Bombshell new book claims ‘dashing’ Duke of Sussex was turning into a ‘seedy old roué’ before Meghan

A bombshell new book has claimed that Prince Harry was turning into a ‘seedy old roué’ before he started dating Meghan Markle.

The Duke of Sussex, 38, was also ‘quite a wild lad’ and had a reputation as a party prince following a decade in the military, according to new book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown.

It includes the prince allegedly playing air guitar with naked with a pool cue at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas hotel in August 2012.

But the book says Harry has now left that life firmly behind and is enjoying life in California with Meghan and their two young children Archie, three, and Lilibet, who was born in June last year.

Written by Valentine Low, it also details how Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton was appointed Harry and brother William’s private secretary on a part-time basis before they became full-time working royals, The Mirror reports.

He had to ‘steer a course through life’ for the young royals, though this was ‘more complex’ for Harry.

Low says: ‘The younger prince was a dashing figure, flying an Apache helicopter, and was heavily committed in the area of children’s health, with charities like Well Child. But he also used to be quite a wild lad.

‘When Harry was young, it was easy to forgive him, his transgressions. But at what point does a wild lad become a seedy old roué? 

‘At the time, it was nothing to worry about: just something to keep an eye on.

‘Eventually, of course, the problem would resolve itself, but not in a way that Lowther-Pinkerton or anyone else imagined. 

‘The wild lad died the day Harry met Meghan Markle.’

Published yesterday, the book’s release comes amid allegations that anxious royal staff reported ‘feeling sick’ before taking part in work with the Sussexes.

Mr Low, a Times royal correspondent, made the claims during an appearance on Good Morning Britain promoting the book.

The book claims that a ‘paranoid’ Prince Harry would carry out ‘loyalty tests’ on Palace staff to check if they were still ‘fighting for him’.

Mr Low also said the Duke of Sussex would look for signs of what he dubbed ‘the Palace syndrome’ which showed staff had become ‘institutionalised’ within the royal household.

He claims the Prince identified one ‘key symptom’ as ‘giving in to the media’, something he claims the royal had become ‘obsessed with’ even before meeting Meghan Markle.

On Good Morning Britain, Mr Low addressed claims that royal staff who had worked with the Sussexes during their times as frontline royals had formed a group called the ‘Sussex Survivors’ Club’.

The claim was written in his new book, quoting royal sources, who also claimed that staff members labeled Meghan a ‘narcissistic sociopath’ and repeatedly said they felt like they ‘were played.’

Asked by Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid whether staff had created a ‘group’ called the ‘Sussex Survivors’ Club’, he replied: ‘Absolutely, yes.’

Ms Reid replied: ‘What did they survive?’. Mr Low said: ‘I think it was a very difficult experience for some of them.

‘As I revealed last year, there were allegations that Meghan bullied staff. People talked to me of people being completely destroyed.

‘I’ve heard people at the time, faced with a possible encounter with Meghan, were saying things like ‘I feel sick’ or ‘I’m shaking’ – extraordinary things for an employee to say about the prospect of seeing their employer in half-an-hour.’

However, Mr Low did say there was a way that the courtiers were in some way responsible for the couple’s acrimonious ‘Megxit’ split from frontline royal duties in January 2020.

He said: ‘There is a way in which the courtiers are to blame. So the people around them were doing their best, these were people who believed in Harry and Meghan and they wanted to help.

‘But there were signs early on, in the first year or so of their marriage, there were signs of how unhappy Harry and Meghan were.

‘And no one really did anything about that. No one picked it up, no one flagged it up and there were no big discussions with the most senior courtiers in the institution.’

However, he concluded that he did not think it ‘would have made any difference’.

He added: ‘(Because) what Harry and Meghan wanted and what the Royal family, what the Queen felt able to to give, I don’t think there was ever a meeting point.’

Mr Low also spoke to Good Morning Britain about claims that Prince Harry had conducted ‘loyalty tests’ on staff.

Mr Low said: ‘This was brewing for a long time – before Meghan. Harry had this obsession with the media. He was so very unhappy.’

An excerpt of his book reads: ‘He would use this phrase the whole time, ‘the palace syndrome’, when you won’t fight the battles he wants, because you have been institutionalised.

‘Giving in to the media was a key symptom of whether you had developed it.

‘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.’

Mr Low has claimed that matters only got worse once he started dating the Duchess.

He writes in his new book: ‘Harry’s obsession with the media; his sense of frustration that he wasn’t achieving everything that he could; his mistrust of the courtiers in the other households; the constant loyalty tests of his own staff: all of this was there before Meghan arrived on the scene.

‘But after she turned up, it would get significantly worse.’