bitchy | Palace insider: Duchess Meghan is overshadowing Princess Diana’s death

Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death in Paris. There was already a revival of content about Diana in the weeks and months leading up to the anniversary – there are several new books out, HBO premiered the excellent documentary The Princess, Discovery+ has a docu-series about Operation Paget (the British investigation into her death). But this week, there are also millions of headlines about the Duchess of Sussex, one of Diana’s daughters-in-law. Spotify dropped the first episode of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast last week, and we’ll get new episodes every Tuesday. Meghan also covers The Cut with an attention-grabbing profile. Now royal sources are sniffing about Meghan pulling focus from the anniversary of Diana’s death.

Mehgan Markle’s latest bombshell interview is overshadowing the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death, royal insiders fear.

While some who know her told Page Six that Markle had no say in when the story would publish, it comes just two days before her husband and his older brother, Prince William, will mark a quarter-century since the loss of their mother. Diana tragically died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, at age 36.

One well-versed palace insider told Page Six: “It seems that Meghan always needs there to be some kind of reference to her and Diana. But on this particular occasion, her camp could have asked for the story to run after the anniversary. It does make things all about Meghan.”

One source who knows Markle said that the 41-year-old did the interview to promote her new Spotify podcast “Archetype,” which debuted last week. Her first episode featured tennis champ Serena Williams; a second episode with Mariah Carey will drop on Tuesday, a day before the anniversary.

“She will have been under contract to do publicity for Spotify,” the Markle source said. “Knowing how Harry feels about his mother, the last thing she would want to do is upset him. But Spotify did announce earlier this year that the podcast would be out in late summer.”

[From Page Six]

I honestly expected Archetypes to come out in June or July, so I am surprised that they left it to the late-late summer. Meghan arguably had more control about when Archetypes dropped than she does about when The Cut publishes, but that’s connected anyway – if Archetypes had come out in July, that’s when Meghan’s press would have started too. Anyway, I’m sure Meghan cleared the timing of this with Harry and he was fine with it. The problem isn’t that Meghan wants or “needs” some association with Diana, it’s that there are natural comparisons to be drawn with how the establishment tried to destroy Diana and how they’re trying to destroy the Sussexes. The complaint from a “palace insider” about this issue is pretty rich too, considering the Queen and Charles are not going to mark the anniversary in any way, and the Cambridges will likely mark the day privately. This is William raging about how he alone owns his mother’s memory.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid. Covers courtesy of The Cut and People.