Meghan was ‘hugely disappointed’ by life in the royal family, source claims  

Meghan Markle was “hugely disappointed” by life in the royal family and as a “global superstar” she “hated being told what she could and could not do,” a new book claims.

The 41-year-old Duchess of Sussex, who is currently living in her $14 million California mansion after having retired from royal duty, had misconceptions about what life would be like at The Firm, according to a source.

Writing in his new book Gilded Youth, royal biographer Tom Quinn explained that he had spoken to a ‘Kensington Palace staff member who remembered Meghan well’, who said she was stunned by the reality of life in the family.

The source said: “I don’t think in all of history there has been a bigger divide between what someone expected when they became a member of the royal family and what they found out they really were.”

“He was a global superstar, but he was told what he could and couldn’t do, what he could and couldn’t say. She hated him.

Meanwhile, another person claimed that the Duchess was “dazzled” by the worldwide fame that being a “princess” would bring, but was surprised that she was “never first in the pecking order.”

A third source said Meghan likes to “exclusively mingle” with celebrities, adding that she was unhappy being treated like “a servant of the people” rather than a star.

The Duchess claimed in her bombshell Oprah interview that she “never looked up her husband online” when they first started dating and knew little about the British royal family growing up.

And in her Netflix documentary, Meghan claimed she knew nothing about her future boyfriend’s lifestyle and even had to Google the British national anthem.

She admitted that she repeatedly practiced the patriotic rendition of ‘God Save The Queen’, which she herself had learned online, before joining the royal family.

She also said that “the wave ain’t a thing”, claiming she wasn’t trained to wave her hand in any special way, but jokingly added that she didn’t want to wave her hands “like an American”.

It comes after a royal expert said Meghan was “shocked and disappointed” that Prince Harry “had very little money”.

Actual author Tom Bower appeared on GB News earlier this month, where he spoke to MailOnline’s Dan Wootton about the couple’s early relationship.

Speaking about the Duchess’s misconceptions about the royal family, the author, who penned the 2022 book Revenge: Meghan, Harry and the War Between the Windsors, described the former Suits actress as “obsessed with money.”

The expert said: ‘His big surprise and disappointment was that Prince Harry had very little money.

“She had imagined that he would be worth hundreds of millions, if not billions, and now she has to make it up to him.”

Describing how the couple could not afford their current lifestyle as working members of the royal family, the expert added: “She wants to ride in the big Cadillacs, the private jets at the helm.”

‘Right now she needs to look for that kind of thing.’

Elsewhere in the interview, Tom claimed that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s attendance at the coronation has the potential to “ruin” the coronation and “upstage” King Charles.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to be invited to the coronation on May 6, despite the fallout from Harry Spare’s explosive memories.

While they were still senior royals, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were primarily funded by the Duchy of Cornwall inheritance from King Charles.

Following the couple’s decision to leave the firm, it was reported that Charles’s £1.2 billion Duchy of Cornwall estate paid his youngest son around £2.3 million a year on average.

However, the couple said that this sum covered 95 percent of their office expenses.

The remaining five per cent of its annual income came from the taxpayer-funded £82m annual Sovereign Grant, which is given to the most senior members of the royal family.

The £2.4 million redevelopment of Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor estate was also paid for from this pot, which Prince Harry has paid for ever since.

When they announced they were stepping down as royals, the couple promised in a statement that they wanted to be “financially independent while continuing to support Her Majesty The Queen.”

Months later, the couple signed a contract with Netflix and included their explosive six-part documentary series. The couple were reportedly paid up to £88 million for the show, which hit the streaming service last December.

In December 2020, it was reported that the pair had signed a £30 million podcast deal with Spotify to present their own shows as part of Archewell Audio.

In his explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, Prince Harry said he had to rely on his inheritance in the wake of Megxit.

He said: ‘I have what my mother left me. Without it, we couldn’t have done this.’

It is also reported that Harry inherited around £20 million from his mother, Princess Diana, who died when he was 12 years old. The Queen Mother also left him up to £7 million.

Meanwhile, Meghan has a reported personal fortune of £4 million, mostly from her work as an actress and property in Canada.

Before leaving the series to move to the UK, Meghan was reportedly paid $50,000 for each appearance on Suits and starred in over 100 episodes.

In his book Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, royal biographer Andrew Morton, who wrote Diana: Her True Story, claimed that Meghan began charging £15,000 for each speaking engagement after her UN speech in March 2015.

Describing how Meghan’s ‘sticker price’ increased in line with her celebrity status, the author claims that she was signed to the elite talent agency Kruger Cowne, which represents Cher, Elle Macpherson and Goldie Hawn, around this time.

Gilded Youth by Tom Quinn published by Biteback, price: £15