Meghan Markle, Prince Harry's 'Family Rift' Needs 'Senior Palace Management' Intervention: Report

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's issues boil down to a "family rift," according to a former aide of Princess Diana.

Patrick Jephson, Princess Diana's former private secretary and chief of staff, has weighed in on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey and how their "rift" echoes that of Prince Harry's late mother.

"Thirty years ago we were in a comparable situation where rifts were opening up within the royal family and it was starting to escalate. There were a lot of unhappy people involved then. I'm quite sure there are a lot of unhappy people involved now," he told CNN Saturday.

Jephson noted that past tell-all interviews from members of the royal family had mostly "backfired." He cited the late Princess of Wales, who spoke about Prince Charles' affair with Camilla Parker Bowles in her infamous 1995 Panorama interview, and more recently, Prince Andrew's disastrous 2019 interview with the BBC.

"The precedence for royal interviews of this kind are not very encouraging," he said.

Princess Diana's former aide went on to say that he believes senior palace management, which includes Prince Charles, should be the one to take responsibility for healing any rifts within the royal family.

"First and foremost, we should remember this is a family rift," Jephson explained. "It has taken on a lot of the trappings of a big media PR story, but at the heart of this are real people really hurting and I hope that somewhere in the midst of the current back-and-forth, somebody is putting down the seeds for eventual reconciliation, which has to come."

He added, "I hope that there will be intervention from all well-intentioned people to help Harry and Meghan settle in their new lives and help heal the wounds that arose through the way they departed."

Meanwhile, royal biographer Omid Scobie insisted that Prince Harry and Markle have maintained a good relationship with Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II since stepping back from royal duties last year.

Prior to the airing of their sit-down interview with Winfrey, the royal correspondent said the couple had no plans of "throwing the Queen under the bus" or criticizing Kate Middleton and other members of the royal family. Scobie noted that Prince Harry and Markle's issues lie more in the "institution of the monarchy" rather than the members of the royal family themselves.