Megyn Kelly accused Kamala Harris of being "a bully" and said she was "the Meghan Markle of the administration," in a viral TikTok video.
The conservative commentator used her show on Sirius XM to take aim at the vice president by comparing her to the Duchess of Sussex. Both women were accused of bullying their staff and, in both cases, there was a backlash in which supporters argued the criticism was racist. Newsweek has emailed representatives of Meghan Markle and those of Kamala Harris.
"Kamala Harris is a bully who's pushed out or made life intolerable for virtually every person who's come to work for her in the White House," Kelly said.
"She's the Meghan Markle of the administration. People can't work for her. She's a nightmare. We're going to be hearing more about the mass staff exodus that we've seen under her tenure."
A clip of her comments was viewed more than 618,000 times and liked over 34,000 times after it was posted on TikTok with the message: "Megyn Kelly dubs Kamala Harris 'Meghan Markle' of Biden administration despite attempted rebrand."
Tech entrepreneur Christopher Bouzy said publicly that Harris would get "the Meghan Markle treatment," meaning an avalanche of negativity from the media.
As founder of data analysis firm Bot Sentinel, Bouzy conducted investigations into social-media campaigns against both women. He earlier this month wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "They are about to give VP Harris the Meghan Markle treatment, and we will need to have VP Harris' back."
Meghan Markle Bullying Allegations
Allegations the Duchess of Sussex was a challenging boss first surfaced in December 2018 with an article in U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times, which described her as "Duchess Difficult" while charting a wave of staff departures.
The newspaper's daily counterpart, The Times, ran an article in March 2021, revealing Meghan had been accused of bullying in October 2018 by then-Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf.
His email read: "I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year. The treatment of X [name removed] was totally unacceptable.
"The Duchess seems intent on always having someone in her sights," Knauf continued, "She is bullying Y [name removed] and seeking to undermine her confidence. We have had report after report from people who have witnessed unacceptable behavior toward Y [name removed]."
Meghan denied the allegations, with a spokesperson framing them as a smear campaign designed to undermine her 2021 Oprah Winfrey TV interview, which was due to be broadcast days later.
Prince Harry described in documentary The Me You Can't See finding Meghan crying into her pillow about the article, and the couple have always maintained she did not bully her staff.
However, Harry did acknowledge in his book Spare that there was a poisoned atmosphere in the private office at Kensington Palace in London and that Prince William blamed it on Meghan.
"Nerves were shattering, people were sniping. In such a climate there was no such thing as constructive criticism," Harry wrote. "All feedback was seen as an affront, an insult. More than once a staff member slumped across their desk and wept.
"For all this, every bit of it, Willy blamed one person. Meg. He told me so several times, and he got cross when I told him he was out of line. He was just repeating the press narrative, spouting fake stories he'd read or been told."
Kamala Harris Bullying Allegations
The Washington Post published allegations in December 2021 from ex-White House staffers, including one who accused her of constant soul-destroying criticism.
The suggestion appeared to be that she did not read briefing notes but then blamed staff for inadequately preparing her.
Gil Duran, a former Democrat strategist who was Harris' aide for five months in 2013, told the Post: "One of the things we've said in our little text groups among each other is what is the common denominator through all this and it's her.
"Who are the next talented people you're going to bring in and burn through and then have (them) pretend they're retiring for positive reasons," Duran added.
However, some also defended her, including Sean Clegg, a partner at consultancy Bearstar Strategies, which advised Harris during her rise to prominence.
"People personalize these things," Clegg told the Post. "I've never had an experience in my long history with Kamala, where I felt like she was unfair.
"Has she called b*******? Yes. And does that make people uncomfortable sometimes? Yes. But if she were a man with her management style, she would have a TV show called The Apprentice."
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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