The first three episodes of Netflix’s “Harry & Meghan” docuseries, which premiered on Dec. 8, have make clear royal drama, unveiled the true cruelty of the media, and outlined key gamers behind palace doorways. Chief amongst them is Jason Knauf — a reputation that will sound acquainted, even when a title would not instantly come to thoughts. But whether or not him or not, 38-year-old Knauf, who turned the communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex again in 2015, has performed a giant function within the younger royals’ lives. As James Holt, government director of the Archewell Foundation and former palace spokesman explains within the third episode of the docuseries, “For each duke and duchess, there may be additionally a communication workforce. Comms for the royal household is similar to a press workplace, press spokesperson for politicians and companies, celebrities.”
Tim Burt, strategic adviser to Archewell, provides that, “These communications groups enable the household to be one step faraway from coping with the media,” with the general intention of sustaining management over the narrative. For Harry and Meghan, Knauf was the particular person heading this effort, which even they admit was an enormous activity. “Our comms workforce at the moment was joined with my brother’s workplace. So in complete, there was just one particular person actually devoted to us,” Harry says.
Meghan remembers the salacious media frenzy the couple had been already dealing with. “I do not suppose anybody understands what that very small comms workforce was coping with,” Meghan says. “They simply could not wrap their head round [it], and I’ve compassion for it.” She goes on to clarify how she was guided in all features of her relationships and even informed to not invite her personal niece, Ashleigh, to her wedding ceremony. The focus, it appeared, was on minimizing any dangerous press and placing out the “proper” picture.
Knauf was additionally tasked with serving to the royals write private letters. However, after Meghan sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) for allegedly publishing a “private and personal” letter she had written to her father, the 2 appeared to have a tenuous relationship. The British newspaper The Times reported that Knauf was the nameless staffer who made a criticism in opposition to Meghan to HR in 2018, saying she was bullying different employees members.
After all this drama, Knauf left Kensington Palace in 2019 to change into chief government officer of the Royal Foundation of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. According to his LinkedIn web page, Knauf left that submit earlier this yr and now holds a number of titles, together with as founding father of Mission Overstory and board member of The Earthshot Prize.