They say there’s no such thing as publicity – but they probably haven’t been satirised by the most biting and facetious animated series on TV. So, it’s no surprise that Meghan Markle is feeling just a little sore this week, after being lampooned yet again – this time, on a brand-new episode of Family Guy. According to insiders, the duchess is taking the most recent hit as a sign that Hollywood has well and truly turned against her and Harry – three years after seemingly welcoming them with open arms. But instead of taking it on the chin, or indeed following her in-laws’ family motto to “never complain, never explain”, she’s instead preparing to fight back and show the fickle world of showbiz who’s boss. And no one’s safe on her path to vengeance.

“Meghan is sick and tired of playing nice,” says an insider close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who have certainly received a mixed reaction to their repeated outbursts against the royal family – and apparent cashing in on private matters – since stepping down as senior royals. “There are so many people that have let them down, and it’s been such a huge disappointment for them. Meghan’s through with turning the other cheek. She thinks it’s shameful the way they’ve been shunned, and she’s ready to do a hard-hitting sit-down to talk about all the difficulties she and Harry have faced in Hollywood. Harry goes along with pretty much anything she wants, but – make no mistake – this is all coming from Meghan. She’s furious.”

While Meghan’s anger at the way the couple have been received, and portrayed, since heading to the States has been building for a while, the final straw came last week, when Family Guy took aim. In a new episode, the show’s main character Peter Griffin compares himself to Harry and Meghan, saying that, to make more money, he’ll “go it alone”. The show then cuts to a scene depicting the former senior royals sunbathing poolside as a butler hands them a cheque. “Sir, your millions from Netflix for…no one knows what,” he says, before Harry responds, “Put it with the rest of them!” Meghan then gets an alert on her phone, telling her husband, “Babe, time to do our daily $250k sponsored Instagram post for Del Taco,” prompting Harry to lament, “I shouldn’t have left the made-up nonsense” of – one imagines – the royal family.

This, of course, isn’t the first time that the Sussexes have been mocked for their reputation as “grifters” – panned for making money off the back of their private lives, despite apparently insisting they want privacy. An episode of South Park, which aired earlier this year, depicts two characters, who look identical to Meghan and Harry, embarking on a “Worldwide Privacy Tour” – flying their private jet around the world in a high-profile publicity campaign to stop people talking about them. In one particularly pointed joke, “Harry” writes a tell-all book about the media and his family called Waaagh!, in a thinly-veiled nod to the prince’s tell-all memoir, Spare.

Family Guy, South Park and Saturday Night Live – which has also taken aim at the Sussexes’ money-making ventures – are known for their indiscriminate efforts to ridicule every famous person out there – so, most people don’t blink twice if they get parodied. But, we’re told, the constant send ups of the Sussexes hit too close to the bone for Meghan’s liking, especially when they’ve been criticised, more than anything, for their “work-shy” methods of making money. Shortly after moving to Montecito, the couple signed two extremely lucrative contracts – a $20m deal with Spotify, and an £80m deal with Netflix. However, the former crashed and burned earlier this year, when Spotify pulled the plug after Meghan produced just 12 episodes of content for her podcast Archetypes, prompting one Spotify executive to label them “grifters”.

They’ve since performed more favourably for Netflix, with their 2021 Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, in which they railed against their treatment by the royal family, proving to be a ratings hit. However, since then, their cachet seems to have plummeted. New series for the streaming giant haven’t proven so popular, while – in their personal lives – they seem to have lost a handful of friends in high places.

As Closer has told you, they were blindsided in September after being left off the guest list for George and Amal Clooney’s second annual Albie Awards, despite a roll-call of famous faces turning up for the occasion. The Clooneys famously attended Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and had apparently forged a close friendship with them in the years that followed, so, by snubbing them from their massive social event, they seemed to be making it very clear that they were no longer willing to be in the Sussex fold. What’s more, they’re not the first to have gone cold on the couple, after David and Victoria Beckham reportedly cut all ties with their former friends, after the Sussexes expressed some concern that they were sharing stories about them. Their accusations apparently left the Beckhams “outraged”.

All this, is simply fuelling Meghan’s fire when it comes to what she does next. With the pressure on to reveal more, perhaps in a new season of their fly-on-the-wall docuseries, she’s keeping all the receipts when it comes to who’s publicly mocked her and Harry, and who’s privately snubbed them. Now, instead of taking aim at the royal family, we’re told she’s taking aim at Hollywood.

“This [Family Guy episode] was by no means the first hit they’ve taken – it’s more like the final straw, at least for Meghan,” says our source. “She’s the type of person that likes to confront things head on. In her view, the best option is to just come right out and talk about what they’re going through. Sitting back and saying nothing is not her style, so it’s very hard to imagine just ignoring the way they’re being painted. There’s plenty she can say about good things that have happened on their journey in Hollywood, but there are also people that have let them down. At this point, a TV sit-down is more likely than her writing a whole book, but it could go either way. Her team are urging her to hold off, at least for now, but she has an axe to grind.”