How Dan Wootton Was Thorn in Meghan Markle's Side for Five Years

A British TV presenter accused of sexual offenses has been a major critic of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle dating back five years.

Dan Wootton, who hosts a show on GB News in the U.K., has been accused of using a fake online identity to offer male colleagues tens of thousands of pounds for naked pictures.

In a segment on his show Dan Wootton Tonight, he said: "I have made errors of judgment in the past, but the criminal allegations made against me are simply untrue."

Online publication Byline Times presented a dossier of evidence to the Metropolitan Police in June and officers are assessing the information to determine whether to launch an investigation.

Wootton has had a long career writing stories about celebrities in Britain, earning enemies as well as friends in the world of showbiz.

Wootton is, however, perhaps best known to Americans for his reporting and commentary on the royal family and his outspoken views on Harry and Meghan.

Prince William's Buzz Cut

Wootton revealed Prince William had shaved all his hair off in a January 2018 exclusive story that made the front page of The Sun.

The article knocked Meghan and Harry off the newspaper's front page at a time when the Sussexes were drawing huge crowds of adoring fans during some of her first jobs as a working royal.

The couple had only got engaged months earlier and Meghan's third royal job, a visit to Cardiff, Wales, took place on the same day William showcased his new haircut.

Wootton wrote in a column that November: "Particularly telling was the revelation by Prince Charles' biographer Robert Jobson that William had purposely shown off his new buzz cut in order to push Harry and Meghan off the front page during their high profile first visit to Wales earlier this year. It worked."

Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and Tiara-gate

Wootton broke a story in The Sun suggesting Harry had a tense exchange of words with Queen Elizabeth II over Meghan's wedding-day tiara.

The headline on the online version read: "MAJ RAPPED MEG The Queen warned Prince Harry over Meghan Markle's 'difficult' behavior after row over bride's tiara for royal wedding."

Wootton's article said Harry had complained to the queen about Meghan being denied her choice of tiara but was told by the monarch: "Meghan cannot have whatever she wants. She gets what tiara she's given by me."

Harry's book Spare confirmed there was tension, though he said it was with the queen's dresser, Angela Kelly, not his grandmother.

And he said it related to Meghan accessing the tiara for a hair trial, not to her choice of headpiece.

He wrote that Kelly at one stage "fixed me with a look that made me shiver. I could read in her face a clear warning. This isn't over."

Wootton's was the first in a series of stories framing Meghan as "difficult" in late 2018, in the week's before she told Harry she was experiencing suicidal thoughts in January 2019.

Harry and Meghan have never sought to pin the blame for the collapse in her mental health on Wootton specifically, drawing greater attention to stories in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times about other issues around the same time.

Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton 'Locked in Bitter Fallout'

Wootton wrote another column in November 2018 that suggested tensions between Meghan and Kate Middleton.

The headline read: "ROYAL STRIFE Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton locked in bitter fallout as Hollywood starlet takes on royal court—Dan Wootton tells it straight."

Meghan and Kate, according to Wootton, "don't particularly like each other," with the now Princess of Wales objecting to Meghan telling off staff.

Harry's book acknowledges tension between the royal sisters-in-law which by summer 2018, months before Wootton's story, had become serious enough that there were clear-the-air talks.

However, he suggests Kate was offended by a comment Meghan made about her having "baby brain" before the 2018 royal wedding that May.

"You hurt my feelings, Meghan," Kate is quoted as saying. "I told you I couldn't remember something and you said it was my hormones."

Harry writes that Meghan replied: "I'm sorry I talked about your hormones. That's just how I talk with my girlfriends."

Wootton also wrote: "All that said, are you meant to adore your sister-in-law? Not really. Does this row mean I am pointing the finger at Meghan for being a diva? Absolutely not.

"In fact, there's something exciting about a bold American newcomer to the family being anything other than shy and retiring. If any family needs shaking up, it's the Windsors."

He has been less complimentary about Meghan and Harry since, however.

Wootton as a TV Commentator

Since leaving The Sun, Wootton has been a regular outspoke critic of the couple both on GB News, where he has interviewed Meghan's sister Samantha Markle, and in his column for the Daily Mail online.

A recent article read: "Why is Meghan Markle not telling Prince Harry he's making a fool of himself?

"From his courtroom catastrophe to the horror of Spare, these kamikaze missions are destroying any credibility the Sussexes had left."

He accused Meghan of a "tacky photo opportunity" after she went to Uvalde to lay flowers for victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting, in 2022, while her father Thomas Markle was in hospital having had a stroke.

"Family comes before anything else for me," Wootton wrote. "So, like many others, I find it unimaginable that Meghan Markle the length of the country for a tacky photo opportunity at the site of the Uvalde school shooting, possibly with Netflix reality show cameras in tow, but not drive three-and-a-half hours down the road to see her stricken dad in hospital, who is recovering from a life-threatening stroke that has cruelly stolen his speech."

Samantha Markle previously went on Wootton's show after Meghan and Harry were satirized by South Park.

"I think the whole worldwide privacy tour is hysterical," she said, "because, in my opinion, and the opinion of others, they're putting themselves on the world stage using expensive PR while demanding privacy, while writing books, while being on Oprah that had 50 million viewers."

"You know, people who want privacy don't do that," she continued. "You live your life quietly in privacy so it's such hypocrisy. I think they [South Park] did a brilliant job."

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Newsweek: "In June 2023, officers were contacted about allegations of sexual offenses committed by a man.

"Officers are assessing information to establish whether any criminal offense has taken place. There is no police investigation at this time."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Correction 07/19/23, 11:43 a.m. ET: This article was updated to correct a reference to Meghan and Kate as stepsisters instead of sisters-in-law.