'If you talk to the press, you're out': Prince Harry and Meghan Markle warn their friends against speaking to the media
Meghan Markle might be still struggling a bit when it comes to adopting all the rules that she has to follow now that she's a royal, but now it looks like the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are making some rules of their own. With regards to the recent media attention that seems to have taken the royal family and its members by storm due to Meghan's family, the royal couple is setting some things straight to save them all the public scrutiny.
The royal couple had to recently deal with Meghan's father Thomas Markle and his outrageous claims of how he has been ‘cut off’ by his daughter, resulting in a major fallout between the Duchess and her father. According to an insider from the Mirror, Meghan was "deeply hurt" by the "increasingly desperate situation," and as a result, the royal aides had to have top-level crisis meetings to salvage the situation.
And the most recent news has come in from Vanity Fair's Katie Nicholl, who claims that Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have decided to issue their own rule, which would be applicable to all close friends and family of the couple. As per Nicholls, the royal couple is slowly retreating from the spotlight in order to protect themselves from the constant press vigilance.
The comment from Thomas Markle about his daughter came after there were reports circulating that Prince Harry, who shared a close relationship with Meghan's father, was trying to secretly fly the Duchess out of the country in order for her to meet her father and fix their broken relationship. "Harry knows how important Thomas is to Meghan, and he thinks it’s imperative for her to sort her relationship out with her father, and the best way to do that is for everyone to sit down together and hash everything out together," a source added.
"Harry is trying to work out the possibility for a meeting with Meghan’s father, in California, following the Invictus games in October. Harry and Meghan will be in Australia and New Zealand for the games, and they are already planning to stop off in Los Angeles on the way home to spend some time with Meghan’s mom, so Harry is trying to arrange a meeting with her dad Thomas around the same time."
Given Meghan's not so pleasant current relationship with her father, this would be a big step forward in the right direction. According to reports, Meghan had stopped communicating with her father following his mishaps with the press.
"Harry doesn’t think Thomas is a bad guy at all — he thinks he just doesn’t fully grasp the situation Meghan is in, and that he’s also desperate to be in his daughter’s life again, so Harry wants to fix things and get their relationship back on track again," the insider continued.
Meanwhile, Meghan and Harry like to keep their lives as low-key as possible. “They (Meghan and Harry) spend a lot of time in the Cotswolds, more than people realize. They are in the country way more than they are in London and they are enjoying a low-key and very domesticated start to married life,” says one of their friends. “Harry’s not around that much anymore. Meghan likes him to keep his diary clear at the weekends so they can be together in the countryside,” they added.
“It’s very clear they want to be private and left alone,” says one local. “The property is in the middle of woodland, and you wouldn’t know it was there. It is very remote which is why they like it. It’s like a fortress. There’s a huge security presence, you can’t get close.”
Citing the same source, Nicholl hinted that Prince Harry is trying his best to shield Meghan from too much exposure to the media.
"He worries there is too much hysteria around Meghan and he wants to row back a bit," said the source. “Royal rota journalists are being kept further away from [Meghan] than we were before the wedding. That means we can’t hear what she is saying. If you can’t get direct quotes from members of the royal family that often makes for dull stories. You go up afterward and ask what she said.”
And in a bid to achieve ultimate privacy, the royal couple has told their friends to avoid speaking to the media, and the decision has let to the Prince clamping down on his friendship group, even telling his wife to follow suit.
"They both expect a code of silence. If you talk to the press you’re out," the source revealed. "Harry didn’t use to care that much about what was written (in the press), he just said it was a load of sh**, but he’s very protective of Meghan and defensive these days."
The couple is getting so uncomfortable with the sudden interest in their private lives that recently, Meghan and Harry were so keen not to be photographed at a lunch ahead of the Sentebale Polo Cup in Windsor that a screen separating them from the adjacent media pen was erected.
“It was quite clear that they didn’t want the press anywhere near them,” said one of the photographers at the match who wishes to be named. “They were photographed on the red carpet and at the end of the match, but they wanted to be left alone the rest of the time even though this was a major charity event for Harry with a big international press presence.”