TOM BOWER: The dam of silence on Meghan's 'いじめ(る)ing' at the Palace has finally broken. This trickle will soon become a stream
The Duchess of Sussex’s 上級の 王室の 公式の/役人, Samantha Cohen, has finally broken cover on the 爆発性の いじめ(る)ing (人命などを)奪う,主張するs that first 激しく揺するd Kensington Palace in 2021 and still reverberate today.
Ms Cohen, a loyal and 長年の former palace 補佐官, has 確認するd to an Australian newspaper that she was, indeed, の中で those interviewed by the Palace in the wake of (民事の)告訴s about the duchess’s 申し立てられた/疑わしい 積極的な behaviour.
A small step 今後, you might think, but a 重要な one when it comes to an episode which 公式の/役人s have so far swept under the carpet.
Samantha Cohen is not just any courtier, after all.
An intelligent, charming Australian, she had been working with the late Queen for 20 years when she was asked to 請け負う a challenging new assignment.
In 2017, Ms Cohen agreed to help the newly engaged Meghan acclimatise to the 王室の Family and life in Kensington Palace.
Samantha Cohen sits behind the late Queen and the Duchess of Sussex on a visit to Widnes, Cheshire, in June 2018
Her 仕事 was to 説得する an ambitious, career-minded and outspoken Californian actress to embrace the 王室の Family’s immutable 階層制度 and rigid 議定書s.
Perhaps it was a tall order. Certainly, I believe that Ms Cohen was soon exasperated, within six months or so, and that Meghan either 同意しないd with, or failed to understand, the 非,不,無-negotiable elements of 王族.
I also believe that members of Samantha Cohen’s team 見解(をとる)d this as an irresponsible self-indulgence.
Both 味方するs would 非難する a 衝突/不一致 of cultures.
Could a 36-year-old with a profile 可決する・採択する the British propensity for understatement? Could she 溝へはまらせる/不時着する Hollywood’s hyperbole in favour of the Palace’s low-重要な, repetitive ‘no comment’?
It seems not.
One year later, after Harry and Meghan’s glorious May wedding in Windsor, Ms Cohen was in a mood to 辞職する.
Samantha Cohen …に出席するs Harry and Meghan's wedding in Windsor on May 19, 2018
The Queen honours Samantha Cohen by making her a 指揮官 of the 王室の Victorian Order in a 儀式 at Buckingham Palace in November 2016
によれば Valentine Low’s 調書をとる/予約する Courtiers: The Hidden 力/強力にする Behind The 栄冠を与える, Ms Cohen complained, behind the scenes, that she felt she’d been ‘扱う/治療するd 厳しく’ and に例えるd the 職業 to ‘working with 十代の少年少女s’.
She doesn’t go やめる so far in her conversation with the 先触れ(する) Sun, but Ms Cohen does say that she stayed in her 役割 three times as long as she had planned ? because 公式の/役人s struggled to find a 交替/補充 for her.
And that, intriguingly, when a new 私的な 長官 was 結局 設立する, that person やめる during Harry and Meghan’s 小旅行する of Africa in 2019.
The Sun 先触れ(する) 引用するs Ms Cohen as 説: ‘I was only supposed to stay for six months but stayed for 18 ? we couldn’t find a 交替/補充 for me and when we did, we took them on 小旅行する to Africa with Harry and Meghan to show them the ropes but they left 同様に while in Africa.’
Ms Cohen also 確認するd that she was one of a number of courtiers who had been interviewed に引き続いて a いじめ(る)ing (民事の)告訴 raised by Harry and Meghan’s communications 長官, Jason Knauf, in 2018 ? and first 明らかにする/漏らすd by The Times in 2020.
Jason Knauf, 権利, raised a いじめ(る)ing (民事の)告訴 when he was Harry and Meghan's communications 長官 i n 2018. Pictured with Harry, William and Kate
It became (疑いを)晴らす that three women had 正式に told Mr Knauf that Meghan was ‘恐らく’ いじめ(る)ing them.
And that, as the (民事の)告訴s 蓄積するd, Mr Knauf started to put together a とじ込み/提出する.
によれば 漏れるd email correspondence, Mr Knauff 申し立てられた/疑わしい to the Palace’s human 資源s department that Meghan いじめ(る)d two PAs ‘out of the 世帯’ within the space of a year and was 的ing other 女性(の) staff.
Mr Knauf 公式文書,認めるd that one 出発/死ing member of staff had said her 遭遇(する)s with Meghan made her ‘feel sick’.
‘I can’t stop shaking’ was another comment 特記する/引用するd, and ‘I feel terrified’.
The correspondence 示唆するd that Mr Knauf was 関心d about Ms Cohen herself, 示すing that she was experiencing extreme ‘強調する/ストレス’.
The Sussexes have vigorously 否定するd the 主張s.
When the いじめ(る)ing (人命などを)奪う,主張するs first 現れるd, 代表者/国会議員s for Meghan said that she 拒絶するd the 主張s as the '最新の attack on her character'.
They said it was 特に 不公平な when the duchess had been the '的 of いじめ(る)ing herself and is 深く,強烈に committed to supporting those who have experienced 苦痛 and 外傷/ショック'.
In his best-selling memoir Spare, published in January last year, Harry railed against (人命などを)奪う,主張するs, 説: ‘It was so outrageous that even though Meg and I 論証するd their 嘘(をつく) with a 25-page 報告(する)/憶測 to human 資源s 十分な of 証拠, it was going to be very hard for me to ignore it.’
The ぎこちない moment when Meghan told another woman not to 提起する/ポーズをとる next to Harry at a polo 贈呈 in Florida on April 12 this year. 観客s 述べるd it as 'cringeworthy'
The final 報告(する)/憶測 by the Palace was kept 私的な to 保護する those taking part, but there is no 疑問 that there was a growing mood of 関心 ? or that the 列/漕ぐ/騒動 was becoming personal.
As I 記録,記録的な/記録する in my 調書をとる/予約する, 復讐, William told Harry that Meghan’s behaviour was 容認できない and that Ms Cohen and others had become 怪しげな that Meghan had never ーするつもりであるd to give up her career and become a loyal member of the family.
Did Meghan want to return to America, William wondered?
As their conversation became heated, William について言及するd staff (民事の)告訴s about 存在 いじめ(る)d by Meghan.
Harry was 乱暴/暴力を加えるd ? but the 告訴,告発s, whether 正当化するd or not, were a 事柄 of fact.
So was a 確かな level of staff turnover.
Katrina McKeever, a me mber of Kate’s communications team, had recently 辞職するd. Kate believed that her 出発 had been 刺激するd by Meghan’s 批評 of her 業績/成果 in the run-up to the wedding.
After Katrina McKeever, pictured, 辞職するd from the then Duchess of Cambridge's communications team, Kate believed 批評 from Meghan had 刺激するd it
Melissa Toubati, a personal assistant pictured left, was 恐らく 'traumatised' by Meghan's?不当な behaviour to 会合,会う her ‘unattainably 正確な 需要・要求するs’
Meghan 否定するd she had been 批判的な, 恐らく 説: ‘It’s not my 職業 to coddle people,’ によれば The Times.
Ms McKeever’s grievances had been echoed by others to Jason Knauf.
Melissa Toubati, another personal assistant, had also 辞職するd. によれば newspaper 報告(する)/憶測s, Ms Toubati was 恐らく ‘traumatised’ by Meghan’s 不当な behaviour to 会合,会う her ‘unattainably 正確な 需要・要求するs’.
Her 出発 was 非難するd on a tirade from Meghan, angry that embroidered 一面に覆う/毛布s for guests at a 狙撃 週末 were not the 権利 shade of red.
The Sussexes were said not to be disappointed by Ms Toubati’s 出発 but 同意しないd about the 推論する/理由s.
In 2021, Meghan told a 世界的な audience on Oprah that, not only had palace 公式の/役人s done little to 保護する her, they had gone so far as to conspire against her and Harry.
Such a (人命などを)奪う,主張する will have been 深く,強烈に disappointing to Ms Cohen and other former staff as they believed they had worked tirelessly to help the couple.
It is hugely unfortunate that the いじめ(る)ing (民事の)告訴s have resulted in no 決意/決議 either way.
To date, the palace lawyer’s 調査 remains under lock and 重要な, a 状況/情勢 which is hard on the accusers ? and 不公平な to the (刑事)被告.
Jason Knauf’s 漏れるd email correspondence have given us a starting point, but until a few days ago, Ms Cohen and fellow palace staff had remained silent.
Now, finally, that dam has been 違反d ? and I have no 疑問 that more will now 現れる.
The trickle of (警察などへの)密告,告訴(状) will, soon enough, become a stream.
That’s not to prejudge the 事柄 or say what the 判決 will be.
But it’s very much to the Palace’s discredit that, whatever truth we arrive at, it should have to 現れる in this painful and unsatisfactory way.
Tom Bower is author of 復讐, Meghan, Harry and the war between the Windsors