Distressing silence...

Meghan Markle Was "Actively Prevented" From Addressing Untrue Press Attacks, Report Says

Queen Elizabeth, Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry

Meghan Markle was told not to respond to fabricated press and attacks against her while associated with the royal family, a new report says. This "no comment" approach taken by the royals was damaging to the Duchess, as was also revealed in court documents last week.

Meghan Markle was instructed to keep quiet about "untrue" attacks in British tabloids, a source has revealed in the new issue of People magazine.

Meghan became a popular target for criticism once her relationship with Prince Harry was revealed in late 2016. The pair then soon announced plans for their 2018 royal wedding, but the attacks did not relent even when Meghan became pregnant with Archie.

But she had to remain silent on the reports, which some allege have perpetrated extremes of racism, misogyny, and conspiracy theory-level fabrications.

Meghan Markle had to follow "no comment" approach, source says

A source close to Meghan and Harry now says that this silence, imposed upon the Duchess, exacerbated the experience for 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 told People. "That is what she is taking issue with."

This silence was brought back into the spotlight last week, when court documents from Meghan's case against The Mail on Sunday revealed that she felt "unprotected" by the royal institution during her pregnancy.

Meghan "had become the subject of a large number of false and damaging articles by the UK tabloid media, specifically by the Defendant [Associated Newspapers Limited], which caused tremendous emotional distress and damage to her mental health," the documents reportedly said.

Duchess Meghan's comments don't target a particular royal

People's source sought to clarify the royal approach the press, however. "The palace teams are faced with the difficulty that when things go wrong — particularly on private life matters — quite often any action taken with the media makes it worse," they said. "It's not that the royal household doesn't want to help — more that they don't want to make it worse by giving a gossipy story more oxygen."

For that reason, the report says Meghan wasn't criticizing any particular royal family member or leader, but rather the institution and its faith in the "no comment" style.

However, in recent months, this traditional approach appears to have undergone a change in philosophy. Meghan remains in the early stages of a court case against The Mail on Sunday surrounding the publication of a private letter she'd written to her father, Thomas Markle.

In a similarly unprecedented move, Kensington Palace threatened legal action against Tatler magazine after it published an unflattering profile of Duchess Kate, which allegedly contained misinformation.

Nonetheless, Meghan and Prince Harry are now operating at a distance from the royal family as of March 2020. Since stepping down as senior royals, commentators have noted the Duke of Sussex's uncharacteristic calls for the British monarchy to address past injustice, while he and Meghan have additionally supported the Black Lives Matter movement and taken action against racial inequalities and hate speech.