On Monday morning a wave of headlines about Meghan Markle began to sweep the internet. According to a new book by Dylan Howard, a veteran of the National Enquirer, and Andy Tillett, titled Royals at War, Meghan and Prince Harry were derided by the palace staff for their attitudes over the last few years. But if you’ve been following the stories about Meghan’s years in the royal family closely, the stories might not seem new. Claims that Meghan is difficult and rude to her staff have circulated for years, nearly always to be denied by the palace and people who know the couple well.

Howard and Tillett claim that some royal courtiers used to compare Meghan to Yoko Ono in reference to the fact that she is older than Harry and caused tensions in his other relationships. Other insiders feared what Meghan could be doing to the monarchy. “They want to become the world’s biggest lifestyle brand,” a palace insider said. “If they are allowed to do so, the monarchy as we know it will cease to exist and a new ‘celebritized’ Royal Family is about to take over.”

But just as notable as the new rumors might be exactly where they’re coming from. Over the last decade Howard built a reputation as a “wunderkind Hollywood gossip reporter,” eventually overseeing multiple titles at the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, Inc. Over the last few years, his image morphed as he found himself involved in a series of crises about the close relationship between the company’s CEO, David Pecker, and President Donald Trump. Howard attracted criticism for alleged unsavory dealings. In The New Yorker, Ronan Farrow claimed that Howard had played a key role in AMI paying to kill a story about Trump having an extramarital affair. In Farrow’s 2019 book, Catch and Kill, he reported that Howard helped Harvey Weinstein dig up dirt on one of his accusers. (In 2019, Howard’s representatives claimed these reports were “false and defamatory” and threatened to sue Farrow and his publisher over the contents of the book.)

In April, Howard left his role as senior vice president of corporate development at American Media. Despite his departure, the cover for Royals at War features a blurb from In Touch magazine, another AMI publication, calling the book “a stunning exposé.” It’s not his first foray into covering the royal family. Last year he published another book for Skyhorse called Diana: Case Solved, which purports to show a “sinister plot” to cover up the royal family’s role in Diana’s death. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Howard’s books for Skyhorse Publishing are seven “quickie” volumes written with coauthors. In addition to the Diana book, he has also written works about disgraced football player Aaron Hernandez, Jeffrey Epstein, and Michael Jackson. The publisher of Skyhorse, Tony Lyons, told THR he was proud to be working with Howard. “Dylan Howard is an incredible investigative journalist with a terrific source network,” he said in a statement to the magazine.

Despite Howard’s history of breaking scoops about Mel Gibson and Jeff Bezos, there aren’t too many bombshells in Royals at War. The book is making waves, but the rumors aren’t too different from what you might have seen if you followed the British tabloids. While there are some tidbits about what Meghan and Harry might do next that seem to be drawn from conversations with people they know in Hollywood, their palace years seem to be populated by the same insiders and Kensington Palace staffers who fueled many of the previous accounts.

The book revives the idea that Meghan was simply too brash to work with her traditional British staff, quoting previous reports about Meghan’s early-morning text messages, Hollywood attitude, and supposedly rude treatment of staff members. According to Royals at War, Meghan’s early approach to charity work also bothered the palace staff. “It was all too rushed, without proper research,” one palace insider told Howard and Tillett.

Sources close to Meghan and Harry told Vanity Fair that they believe the assertions in Royals at War aren’t based in fact. But one source added that the caution going into their new venture, Archewell, reflects some of the lessons they learned from that period.

Negative stories that draw on gossip from palace insiders have long been a major frustration to Meghan. Last month a report in the Sunday Times explained that these stories were a major factor in Meghan and Harry’s decision to first leave Kensington Palace and eventually leave the royal family altogether. “She was convinced there was a conspiracy against her, and so she basically put herself in self-isolation when they moved to Frogmore,” one of Meghan’s friends told the newspaper. “I think she felt like an outsider from the start.”

In several books about the royal family coming out this year, the staff members of Buckingham and Kensington Palaces put their spin on what they saw of Meghan’s years in the palace. Ultimately, Royals at War might just speak to how deep the palace dislike of Meghan was from the beginning, and why Meghan and Harry felt a strong need to leave their royal lives behind. When Meghan and Harry reportedly decided to cooperate with another tell-all book coming out this year, it was because they wanted to get their side of the story out there. But the return of the rumors that they have already tried to debunk is a sign that things won’t be that simple.

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