Who is Patrick Jephson? Diana ex-aide likens Meghan Markle rift to late princess's, urges royals to reconcile
Princess Diana's former chief of staff and private secretary seems to have found glaring similarities between her own ordeal and that of Harry and Meghan Markle's with the Royal family. In an interview with CNN, just hours ahead of the highly anticipated tell-all between the couple and Oprah Winfrey, Patrick Jephson addressed the shocking similarities he has noticed between the former Sussex royals' struggles with the monarchy and that of Diana's.
Meghan's interview with Winfrey, where she was joined by her husband Harry, was a first of its kind addressing the very publicized Megxit where both Harry and Meghan dropped their royal titles and duties and moved to live in Canada as civilians, with their son Archie. The TV event that aired as a two-hour special on CBS's '60 Minutes' is yet to air in the UK, but America is already buzzing with the allegations made, including conversations surrounding how 'dark' baby Archie would be before he was even born.
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Meghan also clarified it wasn't her who had made sister-in-law and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton cry ahead of her wedding as the British media and tabloids had reported. It was in fact the other way round, she claims. And although maintaining the Queen was always lovely to her, Meghan didn't name any other names, claiming it would be damaging to the family.
With CBS teasing short clips from the interview ahead of its March 7 airing, Jephson took the podium on CNN to claim "Thirty years ago, we were in a comparable situation where rifts were opening up within the royal family and it was starting to escalate. There were a lot of unhappy people involved then, I'm quite sure there are a lot of unhappy people involved now."
Patrick Jephson, Princess Diana's private secretary and chief of staff, tells Michael Smerconish it's important to remember the royals are also people — and that "there's a lot of blame all around" for the current rift. https://t.co/UM7IDDrLzv pic.twitter.com/yzFLHaVeGJ
— CNN (@CNN) March 6, 2021
Diana too was subjected to intense media scrutiny and criticism for separating from her husband and the Queen's son Prince Charles in 1992 after his affair with current wife Camilla Parker Bowles was outed in the public. The Prince of Wales was ostracized for moving on and having a life distanced from the Royals, something that a lot of Internet sleuths have also claimed to be the motive behind her mysterious fatal car crash in 1997.
Speaking about how Diana's ordeal mirrored those of her youngest son and his wife's, Jephson continued: "First and foremost, we should understand that this is a family rift. It has taken on a lot of the trapping of a big media PR story, but at the heart of this are real people really hurting. I hope that somewhere in the midst of the current back and forth, somebody is putting down the seeds for eventual reconciliation, which has to come."
In terms of bigger responsibility for reconciliation, however, Jephson believes the senior management at the Palace will have to bear the burden. "The responsibility for starting to heal a lot of this damage and to put a stop to the escalation does lie with senior palace management," he told CNN. Having served under Diana for eight years, Jephson claimed Prince Charles has "examples from his own history of how these things can be made worse, and how they can be made better." He is also of the belief that these tell-all interviews, much like Diana's infamous 1995 interview shortly before her death, could be a misfire. "Both Prince Charles and Princess Diana and more recently Prince Andrew have tried to put their sides of the story on TV through these sorts of interviews and in all cases, it has backfired," said Jephson.
Who is Patrick Jephson?
Known for his work on 'The Palace' (2008), 'Inside the Crown' (2020) and 'Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History' (2014), Jephson served as the late princess' chief of staff. He also wrote and starred in the 2006 television docufilm 'My Travels with Diana'.According to his LinkedIn profile, Jephson's "byline has appeared in every major UK newspaper and international titles as varied as TIME magazine, Vanity Fair, People, The Spectator, Paris Match, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the National Catholic Reporter."Jephson is also the Founding partner in JephsonBeaman, which is described as a "boutique communications consultancy specializing in international high-profile, sensitive and UHNW services." Jephson's profile also brags of over 25 years of "experience in the government, luxury and family office sectors." His portfolio "has included globally-admired brands as well as national agencies and NGOs. Has also worked on reputation and legacy briefs with European, Middle Eastern and Asian families, including royalty."
Both Jephson and the former royals' interview come just a short week after a report from The Sunday Times accused Meghan of bullying two senior staff members during her stay with the royal family. Anonymous staffers told the outlet that the former actress "humiliated" them and some were even "reduced to tears." In response to this, Jason Knauf, the couple's former communication secretary, had also reportedly filed a complaint about her to the palace's HR department in October 2018. Although the spokesperson for Harry and Meghan denied allegations, Buckingham Palace said it would still pursue and internally investigate the matter.
When asked about the palace ever playing the "political hardball," Jephson said, "I suppose if you start to employ PR experts, they will do what their job is. This is the way in which, combined with social media, what is essentially a family squabble turns into something potentially much more damaging," he said. "It is a matter of judgment how both sides use the media."
'Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special' premiered on Sunday, March 7 at 8 pm EST/PST and 7 pm CT.