MEGHAN'S TOUGHEST YEAR

AFTER 12 MONTHS OF TABLOID CRITICISM, BITTER FAMILY FEUDS AND THE STRESS OF BEING A NEW MUM, THE DUCHESS OF SUSSEX IS STARTING 2020 WITH RENEWED STRENGTH AND A DETERMINATION TO PROVE HER DOUBTERS WRONG

At the start of what would prove to be a traumatic and challenging year for the Duchess of Sussex, she had at least one A-list ally.

“They’re just chasing Meghan ​Markle everywhere,” a concerned George Clooney complained to WHO in February. “She has been pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was. We’ve seen how that ends. I can’t tell you how frustrating that is, just seeing them broadcast a letter from a daughter to a father. She’s getting a raw deal.”

Since entering royal life, Meghan has never spoken publicly about her strained relationship with her father, but Thomas Markle, 75, has frequently embarrassed his daughter by doing the opposite.

In February, he shared a private letter ​Cambridges officially broke up their joint ‘court’ at Kensington Palace by creating two separate offices. A pregnant Meghan found herself trying in vain to mediate between the brothers, causing her own relationship with Kate Middleton to break down and leaving her feeling isolated and ostracised.

“As brothers, you have good days, you have bad days,” Harry, 35, said of the rift in the documentary Harry and Meghan: An African Journey. “Inevitably, stuff happens. But look, we’ll always be brothers. We’re certainly on different paths at the moment.”

Part of the divergence has to do with how each prince navigates family life. When Archie was born on May 6, Harry and Meghan broke three decades of tradition by refusing to pose on the hospital steps hours after the birth, instead keeping the world waiting until a prearranged press call two days later with a handful of selected outlets.

It further antagonised the media and public opinion seemed to turn against them, especially Meghan.