Meghan Markles royal exit had warning signs years earlier, veteran correspondent reveals

Meghan Markles rocky tenure as a working royal may have stemmed from a "culture clash" with palace aides, according to a veteran royal correspondent who covered her time as a working royal.

Simon Vigar, one of Britain's longest-serving royal correspondents, examines those tensions in his new book, "The Four Wives of Windsor."

Kensington Palace told Fox News Digital it does not comment on books. A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Fox News Digital, "This is not something we would comment on."

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"There was a culture clash there," Vigar told Fox News Digital. "I think it's a crying shame. It was avoidable, and egos got in the way on both sides. I think she thought that there would be more control over events, public events, than there was. ... The narrative now is that the British media was always against Harry and Meghan. That is not how I remember it, and many of my colleagues remember it."

"Harry and Meghan were great," Vigar said. "I saw her on her first engagement in Nottingham. She was brilliant with the crowds. She was an absolute natural, which is why it's so sad that they're not part of [the working royals] now. The tour of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga [in 2018] went really well.

"The crowds were massive. But ... the palace press officers were trying to spin three different stories after that. One person was in tears from the Kensington Palace team because of how it had all gone pear-shaped, as we say in the U.K."

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Meghan, a former American actress who starred in the legal drama "Suits," became the Duchess of Sussex when she married Prince Harry in 2018. The palace announced Meghan's pregnancy shortly after the couple arrived in Sydney for their royal tour that October.

Vigar covered the royal tour and wrote that it exposed some of the first significant cracks in Meghan's role as a working royal. According to Vigar, Meghan was accustomed to a public life where "everything was micromanaged in a far more controlled environment."

"Those levels of Hollywood control-freakery, as courtiers say, are incompatible with the public service role of " he wrote. Vigar also quoted an anonymous senior staffer as saying, "My overall sense is Meghan realized it was hard work and not that glamorous. It's not about you."

Vigar wrote that during the royal tour, Meghan was scheduled to visit Suva Market in Fiji for an engagement highlighting women's economic empowerment. She planned to meet with vendors connected to the cause, but the visit ended earlier than planned.

"There were all these people queuing up to meet her," Vigar recalled. "... In the first few minutes, it all ended very quickly. Team Sussex said it was a security issue. That is denied by other people."

Reports at the time attributed the shortened visit to security concerns as crowds gathered to see Meghan.

"... If it was a security issue, the Scotland Yard bodyguards would never have allowed her to arrive. They have an advanced team there. They have a team with her. They wouldn't have let her get out of the car if they thought it was a big security issue."<