A royal insider has disclosed the unusual nickname that palace staff reportedly assigned to Meghan Markle during her brief tenure as a working royal.
The former Suits actress wed Prince Harry in 2018, following a two-year courtship. In early 2020, the couple stepped down from their senior royal roles and relocated to Southern California.
Now, in his latest book, Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, author Tom Quinn reveals a series of alleged nicknames used for the 43-year-old by royal staff.
One former staffer admitted that Meghan was at one point dubbed the “Duchess of Difficult”—a moniker they attributed to her struggles in adapting to royal life. “She could be difficult because she was finding life difficult—trying to feel her way and work out the intricacies of a positively medieval, labyrinthine system,” they explained.
Another ex-aide noted that Meghan’s interactions with staff were inconsistent. While she sometimes came across as “over-friendly”, greeting them with hugs and attempting to build friendships, at other times, she reportedly became frustrated when they weren’t available “at all times of the day and night.”
This behavior, once again, was linked to her unfamiliarity with royal protocol.
Not all of Meghan Markle’s nicknames were unkind.
“It’s true that her nickname for a while was the Duchess of Difficult, but she had other, friendlier nicknames, including Mystic Meg, which came about because she was so new agey, so woke, about so many things,” one staff member revealed.
The nickname was a reference to the late English astrologer known for her spiritual and mystical persona.
According to insiders, Meghan’s influence on Prince Harry was noticeable—he reportedly became “far more concerned about social issues and the rights of minorities than he’d ever been before Meghan’s arrival.”
While younger staff at Kensington Palace may have welcomed this change, not everyone felt the same way. “Some of the youngest staff at Kensington Palace would’ve applauded this, no doubt, but the older staff thought he’d become a tree-hugging leftie,” they claimed.
It turns out that the Palace wasn’t the only place where Meghan picked up some less-than-flattering nicknames.
In 2022, Meghan and Harry joined forces with Spotify to launch their podcast, Archetypes. However, their partnership with the streaming giant came to an abrupt end in less than a year.
Later, royal correspondent Neil Sean revealed to Fox News Digital that Meghan’s former colleagues had a secret code name for her.
“Ex-staff members… told me they decided to christen her ‘Eva’ and this was used as a warning signal to let people know that she was either arriving or on the warpath,” he claimed.
Sean went on to explain the inspiration behind the name: “The nickname came from the 1955 camp classic Queen Bee starring the ultimate diva… herself—Joan Crawford… This is because, like the Joan character [Eva Phillips], she stung her victims to pieces.
“This is exactly how staff felt about working alongside [Meghan].”
