Meghan Markle Aide Takes Aim at Old Media Ally Over Money Claims
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s spokesperson clapped back at a former magazine editor over claims that their money is running out and they are "wildly unhappy."
Dan Wakeford is a past editor of People and Us Weekly and at both magazines was involved in publishing major PR fightbacks by the duchess’ aides or friends.
An edition of his Celebrity Intelligence newsletter, though, he says the couple is unhappy and fast running out of money with a major change in their lifestyle needed within around five years. The piece is based on interviews with five anonymous sources.
Newsweek understands that their finances are a closely guarded secret known to few staffers.
A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Newsweek: “The ‘unnamed sources,’ once again, doing a lot of very heavy lifting in this report. If they had any faith or evidence to back up what they allege, I don’t understand why they wouldn’t just go on the record with such claims…still, I suppose it makes writing a lot easier for Mr. Wakeford when you don’t have an editor standing over you asking you to evidence it or ‘stand it up.'”
Why It Matters
The Sussexes dispute Wakeford’s reporting, but whatever the truth, the clapback suggests the Sussexes have lost a man who was once a key ally involved in two major moments of crisis.
The first was a People cover in which five of Meghan’s friends defended her against allegations in the U.K. press in 2019 while the second was a September 2024 cover of Us Weekly that clapped back at a Hollywood Reporter piece describing Meghan as a “dictator in high heels.”
What Dan Wakeford’s Newsletter Says About Meghan and Harry
Wakeford begins with some analysis of Meghan and Harry’s recent struggles, which saw them lose their Spotify deal in 2023. Netflix downgraded their TV contract in 2025 and pulled out as an equity partner in Meghan’s lifestyle business, As Ever, in 2026.
“Here's something Hollywood and the streaming giants don't advertise,” he wrote, “they don't invest in people, they rent cultural heat. A celebrity arrives at peak notoriety, a royal scandal, say, or a viral moment, and the corporations move in.
“Netflix writes a big check. Spotify follows. A book deal lands. From the outside it looks like an empire being built. From the inside, the countdown clock has already started ticking.
“Harry and Meghan didn't stumble because they're uniquely naive or difficult, they stumbled because they believed the checks meant they had leverage, when actually the checks were the leverage. The moment the cultural heat cooled, their leverage evaporated with it.”
The piece is headlined “The Truth About Harry & Meghan’s Empire ‘They Are Wildly Unhappy,'” with that particular quote later attributed to an anonymous source described as being “in their orbit.”
“When their Netflix deal collapsed,” Wakeford wrote, “and the question of what comes next hung in the air, I picked up the phone and spoke to five sources in their inner circle as well as industry experts to find out what is actually going on - and what, if anything, can Harry and Meghan do to fix it?”
And he said their reserves of money are not exhausted but are dwindling because of sky-high security bills, amounting to millions each year, to the point that in five years, they may need to make a lifestyle change.
"Meghan has a sense of how careful they need to be,” Wakeford’s source said. “Harry-raised in a world where everything was provided-reportedly lacks basic awareness of what things cost.”
These kind of quotes from unnamed sources are exactly the kind of material that tends to frustrate the Sussex team, though no doubt their staff may well also be on non-disclosure agreements as is customary for employees of the monarchy.
Who Is Dan Wakeford?
Wakeford’s first major Meghan cover story came while she was still a working royal and was one of several factors that ultimately led to a high-profile lawsuit between the Duchess of Sussex and The Mail on Sunday over a private letter she sent to her father in 2018.
Meghan fell out with her father in the days before her wedding after he was exposed for having set up staged pictures with a paparazzi photographer for money.
Then, in August 2018, she wrote him a letter begging him to stop doing media interviews about her, relaying her own feelings about the collapse of their relationship.
For months, he kept the letter private until Wakeford and the team at People published a cover story featuring interviews with five of Meghan’s friends, who defended her against criticism in the British tabloid press.
One of them referenced the letter and described it as an “olive branch,” which Markle Sr. later said he felt was a misrepresentation of its contents.
He gave the letter to The Mail on Sunday, which published extensive extracts, leading Meghan to sue for breach of privacy and copyright, at the High Court in London, in 2021. She eventually won but only after a legal battle so emotionally bruising that Harry later said in their 2022 Netflix biopic Harry & Meghan that he blamed the stress for a pregnancy she miscarried in July 2020.
Wakeford’s second Meghan cover came at another moment of reputational crisis, when anonymous staffers told The Hollywood Reporter that she “marches around like a dictator in high heels.”
Meghan’s team chose Us Weekly and Wakeford as its editor for their fightback in September 2024, when Mandana Dayani, the Archewell Foundation’s former president and chief operating officer, told the magazine: “Some of my favorite memories were during our weekly meetings in their Montecito home, where Meghan always served the most incredible lunches, snacks and her latest beautiful concoction.”
And Dayani shared a memory of helping Meghan get ready for a gala: “I walked into their room [and found] Meghan finishing her own makeup and steaming her jumpsuit. We all toasted with a sip of champagne while Meghan danced to her favorite oldies playlist.”
Those two cover stories appear to suggest that Wakeford at the very least has had contacts in the Sussex camp previously. And whether the allegations are true or not, he is an example of a significant figure from a U.S. media background, though he is British by birth, who has been willing to publish hugely positive stories about Meghan in the past and is now questioning the couple’s official narrative of Hollywood success.
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This story was originally published May 7, 2026 at 10:27 AM.