“She can throw you to the wolves at any time!”
They are rather serious, the accusations against Meghan Markle today. A Vanity Fair investigation effectively relays numerous testimonies from former employees and collaborators about one of the Duchess of Sussex's many projects: her podcast broadcast on Spotify. This 20 million dollar show, Archetypes, which aims to deconstruct female stereotypes (diva, bimbo…) through a flamboyant cast (Paris Hilton, Mariah Carrey…), she imagined in the company of his dear and loving Prince Harry. Not the couple that hits the least headlines of all the elite if there ever was one.
It's even the opposite.
Not a day goes by without the duchess and former actress, who today finds herself at the heart of her own cooking and lifestyle show on Netflix, generating controversy and controversy. Sometimes for trivial reasons… But not really in the case that interests us. Because this investigation of January 17 highlights his supposed management methods, and they would be simply catastrophic. Aggression, manipulation, various pressures, toxicity…
We tell you.
“We get yelled at”, “she talks about you behind your back”, “it was really painful really”: Meghan Markle, ruthless girlboss like The Devil Wears Prada?
Toxic management: this is the accusation that now hangs over the head of Meghan Markle, but also, let us remember, of Prince Harry. The employees of their podcast “Archetypes” testify anonymously, in Vanity Fair, within a very detailed investigation.
They denounce an immature, hypocritical attitude, but also disastrous for the mental health of others. Where an initial apparent benevolence would gradually give way to a completely different story: “at the slightest annoyance, she becomes cold and distant, judging her interlocutor responsible for all evils“.
Ambiance.
“You can get yelled at without anyone raising their voice… It was really, really, really horrible working with them. Very painful. Meghan Markle is constantly playing checkers and she is very aware of everyone's place on her “checkerboard”. And when you're no longer in sanctity, she can throw you to the wolves at any time“, we can read in this very detailed article. So much so that it happens that an employee takes leave”after working on only three episodes“.
Or worse: leave the company, their job, when they don't just put themselves “to follow long-term therapy after working with Meghan”Vanity Fair pin. The obvious sign of professional burnout. A collaboration with Meghan Markle would therefore take the form of a game of musical chairs.
-“Scam”, “she pretends to be a victim”
The atmosphere is all the more tense when, Vanity Fair alleges, “a source claims that the whole idea for this podcast was actually that of another employee – not Meghan – even though the latter does not receive any royalties from it“. Information which obviously requires fact checking and material proof.
Other equally critical words are heard among ex-employees: “It's all undermining work. People talk about you all the time behind your back. We belittle you… But Meghan, rather than admitting her wrongs, wraps herself in a victim narrative“. Others favor even sharper words: Meghan and Harry would be neither more nor less than “scammers“.
For the magazine, this scandal emerges from a mystery, which greatly disturbs the fans of the duchess: “It is difficult to imagine the reason that could push a person whose kindness and desire to make the world a better place (and in the process to improve his brand image) seem so sincere to indulge in such baseness.“. The employees interviewed, in fact, denounce a simple “brand image”, a branding, haloed with a hint of “feminism washing”: an opportunistic, artificial and mercantile feminism.
It is also a form of manipulation that is expressed in these lines.
Vanity Fair actually reports: “The source close to the production of Archetypes says that at least one employee who had to endure Meghan's wrath subsequently received a thank you note from her and a gift“We are not that far from the worrying characteristics of a toxic relationship, adapted to the world of work.
For Meghan, it is yet another scandal, while her very recent Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, is in the spotlight: the duchess and her teams are indeed accused of plagiarism. The show, available since January 15 on the Netflix streaming platform, would pump recipes from several culinary blogs, Pinterest pages and TikTok accounts, such as the widely followed Home Cooks World. Or even an entire cooking show, that of the great socialite Emma Weymouth: Emma's Kitchen by chef Emma Weymouth.
Another survey can be found here.
Consistent and overwhelming file, which should not encourage euphemism of the real sexist violence to which Meghan Markle has been subject for years, and even more so, the cyber harassment that she suffers. However, this portrait of the duchess as an equal to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada is enough to calm the most outspoken supporters.
