Did Meghan Markle ‘flirt’ with Prince William? Her one repetitive action ‘fuelled’ this gossip in the Royal palace

The Royal gossip mill is unlike any other, but every so often a story comes out that’s stranger than most. Since she was admitted to the Royal Family, Meghan Markle has found herself at the center of many stories, good and bad.

The so-called “Duchess of Difficult” had her own notions of what royalty meant, but these were swiftly swept away when they met the cold, harsh, and downright strange realities of royal life in the U.K. A detailed article from The Times discusses Meghan’s adjustment to royal life, including her position at the center of “swirling rumour, gossip and backbiting” — including rumors of her “flirting” with Prince William.

The article, which is an extract from Tom Quinn’s Yes Ma’am: The Secret Life of Royal Servants, is a deep dive into how Meghan was introduced to the Royal Family, and how she adjusted — or didn’t — to life as a working royal. The extract has a little bit of everything: Anecdotes about Prince Andrew (who reportedly had a servant transferred out because Andrew didn’t like the mole on his face), jokey stories about William, Kate, Meghan, and Harry’s early days together as the “Fab Four” (funny dances and carefree joking), and of course, a look into how Meghan Markle wanted to “finish what Diana started.”

For Meghan, the luxury and privilege of royal life was at once a pleasure and a constraint: she found the other members of the family acted like “babies,” and while she reportedly “loved having everything done for her by the domestic staff,” she hated it as well and found it difficult to adjust.

“She didn’t like the fact that Harry tended to ask staff if they would mind tidying up or bringing something to him. With her American background, she felt when you pay people to do something, you just issue commands, and that Harry should just issue commands as she did.”

Effusive in her approach and highly tactile, it is alleged that Meghan’s repeated “hugging and cheek-kissing fuelled gossip among the staff that Meghan was flirting with William.” This, along with her modernizing approach and her “inappropriate” friendships with junior members of the staff, placed Meghan at the very center of a conflux of rumors and gossip as her inexperience and lack of understanding when it came to royal life rubbed many palace officials, staff, and courtiers the wrong way. Evidently, it was enough for them to jump to conclusions, no matter how their inference began and ended with one action of the former actress.

Royal life is strange and weird, especially to an outsider from America. It’s regimented, with set activities done at set times in specific ways; it’s hierarchical, with the relative status of different members of the family being of paramount importance, even in private; and it’s stuffed full of traditions and quirks that seem utterly irrelevant to an outsider but which are serious business to the family and its hangers-on.

For Meghan, this presented something of a challenge. Described as a “moderniser by nature” by Quinn, the Duchess of Sussex brought an entirely different sort of energy to the table as she did things her own way. Unfortunately for her and Harry, the institution of monarchy changes for no woman — not even the “Duchess of Difficult.”