A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said on Monday: “Our commitment to examine the circumstances over the complaints from the former staff of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex is moving forward, but we will not make any public comment on this.”
Harry and Meghan made no comment Monday, but a spokesman for the couple earlier dismissed the allegations of harassment reported by The Times as “defamatory.”
“We call this what it is: a calculated defamation campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation,” the Sussex spokesman said. “We are disappointed to see that this defamatory portrait of the Duchess of Sussex gives credibility to a media outlet.”
The war of words between the two camps broke out shortly before the appearance of Meghan and Harry’s argument with Winfrey, in which the couple lifted the lid on the hardships of their lives as royalty and made a series of ‘accusatory accusations against the family.
She has taken a different approach with claims that Meghan intimidated royal staff, which emerged in an article in The Times.
The hiring of an outside company comes after the Palace said its “human resources team will examine the circumstances mentioned in the article.”
“Members of the staff involved at the time, including those who have left the house, will be invited to see if lessons can be learned,” he said in his previous statement.
During their interview with Winfrey, Harry and Meghan also said they complained several times at the Palace that he was suffering from their mental health, but were fired. Meghan revealed that at one point she contemplated suicide, claims that have reverberated in the British media and that have brought the royal family under control.