Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has maintained a dignified silence throughout the months of personal attacks that both her father and half-sister have made against her in public outbursts and interviews with tabloid media. She has not spoken to media nor responded to criticism by interviewers such as Piers Morgan, who has clearly taken her father Thomas Markle’s side in the circus that her relationship with her father has become.
But now her friends have spoken out in her defence, rubbishing all of Thomas and Samantha Markle’s claims that Meghan has ‘ghosted’ her father and refused to take his calls. They have even revealed that Meghan wrote her father an emotional letter after her wedding to Prince Harry, telling him she loved him and begging him to stop talking about her to media so that they could repair their relationship.
In an explosive report by People, five close friends of the Duchess revealed, “Her telephone number hasn’t changed. He’s never called; he’s never texted… I think she will always feel genuinely devastated by what he’s done. And at the same time, because she’s a daughter, she has a lot of sympathy for him.”
Thomas Markle did not attend Meghan and Harry’s May 19 wedding after undergoing heart surgery. But before the surgery he was exposed for staging paparazzi shots of himself shopping for a suit for Meghan and Harry’s wedding. Meghan’s half-sister Samantha Markle had helped him set up the photo opportunity.
Thomas later explained that he thought he could use the opportunity to show a more positive side of himself to the public and improve his image.
“Obviously that all went to hell,” he said. “I feel bad about it, I apologise for it and that’s all I can do. That was a mistake.”
Afterwards, Thomas and Samantha insinuated that Meghan and Harry turned their backs on Thomas at that point.
One of Meghan’s friends has stepped up to say, “Meg and Harry were still so focused on getting [Tom] to London. At no point was there talk of ‘Now that we know he lied, he’s in trouble.’ Tom wouldn’t take her calls, wouldn’t take Harry’s calls.
“The next morning when the car got there [to take him to the airport], he wouldn’t get in. [Later] Meg heard he had a heart attack and she’s calling and texting, even up to the night before the wedding. It was like, ‘Please pick up. I love you, and I’m scared…'”
After the wedding Meghan reportedly wrote her father a letter telling him, “I’m so heartbroken. I love you… Please stop victimizing me through the media so we can repair our relationship.
“Because every time her team has to come to her and fact-check something [he has said], it’s an arrow to the heart,” the friend said.
Thomas Markle is said to have written her a letter in return, in which he told her he loved her but closed it by suggesting they do a photo shoot together to show the world they’ve repaired their relationship.
The friend said Meghan could not understand her father’s response. “She feels like… ‘I’m telling you I don’t want to communicate through the media, and you’re asking me to communicate through the media.'”
WATCH: Samantha Markle is called out by a British reporter for lashing out publicly at Meghan and Harry – story continues below:
Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, split from Thomas Markle when Meghan was two and her half-siblings, Samantha and Thomas Markle Jr. (from Thomas’ previous marriage), were in their mid-to late teens when Meghan was born and were not “a part of her life,” the friend continued.
“They’ve been made to appear as siblings who were very close and then they had this falling out, and that’s not the truth at all.”
The friend claimed Samantha Markle was using the surname Grant until Meghan started dating Prince Harry.
Kensington Palace has declined to comment — but these revelations have fuelled speculation the interviews were organised by palace aides who want to set the record straight after months of damaging headlines about Meghan.
Meghan and Harry are due with their first child in April.
A former costar told People, “Meg has silently sat back and endured the lies and untruths. We worry about what this is doing to her and the baby.”
