Yahoo Finance Prince Harry would diagnose royal staff with 'palace syndrome' when he was convinced they weren't loyal, new book claims
Prince Harry diagnosed staff he didn't trust with "palace syndrome," a new book claims.
Royal author Valentine Low wrote that Harry's mistrust of the media affected how he saw his staff.
A source cited by Low said it was "exhausting" having their loyalty constantly tested by the prince.
Prince Harry diagnosed his royal staff with "palace syndrome" when he believed they weren't doing enough to protect him from the media, a new book claims.
Valentine Low, a Times of London royal correspondent, wrote in his book "Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown" that the Duke of Sussex's mistrust of the media started to affect his relationship with those working closely with him.
Before he was in a relationship with Meghan Markle, Low said the prince developed frustrations with the media that caused tension inside Kensington Palace with his staff. Harry and Meghan were part of the royal household, which also looked after Prince William and Kate Middleton until October 2018, when they announced the start of their own royal household.
Representatives for the Duke of Sussex did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Low included comments from an unnamed source who said Harry would use the phrase "the palace syndrome" to label staff members who wouldn't fight battles with the press that he wanted them to. According to the source, he saw staff who didn't take action on his behalf as being institutionalized.
"Giving in to the media was a key symptom of whether you had developed it. The team fighting all these battles: it was a constant test of loyalty. 'Are you going to protect me? Or have you just become one of them, who won't fight for me? It was exhausting,'" the source told Low.
The prince has for years been openly critical of the media. In November 2021, he spoke at WIRED's RE:WIRED virtual conference about how he believes journalists in the UK create misinformation.
"I learned from a very early age the incentives of publishing are not necessarily aligned with the incentives of truth," he said. "My experience is being more pre-social media around the UK press who sadly conflate profit with purpose and news with entertainment."
"They don't report the news, they create it," Harry added. "They're successful in turning fact-based news into opinion-based gossip with devastating consequences for the country."
Earlier in the same section of the book, Low quotes another unnamed source who said when the prince was angry with how his staff handled the press, he would text them at all hours of the day to express his frustration.
"He took every single thing he did, on tours in particular, really seriously... But the need for fights was there the whole time," the source told Low. "It was non-stop texting, messaging through the night."
However, the claims about Harry's relationship with his royal staff prior to his and Meghan's exit from royal life in 2020 follow previous reports that the couple suspected palace staff had been leaking stories about them to the press.
"Finding Freedom," a 2020 royal biography by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, said that some of the Duchess of Sussex's close friends believed someone inside the palace was leaking stories to the press when it began to be reported that Meghan made Kate Middleton cry before her wedding, for example.
Meghan later told Oprah Winfrey during their March 2020 sit-down interview that the reverse happened, and that it was Kate who made her cry.
"Finding Freedom" also cited an unnamed friend of the couple saying there was only a "handful of people working at the palace they could trust," according to an excerpt shared in The Guardian.
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