LOS ANGELES, May 17 — Two friends of Prince Harry’s wife Meghan Markle are speaking out to defend her against a wave of negative publicity in the British press and on social media platforms.

Her long-time friend and makeup artist, Daniel Martin, broke into tears as he spoke about the Duchess of Sussex, as the former American actress is now officially known.

"I know she doesn’t deserve all of this negative press,” Martin said in an interview for CBS television in the United States, according to an advance excerpt. The interview will be broadcast today.

Less than a year after she married Prince Harry in May 2018, Meghan has been dubbed "Duchess Difficult” by some British newspapers. Others have published a stream of unsourced reports claiming there is a rift between Meghan and some senior royals, as well as between Meghan and Harry and his elder brother William and his wife Kate.

"What’s so frustrating is that you hear these stories and there’s no truth to them,” Martin said.

"It’s not the same person. In the years I’ve known her, the years I’ve worked with her, she’s never had a diva fit, never,” he added.

Britain’s Buckingham Palace and individual royals rarely speak out to counter negative stories about themselves. However the Palace did appeal in March for kindness on official social media channels and warned of possible police action following a rise in abusive racist or sexist comments, often aimed at Meghan or Kate.

American actress Janina Gavankar, who like Martin attended Meghan’s baby shower in New York in February, said the duchess avoids media coverage.

"She doesn’t read the bad or the good because... she knows the metrics that you have for your own life cannot be based on a headline that somebody else wrote,” Gavankar told CBS.

The interviews with US broadcaster Gayle King form part of a CBS special report Meghan and Harry Plus One, which marks the arrival of the couple’s first child, Archie, on May 6. — Reuters