Author Claims Meghan's 'Rude' Behavior With Gardener Once Forced the Queen to Intervene: ‘She Was…’

Meghan Markle has long faced allegations of bullying her staff, with multiple reports claiming she berated employees and reduced them to tears. Royal author Hugo Vickers claims that Markle was once very rude to a gardener at Frogmore. The incident reportedly upset the late Queen, who gave Markle a firm dressing down after the gardener complained.

Vickers stated that the accusations of Markle’s alleged mistreatment of staff were ‘not surprising’ to him. Speaking to The Sun, he explained, “There was a time when she was very rude to one of the under gardeners at Windsor when they were at Frogmore Cottage. The head gardener went to complain to the Queen, and she told her off because she obviously didn't like people being rude to staff.” He added, “She probably is not very good with staff or people that she's employing. You should always be very polite to people who work for you because otherwise they're going to get very put out.”

Vickers' recounting of the incident came after an ex-courtier claimed that ‘there definitely were bad, very bad, even psycho moments,’ while working for the Duchess. The source told the Daily Beast, “I witnessed people being chewed up in person and over the phone and made to feel like s***.” However, the ex-staffer shared that they were inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt because of her suicidal tendencies. Vickers added that Markle’s self-absorbed behavior was also highlighted in her interview with Oprah Winfrey. He said, “I think there was a lot of narcissism in that.”

The late Queen Elizabeth reportedly had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to ill-treatment of her staff. As reported by The Sun, royal author Katie Nicholl, in her book The New Royals, also spilled that she firmly put Markle in her place after she was allegedly brash with a staff member. The book quotes an insider who said, “Meghan was at the castle to taste some of the dishes, and told one of the caterers she could taste egg. She got quite upset, saying that the dish was meant to be vegan and macrobiotic, when suddenly the Queen walked in and said, 'Meghan, in this family we don't speak to people like that.'" The incident, as Nicoll notes, happened during a food tasting session shortly before her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.

A scathing report by The Hollywood Reporter also featured interviews with Markle's ex-employees who described their horrid experience of working with her. According to one employee, the Duchess has a penchant for allegedly ‘barking’ out orders and sending angry 5 am emails. As per Tatler, in 2018, her brutal treatment of two royal aides led Kensington Palace to launch an investigation into alleged ‘bullying behavior’. In response, her team dismissed the allegations as the ‘latest attack on her character.’