The real reason Harry and Meghan have just lost their 18th member of staff

My first inkling that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have trouble holding onto staff came back in 2018 when I received a tip that Meghan’s personal assistant, Melissa Toubati, had quit suddenly, just six months after the American actress had married into the Royal Family.

‘It’s a real shock,’ a source told me at the time. ‘Why would she want to leave such a prestigious job so soon?’

Officials usually decline to discuss staffing matters, so it took me aback when a senior Palace source chose to pay tribute to her publicly. ‘Melissa is a hugely talented person,’ the source said. ‘She played a pivotal role in the success of the royal wedding and will be missed by everyone in the Royal Household.’

For someone to go out of their way to pay such fulsome tribute suggested Melissa’s colleagues were not happy with her departure.

The fact she left so soon raised questions over the reasons for her exit.

Indeed, it later emerged that Jason Knauf, the couple’s communications secretary, had written to Simon Case, Prince William’s private secretary, in 2018 to say: ‘I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X was totally unacceptable.’

He added: ‘The duchess seems intent on having someone in her sights. She is bullying Y and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behaviour towards Y.’

Melissa’s exit proved to be the first of many departures from Prince Harry and Meghan’s staff in the years that followed.

It’s hard to keep track, but the total number of employees the Sussexes have lost since they married in 2018 is thought to be at least 18, with nine or more having left since they moved to California two years later, after quitting royal duties.

The Sussexes’ staff retention problem was thrown into sharp relief this week after I revealed on Monday evening that Harry’s grandly titled chief of staff, Josh Kettler, had suddenly quit after barely three months in the job amid much intrigue.

When Kettler was appointed, he was described as the perfect man to ‘guide’ King Charles’s younger son ‘through his next phase’.

While a spokesman for the Sussexes declined to comment on Kettler’s departure, an anonymous source subsequently briefed People magazine – a title that has been used to put across their point of view many times in the past – that Kettler had been ‘hired on a trial basis’. The source claimed that ‘the decision to part ways was mutual, with both sides agreeing it wasn’t the right fit’.

I’m old enough to remember when Harry and Meghan declared that they wouldn’t indulge in anonymous briefings, which, they suggested, were the sort of sinister Palace methods that would have no place in their modern household. How times change.

The anonymous briefing given to People magazine has the appearance of being rather disingenuous. Kettler’s hiring was on no more of a ‘trial basis’ than any other appointment. I find the idea that they would fill a key position in such a way absurd.

The significance of Kettler’s role was clear to journalists covering Harry and Meghan’s ‘quasi royal tour’ of Nigeria in May, when he was seen by the duke’s side throughout.

He had previously been with Harry in London at the St Paul’s Cathedral service to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games.

To me, their use of the word ‘mutual’ is fascinating too. They used the same word to describe the end of their relationship with the music streaming giant Spotify.

A source tells me: ‘Josh soon realised that the job wasn’t for him. There were aspects of it that he wasn’t comfortable with. He thought it was better to leave now than to continue in a job that he did not enjoy.’

The source is too diplomatic to spell it out but was it the case that the chief of staff discovered that there was only one chief in the Montecito household – and it wasn’t him?

The timing of Kettler’s departure could not be more awkward, as he was intimately involved in organising the couple’s ‘quasi royal tour’ of Colombia, which begins today.

He now joins the growing ranks of the ‘Sussex Survivors Squad’, the gallows-humour name former staff have given themselves. The most wounded members of that ‘squad’ were those who accused Meghan of bullying behaviour while she was still a working member of the Royal Family.

Palace aides admitted in 2022 that a report into allegations of bullying by the duchess had effectively been buried. They said that the findings would never be made public. Even those who took part in the inquiry were not told what the outcome was.

Officials would confirm only that their investigation had concluded and ‘recommendations on our policy and procedures’ had been taken forward.

Aides had announced in 2021 that they were launching an inquiry into claims that Meghan’s ‘belittling’ behaviour while a working royal drove two female personal assistants out of the household and ‘undermined the confidence’ of a third.

Staff were said to have been left in tears and feeling ‘traumatised’ – with some likening their condition to having post-traumatic stress.

The Royal Household employed a third-party law firm to probe the claims in a move that some predicted could increase tensions between Harry and Meghan and ‘the institution’.

The allegations have always been strongly denied by the duchess, whose lawyers described them at the time as a ‘calculated smear campaign’.

A spokesman added: ‘The duchess is saddened by this latest attack on her character, particularly as someone who has been the target of bullying herself and is deeply committed to supporting those who have experienced pain and trauma.’

Surely, if Harry and Meghan want to ensure they have no problems recruiting staff in the future, they should urge the Palace to publish the report?