Prince William honours man who caused embarrassment to Meghan Markle in court

Prince William held an Investiture at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

Among the recipients were Jason Knauf, former Chief Executive of the Royal Foundation, who was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order.

Jason Knauf is a former Kensington Palace communications aide who worked at shaping the media narrative surrounding Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle during some of the most difficult years faced by the royal family in the past two decades.

He held a number of high-profile communications roles in London before joining the royal household, where he eventually became the right-hand man of the then-Cambridges, William and Kate, at Kensington Palace.

During his time with the royals, he published important press releases, including a November 2016 rebuke of racist reporting by the media about Meghan. Things appeared to sour in 2018 when it was later revealed that the aide had raised concerns about the duchess bullying staff members.

When William and Harry split their staff, Knauf stayed with the Cambridges, becoming an adviser before moving on to head their charitable foundation.

In 2021, Knauf found himself in the spotlight when he provided evidence to the British High Court regarding Meghan's privacy lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which had published extracts of a private letter written to her father in 2018.

Knauf's evidence caused embarrassment for Meghan, who made an apology for misleading the court over statements saying she had not collaborated with the authors of the Harry and Meghan biography Finding Freedom.