How Meghan Markle’s dream LA life turned into a nightmare

Spending the summer in a huge LA mansion with your family might sound like heaven to most people, but for Meghan Markle, the dream appears to be turning sour. Although she is loving spending quality time with husband Prince Harry and 14-month-old son Archie, this is not exactly how she envisioned things would be after quitting the royal family at the start of the year for a new life in Hollywood.

Instead of making their mark in LA by going to A-list parties and events, relaunching Meghan’s acting career and working on their charity, they’ve rarely left their temporary home, and have come under fire for a lot of their decisions and opinions. Just last week, they caused a scandal after criticising the Commonwealth – which the Queen, Harry’s grandmother – is head of. Meghan has also had to deal with a falling out with best friend Jessica Mulroney as well as an ongoing legal battle, and sources say she’s now wondering if this has all been worth it.

“Meghan and Harry try to block out as much negativity as possible, from the nasty things that are said about them, to the ongoing legal cases they’re determined to keep fighting. But it’s hard – Meghan feels as if the whole world is against her and that she gets criticised whatever she says,” our source explains.

“The move has been a lot harder than they imagined – with LA going in and out of lockdown, she’s getting frustrated at not being able to do everything she wanted. And there’s no knowing when things will get back to normal. Cutting out Jessica has also been difficult, and she’s worried about the implications of that as she feels she can’t trust many people. She even worries about if Harry is happy with their new life. She’s at breaking point and can’t deal with much more.”

Family members have also spoken out about their worries over Meghan, 38, and Harry, 35, and how they have become more “introverted” and “distant” over the past few weeks. “Meghan has gone very quiet. I think she is likely to be feeling extremely low and probably struggling. And Harry must be tormented by his fractured family ties,” one said. It’s also been claimed that Meghan worries about Archie not interacting with any other children, but feels she’s too famous to join any baby groups and is unable to do “normal” things – even after the restrictions of lockdown in LA are lifted again.

Meghan’s also said to be struggling without the support of best friend Jessica. She cut ties with the fashion stylist after she was accused of racism, when a black influencer went public with a series of messages in which Jessica apparently threatened to turn “companies and people” against her. Despite Jessica’s multiple apologies, Meghan understandably felt she couldn’t be associated with her any more. We’re told, however, that the Duchess misses her friend and could do with her support right now. It is also thought that Jessica could be one of the witnesses due to take the stand in support of Meghan during her upcoming court case – another headache she doesn’t need right now.

Meghan and Harry – who married in May 2018 – caused huge controversy when they decided to step back as senior royals in January, a move that put a strain on Harry’s relationship with his brother Prince William, dad Prince Charles and the Queen.

Meghan and Prince Harry's ups and downs in pictures:

They claimed at the time that they wanted to earn their own money and not take anything from the British taxpayer. However, it’s been revealed that Charles is still funding part of their lifestyle. Last week, the couple – who are staying at their friend Tyler Perry’s $18m mansion – created another scandal when they were accused of “attacking the Queen” after taking part in the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust video call – one of the network’s weekly sessions set up in response to the recent Black Lives Matter movement.

In the video, Harry said, “When you look across the Commonwealth [which was created out of the British Empire], there is no way that we can move forward unless we acknowledge the past. So many people have done an incredible job of acknowledging the past and trying to right those wrongs, but I think that we all acknowledge there is so much more still to do. It’s not going to be easy and, in some cases, it’s not going to be comfortable, but it needs to be done, because, guess what, everybody benefits.” Meghan added, “Equality does not put anyone on the back foot, it puts us all on the same footing, which is a fundamental human right.”

And while many praised the prince for being so honest, a lot of people were upset at his choice of words and felt it was a criticism of his grandmother. Piers Morgan – who has been very vocal of his dislike of the way the couple have behaved over the past six months – ranted, “I’m trying to be fair, but honestly the idea of these two in their Hollywood mansion, continuing to lecture the world about how things should be, and this sort of irony, saying, ‘It’s time to be uncomfortable’. They’re the most comfortable people in the world! These two quit the royal family because they want to go and do their own thing in Hollywood. That’s fine, it’s their choice. But if they are going to start attacking the Commonwealth – and the Queen is the head of the Commonwealth – they’re picking a proper political fight.”

Piers even accused Harry of “looking like a hostage” while appearing in the video alongside Meghan.

But the couple are determined to speak out about controversial issues and are also concentrating on their upcoming court case, in which Meghan is suing a British newspaper for breach of privacy after they published a letter she sent to her estranged dad Thomas Markle.

In her papers, Meghan claims she felt unsupported by the royal family during her pregnancy while she was getting attacked by some tabloid papers, which has not gone down well with many royal members. She also claimed she was treated differently to some members – and named Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie for being allowed to carry out paid work, while her and Harry were banned from doing so. And this has not been appreciated by the princesses.

“They get how she had this very tough time during her stay in England, but think it’s pretty rich for Meghan to be sounding off when they made a real effort to be her friend and welcome her to the fold,” we’re told. “At the end of the day, there’s this view that Meghan always felt superior to most, if not all, of the royals, especially the more junior ones like them. The fact she’s still griping about them months after she left is infuriating. Meghan needs all the friends and support she can get right now, and the royals feel maybe this isn’t the way she should be handling things.”

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