Meghan Markle pushed for a fierce statement that equates her with Prince Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, a new book claims.
According to author Tom Bower in his book “Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors,” the prince agreed — panicking, he would lose the barely known actress after just five months together.
In his book, Bower delves into a crisis that erupted after news broke in 2016 that Meghan was dating Britain’s then-favorite royal family.
Amid a plethora of headlines that Meghan and the Prince felt had racist undertones, Harry’s then-press secretary Jason Knauf agreed to issue a statement on behalf of the Prince “to damn the media for their description of Meghan”.
This was done, Bower writes, in an effort to calm her down.
“Harry dictated the feelings for Knauf to turn into a statement. Meghan baffled Knauf and demanded that the statement reflect the parallel between her potential fate and Diana’s,” Bower added.
According to Bower, Knauf tried to warn the couple not to compare Meghan to the beloved late Diana.
“Knauf suggested that over-dramatizing Meghan’s grief would backfire, but Harry was adamant. If Meghan’s desire to be equated with Diana was not satisfied, Harry insisted, he would probably lose her. Knauf agreed.”
Harry then asked his older brother Prince William for support, Bower says, but William “hesitated… To William’s regret, Harry obeyed Meghan’s orders. That was unwise.”
Ultimately, the statement, released in November 2016, five months after he and Meghan met, didn’t mention Princess Diana by name, but rather alluded to the tragedies that befell her — including being chased by paparazzi for the 1997 car accident in which she died. .
“My girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subjected to a wave of abuse and harassment,” the statement read in part. “Prince Harry is concerned for Mrs Markle’s safety and deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her… This is not a game – it is her life and his.”
In 2019, Harry compared Meghan directly to his mother in a statement regarding the publication of Markle’s private letters by the British press.
“My deepest fear is that history will repeat itself. I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is so commercialized that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I see my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”
Meghan won her lawsuit against Associated Newspapers in 2021 after the Mail on Sunday printed parts of a handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.