In the BBC podcast series Harry, Meghan and the Media, Ms Afia addressed the accusations head-on.

“I think the first thing is to be really clear about what bullying is because the term gets used very, very casually,” she said.

“My daughter called me a bully last week when I asked her to brush her teeth – she’s seven years old. So, the term is used very freely and it’s a very, very damaging term as we know, particularly I think for career women.”

In an interview with Amol Rajan, the BBC’s media editor, she added: “What bullying actually means is improperly using power repeatedly and deliberately to hurt someone physically or emotionally.

“The Duchess of Sussex absolutely denies ever doing that. Knowing her as I do, I can’t believe she would ever do that… It just doesn’t match my experience of her at all and I’ve seen her at very stressful times.”

The bullying allegations are now the subject of an internal review at the palace. There are no plans for it to be made public, despite comments from the Duchess’s lawyer alleged victims may view as provocative.

Any findings which result in changes to formal policies, such as a new mechanism to report challenging behaviour by members of the Royal family towards their staff, will be detailed in the next annual review.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment.