Meghan Markle blamed by Prince Harry’s pals for making him ‘too woke’ before royal exit: author

By the time Prince Harry made his royal exit in 2020 alongside his wife, older palace staff accused the prince of becoming "a tree-hugging lefty" who was "rejecting the values and traditions of his family." Many of his childhood pals reportedly shared this sentiment.

The claim was made by royal author Tom Quinn, who has written a new book, "Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants." Quinn spoke to hundreds of former and current palace staff members to learn what it’s like to watch over the House of Windsor.

Fox News Digital reached out to Archewell, which represents the offices of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for comment. A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace previously told Fox News Digital, "We don’t comment on such books."

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals in 2020 and moved to California. (Joshua Sammer/Getty Images)

"Meghan was blamed for… making Harry ‘too woke,’" Quinn claimed to Fox News Digital. "One of Harry’s best friends said, ‘I can’t understand what Harry sees in her. She’s a tree hugger. She’s so woke.’ For Harry’s traditional friends, being woke was not a good thing. But I think Harry was, in a way, entranced by the fact that Meghan was able to offer him an alternative world from the one he’d always known."

The younger son of King Charles III met the American actress in early 2016. Their romance wasn’t made public until October of that year. The 40-year-old later admitted that their relationship went from "0 to 60."

Meghan Markle was starring in the legal drama "Suits" (pictured here) when she met Prince Harry. (Nigel Parry/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

While the "Suits" star was initially praised by the U.K. press for being a breath of fresh air for "The Firm," insiders claimed to Quinn that Harry began to change quickly behind palace doors.

"Yes, Ma'am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants" by Tom Quinn is available now. (Biteback Publishing)

"There’s a famous occasion where Meghan went with Harry and some of his friends from school and from the army — she went on a pheasant shoot at Sandringham, the royal family’s country home," Quinn explained.

"She hated it because all of Harry’s friends were making the sorts of jokes that suggested they disliked everything to do with ‘woke.’ They made rude comments about tree-huggers. They just don’t like that kind of thing because, to a large extent, it’s seen as left-wing. They just didn’t like it."

Meghan Markle was initially viewed as a breath of fresh air. However, things soon took a turn. (AP)

"With Meghan, [Harry] shifted across," Quinn continued. "He became much more sympathetic as she is about wanting to do good in the world. The idea of Harry being worried about those things before Meghan — it would never have occurred to him. I think Meghan really took him away from that [old] world, and they didn’t like that."

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Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex visit Redwoods Tree Walk on October 31, 2018, in Rotorua, New Zealand. Meghan Markle became the Duchess of Sussex when she married the British prince in May of that year. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Getty Images)

"The royals certainly didn’t like that," Quinn claimed.

One former palace staff member claimed to Quinn that, before Meghan, Harry was "one of the easiest and nicest people to work for." Many other staff members felt the same. But as the couple’s romance intensified, Harry's demeanor allegedly changed.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are raising their two young children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, in California. (Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

"That terrible modern word ‘woke’ has often been used, and although I don’t like it, I can see why it is applied to Harry — he did become far more concerned about social issues and the rights of minorities than he’d ever been before Meghan’s arrival," the former palace aide told Quinn, as quoted in his book.

To several palace aides and pals, Prince Harry appeared to change after he met Meghan Markle. (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)

One of Harry’s former senior aides, now retired, claimed to Quinn that he felt Harry went from "being pretty easy-going" to being "more disgruntled."

"We had meetings about events he was planning to attend, and I increasingly got the feeling his mind was elsewhere," the former aide claimed, as quoted in the book. 

It became clear that Meghan Markle was struggling with royal life and its traditions. (Reuters)

"After Meghan’s arrival, he was concerned about her welfare, but it was as if his job now was not to attend events, which is what the senior royals always do as their core activity. Instead, he saw his core activity as being with Meghan and increasingly adopting her views of the world."

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle married on May 19, 2018, at Windsor Castle. (Getty Images)

"Some people would say he was just being a loyal husband, but the team, the staff, found the whole thing baffling," the former aide claimed.

One retired member of the Kensington Palace staff claimed to Quinn that before Meghan, Harry was considered "a very polite, reasonably happy young man."

Prince Harry attended his father's coronation ceremony in 2023 without Meghan Markle. (Ben Stansall/Getty Images)

They described the royal as someone who "got past the stage of getting drunk in nightclubs" and was focusing far more on his few reliable friends from school and from the military. He appeared content with his privileged world and was close with his brother, Prince William, and his sister-in-law, Kate Middleton.

In his book, author Tom Quinn wrote that Prince Harry (right) was close to his brother Prince William (left) and his sister-in-law Kate Middleton (center). (Nicky J Sims/Getty Images for Royal Foundation)

"It was only when he began to feel that he was being treated as a second-class citizen that the anger began to build up and then the rows — and there were a lot of rows — and the eventual split," the former aide claimed, as quoted in the book.

Numerous palace sources also claimed that William "couldn’t understand why Harry had changed so much." Growing up, the brothers bonded over polo, pheasant shooting and other country sports, as royals typically do. There also wasn’t a sense, from either William or palace aides, that Harry was treated any differently, Quinn’s book claimed.

Prince Harry and Prince William are said to not be on speaking terms. (Patrick van Katwijk/Getty Images)

"When you have teams of servants looking after you and you’re driven wherever you want to go at whatever time you want to go, and you have no money worries, it never occurs to you that you’re not a very special person," a source claimed to Quinn. "And that was Harry’s position before his marriage."

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Royal author Tom Quinn claimed that one senior courtier tried to tell Prince Harry (right) that he was better off than his brother Prince William (left), who is heir to the British throne. (Getty Images)

According to Quinn’s book, one senior courtier attempted to explain to Harry that he was better off than his brother, who is heir to the British throne. Unlike William, Harry had the benefits of living like "a private citizen and still being a working senior member of the royal family. However, Harry didn’t see it that way."

Harry and Meghan announced their engagement in November 2017. They married in May 2018.

Meghan Markle was born and raised in California. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)

The optimism of the couple’s royal life faded amid allegations that British tabloids and even members of the palace household treated Meghan unfairly because of racism. 

The last time Meghan Markle was in the UK was for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

In January 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were giving up royal duties and moving to America, where they hoped to become "financially independent." They signed lucrative deals with Netflix and Spotify as they settled in the wealthy enclave of Montecito, near Santa Barbara, California.

Since their royal exit, the couple have aired their grievances in interviews, as well as Harry’s 2023 memoir, "Spare."

Prince Harry's memoir "Spare" was published in January 2023. (JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images)

Back in 2023, a former classmate claimed to Quinn in his book, "Gilded Youth," that Harry once "made jokes that we are no longer allowed to make." For that book, Quinn took a close look at Harry’s schooling at the prestigious Eton College, which he attended from 1998 to 2003.

Prince Harry at Eton College, wearing the School Dress, which consists of a black tailcoat, waistcoat and pin-striped trousers. (? Pool Photograph/Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

"In the past, I’ve worked as a journalist for very old-fashioned magazines in England where most of the readers are people who hunt, shoot and fish," Quinn explained to Fox News Digital at the time. "They tend to be very grand, very right-wing. They typically really dislike what they would describe as ‘woke’ and ‘tree-hugging.’ They think real country people are defined by the fact that they shoot things."

Prince Harry established USA as his home base in new documents filed in the UK. (Getty Images)

"If you go to a school like Eton, you don’t get a broad social mix," Quinn shared. "It’s only people from the old English aristocracy who are very conservative… This is the world that Harry grew up in. His only friends were the sons and some daughters of the old English aristocracy, who were all like this. And so, his world was limited by that."

One Eton contemporary claimed to Quinn that Harry initially "hated all that politically correct stuff — all that woke nonsense."

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle met in 2016. They announced their engagement in 2017 and were married in 2018. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

"He was funny, a bit cynical and great company because, like the rest of us, he made jokes that we are no longer allowed to make," the source claimed to Quinn. "After Meghan came along, he changed completely into what he would once have been the first to mock… It was all Meghan’s influence."

Sources who befriended Harry at Eton alleged that they were "stunned" by how quickly Harry changed after he met Meghan.

Meghan Markle's lifestyle series, "With Love, Meghan" became available for streaming March 4th on Netflix. Prince Harry makes a brief appearance in the final episode. (Netflix)

"His friends were horrified because it was almost as if he’d gone over to the enemy," said Quinn. "They were very rude about it. When Harry met Meghan, they got close very quickly. Harry wanted her to meet his friends. It never occurred to him that she might think they were awful, that they would make racist jokes."

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"I think they were really shocked," Quinn continued. "I think Harry’s world was very split. And Meghan is a very powerful personality. Everyone says it."

Quinn said he believed Meghan encouraged Harry to look at his world differently.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle gave a televised interview to Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that was viewed by nearly 50 million people globally. (Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese via Getty Images)

"I think by adopting completely Meghan’s view of the world, I think it made it much more difficult for him, certainly in his relationships with other members of the royal family," Quinn explained. "It created this huge split. He feels completely removed from his old life, the one of the British royal family, which is still very conservative.

Prince William and Kate Middleton, along with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, once known as "The Fab Four," are seen here following Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in 2022. (Emilio Morenatti - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

"In being loyal to his wife and his new life in the States, he has adopted all the values that come with that, all the ideas, all the outlooks. You’ve got William, who has bought into the traditions of the royal family because he’s the heir, he totally believes in the product. And then you’ve got Harry and Meghan who don’t believe in the product at all."