In Tom Quinn’s book, Gilded Youth An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family, a former staff member claimed that Meghan struggled with one rule during her time as a working royal.
The royal source claimed that the Duchess of Sussex “hated being controlled by royal protocol”.
One of the most important rules in the Royal Family is that they have to report where they are going before leaving the Palace.
The former Palace worker claimed: “The fact, for example, that at Kensington Palace royals have to announce in advance when they are leaving the Palace and where they are going.
“This is partly for security but partly also to avoid a situation where a senior royal is upstaged by a more junior royal leaving just when the more important person leaves.”
Meghan reportedly thought that the rule was “silly” when in fact it is “absolutely essential,” according to the former Palace worker.
The royal source suggested: “I don’t think in the whole of history there was ever a greater divide between what someone expected when they became a member of the Royal Family and what they discovered it was really like. She was hugely disappointed.”
They claimed she was not the only one who thought this. They said: “I think Charles agreed with Meghan on many points – he thought much of the protocol was silly, but it is hard to change.
“William has bought into it, which is why George and Louis and Charlotte are so conventional and look like something out of the 1950s.
“Meghan wants something different from this for her children – she wants American freedom to do and say what you like and go where you like,” the expert claimed.
Royal Family members have to follow strict protocol on a daily basis. For example, the monarch and the heir to the throne, or two heirs to the throne, are not allowed to travel together.
This is to avoid putting their lives at risk at the same time and to preserve the monarchy’s survival.
King Charles and Prince William, for instance, must never travel together, and the same rule applied to Prince William and Prince Harry growing up. However, Prince William and Prince George have broken this rule in the past.
A royal spokesperson said that “while there is no official rule on this, and royal heirs have travelled together in the past, it is something that the monarch has the final say on”.
