Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s circle of A-list friends is getting smaller and smaller as the likes of Oprah Winfrey and the Beckhams become distanced from the renegade couple, according to Princess Diana’s former butler.
Sky News contributor Emily Carver says relationships have been “sour” ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the Royal Family.
Ms Carver told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio that Harry and Meghan have “spilled all sorts of private details” of Royal life.
“They’ve made some shocking accusations.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex left the UK social set when they stepped down as senior working royals in 2020 and moving to the celebrity enclave suburb of Montecito, California.
But reports have surfaced that Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, burned bridges in Hollywood, too, while attempting to rebrand themselves as entertainment pioneers and international leaders.
Princess Diana’s former butler has exposed ugly secrets about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s dwindling celebrity-studded inner circle as he revealed the Sussex’s A-list comrades are “dropping like flies”. Picture: Taylor Hill/WireImage
Speaking to the The Sun on Wednesday, Paul Burrell, who worked as Princess Diana’s butler until her death in 1997, said the Sussex’s inner circle were quickly dropping their loyalties to the couple.
“Harry and Meghan’s circle is getting smaller and smaller. I think the A-list stars are dropping like flies,” he said.
“Some already have done – Oprah no longer seems involved with them and some other celebrities have also dropped them.
“Harry and Meghan were the most popular couple in the country at one time, when they got married, but there’s since been a decline.”
It comes as Harry’s closest friend Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, married long-time girlfriend Olivia Henson in a lavish cathedral service last Friday but the Sussexes subbed the nuptials.
The Mirror newspaper revealed Harry and Meghan months ago RSVP’d ‘no’ to the bride and groom’s ‘save the date’ for the wedding to avoid a “media storm” and an “awkward” encounter with Harry’s estranged older brother Prince William.
“They also knew that their presence would cause a media storm, especially since Meghan has not visited Britain since Queen Elizabeth’s Funeral,” royal insider Richard Fitzwilliams told the publication.
At the same time, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex suffered another major fallout with former celebrity friends Victoria Beckham, 50, and her husband David Beckham, 49.
Sky News host Rita Panahi says Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be missing from two big events on the society calendar this year.
“They have been left off the invite list for the second year in a row for Trooping of the Colour, that’s on next week, and the King’s official birthday,” she said.
“They will not be making an appearance at the most exclusive wedding of the year despite Harry’s close relationship with the groom, the Duke of Westminster.”
Ms Panahi questioned whether the Sussexes were being “frozen out”.
The Beckhams were once part of the Sussexes’ celebrity-studded social circle and attended Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding alongside the likes of George and Amal Clooney and Oprah Winfrey.
But the friendship hit the rocks not long after the Sussexes left the royal family, allegedly because Meghan accused Victoria of leaking stories to the press, which left her husband David “furious”.
The feud reportedly came to a head when a heated phone call between Harry and David forced the superstar couples to cut ties with one another.
The Beckhams then reportedly ‘aligned’ himself with the monarchy when David was announced as an ambassador for King Charles’ charitable foundation.
Harry is said to now be house hunting for another property in the UK, after being evicted from Frogmore Cottage by King Charles, in dramatic attempt to reconnect with his friends there.
Speaking to the Mirror Newspaper this month, royal insider Tom Quinn revealed the Duke of Sussex longs to reconnect with aspects of his “old life” and repair friendships that were either broken after he married Meghan or alienated when he publicly slammed the monarchy.
“He misses his Old Etonian and army friends, many of whom have not visited as they don’t get on with Meghan,” he said.
“As time goes by, Harry misses some aspects of his old life in the UK.
“Inevitably, the honeymoon period where everything in the States is new and exciting is coming to an end and Harry is looking back at the past through rose-tinted spectacles.”