A royal source told The Sun, “This is the book Meghan will be dreading. Tom doesn’t pull his punches, and is terrifyingly thorough in his research. No stone will be left unturned.” Bower was once an investigative journalist for the BBC’s popular interview program Panorama, which produced Princess Diana’s shocking tell-all with Martin Bashir. While Bower has often worked with his subjects, Meghan “wants no part of it,” according to The Sun. Tatler reports that Bower, “the master of the ‘unauthorized’ biography,” will spend 12 months researching Meghan’s life, speaking to her estranged family members (including her father, Thomas Markle), close friends, as well as those who claim to have been former fixtures in the duchess’ life. Bower’s sources inside Buckingham Palace will also reportedly include ex-staffers. One insider told Best Life, “If anyone can get to the bottom of the stories about Meghan’s life as a senior royal, it’s Tom Bower.” The upcoming book follows Finding Freedom, a biography co-authored by Omid Scobie and published in 2020 that offered a sympathetic view into Megan and Harry’s lives. “This book will be the exact opposite of Scobie’s book,” said an insider. “This will not be a gushing portrait of Meghan.” Read on to find out what’s expected to be covered in the upcoming no-holds-barred Meghan Markle biography, and for more on the Duchess of Sussex, check out The Royals Made This One “Fateful Mistake” With Meghan, Says Insider. Very little is known about Meghan’s first husband, producer Trevor Engelson. The couple met in 2004, dated for seven years, married in 2011 and divorced in 2013. The only version of events surrounding their split involves Meghan sending her wedding and engagement ring back via registered mail to a surprised Engelson, as Andrew Morton recounted in his 2018 book Meghan: A Hollywood Princess. Surely there is more to know about the 10 years Markle and Engelson were together. He has never spoken to the press, but with Bower on the case, it’s a fair bet Engelson’s side of the story will come out one way or another. Much has been written about Meghan’s sad and complicated relationship with her father. After he announced he would not be attending her wedding in 2018, Meghan communicated with her father through highly personal letters, one of which Thomas gave to The Mail on Sunday. (She recently won her privacy case against the outlet for publishing the correspondence.) Thomas has since made numerous television appearances, alternately praising and condemning his daughter for her actions since marrying Harry. The Sun was the first to report that Thomas drove from his home in Mexico to Oprah’s mansion in Montecito, California, to deliver a letter to her asking to be interviewed to give his side of the story. Oprah may not talk to him (at least not without getting his daughter involved), but clearly he’s got a lot to say and Bower definitely wants to hear it. And for more on what Meghan’s most recently said about her dad, check out Meghan Finally Broke Her Silence on Her Sad Relationship With Her Father. Out of the 600 guests at her 2018 wedding to Harry, Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, was the only relative to attend. Her estranged half-sister Samantha Markle has made numerous television appearance chastising Meghan for her treatment of her father and has published her own memoir called The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1. Meghan’s estranged half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. penned an open letter to Harry, telling him it wasn’t too late to back out of the marriage. In the letter, which InTouch published, he warned Harry, “As more time passes to your royal wedding, it became very clear that this is the biggest mistake in royal wedding history. Meghan Markle is obviously not the right woman for you.” He described Meghan as a “jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage.” It’s a fair guess there’s more where that came from, despite the fact that Meghan hasn’t been in touch with her half-siblings for years. Meghan has long been rumored to be the anonymous author of “The Working Actress” blog, which ran from 2010 until mid-2012. The diary-like blog is frank in its criticisms of unnamed directors and actors the author had worked with and included many personal revelations as well. The Daily Mail once reported that the blog was a way for [Meghan] to vent her frustrations and “inspire other struggling actors—and herself, too—to keep going.” If Bower is able to confirm it was, in fact, the duchess who revealed her innermost thoughts about Hollywood before her big break on Suits, there’s lots of fodder for interviews with people who knew Meghan during those years. In a Vanity Fair cover story on Meghan in 2017, she welcomed a reporter into her home in Canada where she lived while filming Suits. She revealed she and Harry had been dating for six months, shuttling between her home and the prince’s cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace before the public knew they were a couple. In Finding Freedom, the couple’s version of their early trip to Africa where they “camped under the stars” reads like a romance novel. If Bower includes these events in his book, readers could get a deeper, more detailed account of the early days of the couple’s relationship. And for more sweet memories of their earlier years together, check out Harry and Meghan’s Most Adorable Couple Moments. It’s hard to imagine there is more to uncover about the events leading up to Meghan and Harry’s 2018 wedding than what has already been reported and what the couple revealed to Oprah during their televised tell-all. But the details that are known are so intriguing, they’re worth revisiting—like the reports that Meghan wanted to wear a tiara with emeralds but was refused her choice. (The headpiece was worn later that year by Princess Eugenie when she married Jack Brooksbank.) As the story goes, Harry was angered by the episode and reportedly said, “What Meghan wants, Meghan gets,” but Queen Elizabeth told him otherwise. Then, of course, there’s also the infamous episode involving the bridesmaids’ dresses for the wedding between Meghan and Duchess Catherine that was rumored to have left Kate in tears until Meghan told Oprah that “the reverse” was true. Despite Meghan alleging many knew it was Kate who made Meghan cry, the Duchess of Sussex said she was hurt that the reports in the media at the time were never corrected by the Palace. Kate has made no comment since the broadcast, but as the old saying goes, there are three sides to every story. Bower is guaranteed to deliver fascinating accounts of these events and others like them.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb The story behind Meghan and Harry’s announcement that they were stepping back from royal life in January of 2020 has been exhaustively covered, but Bower will be looking for new revelations about what happened at the Sandringham Summit, including Harry’s claims his father, Prince Charles, stopped taking his calls and cut him off financially. And for more on what’s next for the Sussexes and the royals, check out The “Major Issue” Delaying the Royals’ Discussions With Harry, Insiders Say. The Sussexes have been very careful to control the narrative about their new life in California. From Meghan’s surprise appearance on America’s Got Talent to Harry’s appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden to their sitdown with Oprah, the only things about the duchess and duke’s life known today are those things that they have chosen to reveal through media channels. Bower’s book promises to talk to sources who perhaps are not on the top of Meghan and Harry’s list of preferred spokespeople, potentially leading to another perspective. The couple’s allegations of racism within the royal family rocked the Palace to its core and could have a devastating effect on the future of the monarchy. The revelations from the interview about strained family relationships put pressure on Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Prince William and Kate to keep calm and carry on in the face of a barrage of negative media coverage and criticism of the family on social media. Bower knows the inner workings of the royal household. The sources who spoke to him for his biography on Prince Charles could be helpful in investigating Harry and Meghan’s claims and the family’s reactions to them. And for more on what’s to come at the Palace, check out The One Thing William Must Do to Save the Monarchy, Say Insiders. Diane Clehane is a New York-based journalist and author of Imagining Diana and Diana: The Secrets of Her Style.
