Employees of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have taken the extraordinary step of speaking out publicly about their treatment while working for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has had a difficult week in the American press, with an anonymous former employee speaking out over their treatment while in her employment, branding her “Duchess Difficult” and claiming that she could reduce some to tears.

However, in the wake of the claims of a bad working environment made to the Hollywood Reporter, many of the Duke and Duchess’ former employees have taken the rare step to speak out publicly about their treatment at the hands of Harry and Meghan. After various reports of dramatic exits in their entourage, many have said the royal couple are kind and “caring” to the people they employ.

Prince Harry’s former chief of staff Josh Kettler, who sparked days of intrigue when he made a hurried exit before the Duke and Duchess’ “quasi-royal” tour of Colombia, broke his silence over his time with the Duke to fight against the anonymous “Duchess Difficult” accusation. Stepping up to bat for his former royal patrons, Kettler told US Weekly the pair were “dedicated and hardworking.”

He went on to describe being “warmly welcomed” by Harry and Meghan when he started working for them. His comments were then echoed by another former employee, Ben Browning, who had been head of content at their Archewell Productions company, responsible for their jaw-dropping Netflix documentary.

The Mail reports Browning, who left before his contract was up, said the atmosphere at the company was “positive and supportive,” while their current ‘Global Press Secretary’, Ashley Hansen, added to the Sussexes’ love-in, as the couple’s allies worked to combat the allegations that Meghan is hard to work for, including that she is a “dictator in high heels.”

Hansen gushed that the Duke and Duchess paid special interest to her when she underwent surgery and had shown “the kind of concern and care a parent would express if it were their own child,” while sending her flowers and gifts to aid her recovery, according to comments made in the press.

During the rallying cry in the US media to defend the couple, it was also said that Harry and Meghan even gift their royal children’s old clothing to their workers and “care packages.”

The current press relations employee even said that “Meghan would personally reach out to my husband daily to make sure that we both were OK and had support. It meant so much to him and even more to me. You don’t realise how much that kind of kindness and thought means until you need it.”

Amid the attempt to change the narrative after weeks of speculation about high-profile exits, anonymous sources went on to say that, after purchasing a dog, they found themselves gifted luxury dog treats and a collar, while others got “unused car seats and baby items they no longer need.”

Raising worrying questions about the state of the Duke and Duchess’ larder, one of their current employees described how Harry and Meghan would apparently give away food and flowers to employees that visited their home in California.

Unsurprisingly, they said they were the “best bosses” and that “Whenever staff goes to their house, they leave with a basket with fresh flowers, fresh fruit, fresh eggs.”