Meghan Markle Was Reportedly ‘Actively Prevented’ From Responding to Rumors

Meghan Markle’s time living in the United Kingdom after her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry sounds…complicated, to say the least. 

Of course, we saw the Duchess of Sussex undertake many projects—from her charity cookbook to support for her various patronages—but life in the royal fishbowl obviously took its toll. We know this from Markle’s own words during the documentary about her and Prince Harry’s tour of South Africa—but also from new details (well, reported details) that are beginning to emerge. 

“And especially as a woman, it’s really, it’s a lot. So if you add this on top of just trying to be a new mom or trying to be a newlywed, it’s um…. Yeah, well, I guess, and also thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I’m okay,” she said in the film, speaking of the negative press she’d received. “But it’s a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes.”

Now a source tells People that Markle was frustrated by her inability to deny the untrue stories being written about her. “The go-to position [at the palace] was ‘no comment’ or to ignore stories, and people actively prevented her from responding to stuff that we knew to be untrue,” the source said. “That is what she is taking issue with.”

If true, that does sound incredibly frustrating. It’s common knowledge that palace officials do not issue statements on every story written about members of the royal family. This sort of structure is different from that of a Hollywood celebrity, for example, who can quickly make a statement via a publicist or directly on their social media accounts.  

Of course, we’ll likely never know exactly how things went down inside the palace walls—but the Sussexes’ frustration with the tabloids is evident given the fact that they are currently in the middle of lawsuits against them. In recent court documents, lawyers for Markle claim she was “unprotected” and this caused her close friends to become concerned. 

“I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a ‘stiff upper lip.’ I really tried,” Meghan Markle said in the aforementioned documentary. “But I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging—and the biggest thing I know is that I never thought this would be easy, but I thought it would be fair, and that’s the part that’s really hard to reconcile. I don’t know, just take each day as it comes.”

Originally Appeared on Glamour