza Shockley, as Sally Smith likes to call her, she was speaking to the Queen on a regular basis right up until her death, spoke to her every day, even in lockdown," he continued.
Mr Dampier claimed, therefore, this meant information had come "right from the horse's mouth".
He also alleged "we can trust this information", which is "very, very telling".
In harsh comments, the expert shared his thoughts: "And to be honest, it confirms what we'd already suspected that you know, that at first the Queen was very keen on Meghan."
Mr Dampier further alleged the Queen's reported "doubts" about Meghan "ruined her close relationship with Harry".
Bedell Smith also claimed Meghan was rude to the late Queen for 10 minutes over wedding details.
"She remarked that Harry was perhaps a little bit too much in love, was possibly besotted and a bit weak and being manipulated by Meghan," he continued.
Sharing his own opinions, Mr Dampier added: "I think, unfortunately, that confirms what I've been saying or thought for the last few years that, sadly, Meghan never really had any intention of staying in the royal family.
"She saw as a stepping stone getting married to to Harry to to to new fame and fortune.
"And I think that's what initially Prince William was concerned about. And that's why they fell out. And now we are where we are. But to have this confirmed by somebody so close to the Queen is, is is really dynamite."
This comes as for the first time, the Queen's private concerns have been made public in heartbreaking detail — showing just how perceptive she proved to be.
This week Sally published 'explosive' revelations made to her by one of Her Majesty's closest confidantes, her first cousin once removed, Lady Elizabeth Anson, in several conversations in 2018 and 2019.
Lady Elizabeth claimed there were serious concerns in the upper echelons of the Palace, long before Harry and Meghan made themselves royal pariahs.
Just days before the wedding, she had told Sally: 'We hope but don't quite think [Meghan] is in love.
'We think she engineered it all.'
She added: 'It's worrying that so many people are questioning whether Meghan is right for Harry.
'The problem, bless his heart, is that Harry is neither bright nor strong, and she is both."
The observations by Lady Elizabeth, who died from lung cancer in November 2020 aged 79, show the warning signs were there from the start — and proved well-founded.
She said Meghan had initially appeared 'natural, intelligent and thoughtful' after getting engaged to Harry in 2017.
But as their wedding approached, they both caused a stir with their poor behaviour — and blatant disrespect for the Queen.
Harry was reportedly 'rude to her for ten minutes' in one meeting and upset her by asking the Archbishop of Canterbury to perform the wedding service in May 2018, without first seeking permission from the Dean of Windsor.
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan announced they had chosen to 'transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive new role within this institution'.
At first, it seemed they wanted to keep one foot in the royal fold, while pursuing financial opportunities on the outside.
But after months of negotiations, the Queen and the then Prince Charles laid down the law — they were either fully in or fully out.
There was no in-between.
The couple opted for the latter and moved to the US later that year, infamously launching a crusade of Palace-bashing and com- plaints against the royals in the aftermath.
5
The Duke and Duchess were seen out in New York City earlier this year
Credit: Getty

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

The National
25 minutes ago
- The National
Actress to share personal tragedy of Lockerbie bombing in Fringe play
Annie Lareau was studying theatre at Syracuse University in 1988 when she came over to London with her fellow students for a semester abroad. Her classmates were booked onto Pan Am 103 to travel home for Christmas. Lareau – who was booked onto a plane the following day – desperately tried to book herself onto the same flight, having wanted the comfort and company of her friends following a series of panic attacks and nightmares about flying. Having had an expensive weekend in Paris, she was unable to afford the flight change and so instead waved off her friends – of which there were eight including her best friend Theodora Cohen – for what turned out to be the last time. Thirty-five students from Syracuse University were on the flight in total. READ MORE: Edinburgh Fringe 2025 programme launches with 3350 shows across 265 venues More than 30 years on from the tragedy which saw Pan Am 103 explode over Lockerbie following a terrorist attack, Lareau is now bringing her play called Fuselage to the Edinburgh Fringe stage to tell her story. She said it meant a great deal to be able to debut the play in Scotland where she said she feels 'safe and understood'. 'The reason I was drawn to doing it in Edinburgh first is because Scotland is very embedded in this story,' she told the Sunday National. 'It is part of your history. It's in your bones as it is in mine. 'In my country [Pan Am 103] has been usurped by 9/11. People don't remember it. 'I feel like it's a great gift to do this show in Scotland first because I feel safe and understood. Annie Lareau and Theodora Cohen (Image: Supplied) 'I also think it's very important we don't forget because this remains the biggest terrorist attack on UK soil. It was the first time American civilians were targeted in the US. Many things were changed in how we deal with terrorism because of it in both countries.' The Lockerbie bombing – more commonly referred to in the US as Pan Am 103 – has come into sharp focus this year with two docudramas on Sky and the BBC telling the story of the ongoing search for the bomber. But since Lareau, now 57, began writing a memoir in 2019 following the 30th anniversary of the disaster, she has been keen to share her more personal story of losing people she loved so suddenly. It was in 2019 that she also visited Lockerbie for the first time, a place she says she now feels 'intricately connected to' after striking up friendships with people involved in the aftermath. 'It took 30 years to happen, but my story and their story are the same, even though we are across the pond. Our grief is similar in the fact that we are forever connected,' she said. While both the Sky docudrama Lockerbie: A Search for Truth and the BBC series The Bombing of Pan Am 103 both focused on the who bombed the plane and the geopolitics of the time, Lareau said she wanted to focus on the humans who were lost and the opportunities that were taken from them. READ MORE: Palestinian artists to take to the stage at Edinburgh Fringe Lareau said: 'For me it's such a personal story. I lost eight friends, I've lived through the aftermath, and I have to live it every time I see one of those documentaries. 'I was really motivated to write the memoir to tell the story of the people, the human lives we sometimes forget. We get desensitised in our world by the news, we just see a roll call of names. 'What I want people to remember is them [her friends] and our story and how it's all so relatable because we all lose people throughout our lives and mine just happened to be in the lens of an international tragedy. 'It's about trying to remind people of the vibrancy of the people we come into contact with in our lives and how precious and how fragile they are and how we should cherish them while we have them because you never know when they are going to disappear.' (Image: GIAO NGUYEN) It was a 'flicker of fate', as Lareau calls it, that had led to her not being on the flight herself. Incredibly, she had had premonitions of planes exploding prior to her own flight home and her best friend Theodora encouraged her to try and change her flight to be with them. In the aftermath she said she took a 'deep, dark dive' mentally as she battled with a huge sense of guilt. She had to face the agony of packing up her best friend and roommate Theo's belongings back at Syracuse, with the media banging on her door. She said while she will likely never find complete closure, she has healed gradually over the years and part of that has been making the most of the 'gift' she was given. 'When we got back to university and graduated, we wasted no time in trying to do what we wanted to do because we knew the gift we had been given,' she said. READ MORE: I'm a performer at the Fringe - here's why I'm having to CAMP in Edinburgh 'There was no being afraid of going to auditions or becoming Broadway producers – which two of them have become. They were just willing to take the risk because there was an understanding we were lucky and we had to do it not only for us but for them, who lost that opportunity to do what they wanted with their lives.' The show Fuselage brings Lareau's story together with the story of those in Lockerbie who watched as the plane wreckage crashed down on their town, killing 11 people on the ground alongside the 259 people on board. 'I take you back to 1986 and the start of university where you meet my friends,' she said. 'I take you through the process of meeting them and that becomes intertwined with the story of 2019 when I go to Lockerbie for the first time in 30 years and I meet Colin Dorrance and Josephine Donaldson who were both involved in the situation. 'It switches back and forth and how those stories meet. 'Then I take you through the aftermath, what happened in Lockerbie, what happened for me, and how my time in Lockerbie in the following years sort of healed us all.' Lareau added: 'I absolutely hope it will tour, and I can show it to other people across the UK and Europe and the US, and I hope someone will publish by memoir, but if none of those things happen, I will be okay with just performing in Scotland, because that is the most important thing to me.' Fuselage will be performed throughout August at Pleasance Courtyard. For tickets click here.


NBC News
4 hours ago
- NBC News
U.S. completes deportation of 8 men to South Sudan after weeks of legal wrangling
WASHINGTON — Eight men deported from the United States in May and held under guard for weeks at an American military base in the African nation of Djibouti while their legal challenges played out in court have now reached the Trump administration's intended destination, war-torn South Sudan, a country the State Department advises against travel to due to 'crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.' The immigrants from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan arrived in South Sudan on Friday after a federal judge cleared the way for the Trump administration to relocate them in a case that had gone to the Supreme Court, which had permitted their removal from the U.S. Administration officials said the men had been convicted of violent crimes in the U.S. 'This was a win for the rule of law, safety and security of the American people,' said Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin in a statement Saturday announcing the men's arrival in South Sudan, a chaotic country in danger once more of collapsing into civil war. The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for the transfer of the men who had been put on a flight in May bound for South Sudan. That meant that the South Sudan transfer could be completed after the flight was detoured to a base in Djibouti, where they men were held in a converted shipping container. The flight was detoured after a federal judge found the administration had violated his order by failing to allow the men a chance to challenge the removal. The court's conservative majority had ruled in June that immigration officials could quickly deport people to third countries. The majority halted an order that had allowed immigrants to challenge any removals to countries outside their homeland where they could be in danger. A flurry of court hearings on Independence Day resulted a temporary hold on the deportations while a judge evaluated a last-ditch appeal by the men before the judge decided he was powerless to halt their removals and that the person best positioned to rule on the request was a Boston judge whose rulings led to the initial halt of the administration's effort to begin deportations to South Sudan. By Friday evening, that judge had issued a brief ruling concluding the Supreme Court had tied his hands. The men had final orders of removal, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said. Authorities have reached agreements with other countries to house immigrants if authorities cannot quickly send them back to their homelands.


Scottish Sun
5 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Wife of crime boss ‘Hotdog' to ‘live in tent' when illegal scrap yard is shut down as she's kicked out of 8-bed home
Mrs Smith's lawyers claimed aspects of the ruling were unfair SCRAP THAT Wife of crime boss 'Hotdog' to 'live in tent' when illegal scrap yard is shut down as she's kicked out of 8-bed home Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE wife of a crime boss has claimed she may have to live in a tent when she is evicted by authorities next week. Mary Smith, 48, and her husband Tommy 'Hotdog' Smith will be imminently booted from their eight bedroom detached house in Great Harwood, Lancashire. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 Mary Smith says she will need to live in a tent when she is evicted from her Lancashire home next week Credit: MEN Media 2 The wife of crime boss Tommy 'Hotdog' Smith said she was not connected to those engaged in criminal acts on the scrapyard Credit: MEN Media The couple's site is also stacked with static caravans and stables for dozens of horses. Those occupying the land will be evicted after a court order was issued by Judge Guy Mathieson following a spate of criminality, including illegal waste collection and fires. In May, firefighters spent several days putting out raging fires outside the illegal scrapyard after illegal waste was dumped in the area. And following reports of a disturbance at the site on Bonfire Night in November, cops were attacked with fireworks as they attempted to defuse the issue. Mrs Smith's lawyers accepted the justification for the order, but argued the welfare of the couple's children and animal should be highlighted and argued for partial closure. This was swiftly rejected by Judge Mathieson. Mrs Smith alleged that tenants she had previously evicted were responsible for the fires and that she had no affiliation with them after Mr Smith was jailed seven years ago. Judge Mathieson said: "This closure order has been hanging over you for six months or more. In the event we make a full closure order, what thought processes and what plans have you put in place?" Mrs Smith replied: "Me and my daughter Indiana have bought a tent, a two man tent. That is all." The judge asked: "You have a £1.4 million turnover and you are going to live in a tent?" Neighbours vs. New Builds: The Bradford Planning Showdown Mrs Smith replied: "I don't know what you are talking about. I don't own any business. Sir, I think you have got it wrong. "My husband has been in jail for the past seven years, I haven't had any business for at least six years. "At the moment sir, I have had to sign on benefits." Mark Chester, representing Lancashire Constabulary, said there was a 'staggering' list of previous enforcement action going back 'years' to tackle issues on the site. He said: "None of these measures have had the necessary effect and what is very clear is that as soon as these orders lapse, the lucrative business of waste management continues. "This has been years of misery being heaped on local residents." He added that neighbours were unable to open their windows due to "putrid smells" coming from the site, with some suffering breathing difficulties. Judge Mathieson granted a full closure order meaning more than 100 officials from the police, council, RSPCA and Environment Agency will move in to secure the site and prevent occupants from access. He said: "The fact is, the occupants of this site have done nothing to address the reasons behind the closure order. They have, either directly or indirectly by letting their tenants, continue to commit nuisance and continue to operate a highly profitable business. "The only way to ensure the cessation of this is to grant a full closure order."