Meghan Markle’s Estranged Siblings Slam Netflix Docuseries
Prince Harry (R) and Meghan Markle (L), the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, attend the 2020 UN Nelson Mandela Prize award ceremony at the United Nations in New York on July 18, 2022
In 2020, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan decided to step away from their royal duties and move to North America to live without the restrictions and media scrutiny generated by their public status. Their departure, dubbed “Megxit,” prompted a huge scandal in Britain that has continued to gain steam.Meghan Markle’s paternal half-siblings, Thomas Markle Jr. and Samantha Markle, have criticized the first three episodes of a new Netflix documentary about Meghan and Prince Harry. In particular, they condemned Prince Harry’s claims that Meghan “… had a father before this, and now she doesn’t have a father.”
"I think it's horrible," Markle Jr. said. "The documentary is so far off on so many different levels. It's really a little bit disturbing. Saying that she doesn't have a family and she doesn't have a father, and Harry saying that she has no father now. That's just ridiculous."
Prince Harry’s remarks were referring to when Meghan’s father was unable to attend the wedding due to a stroke. Just a few days before their wedding, British media reported that Meghan’s father was selling staged photos of himself to paparazzi for thousands of pounds. Meghan herself claimed that he had stopped contacting her and that she had learned from the tabloids that he wouldn’t be attending the wedding despite the initial plans, which involved him walking her down the aisle.Markle Jr. also claimed that his half-sister made no attempt to contact their father after the events.
"Nobody reached out. I actually reached out, and all I got back was ‘distant family’ and she ‘doesn’t know us.' It's just very bizarre how she just basically brushed the entire family under the carpet like we don't exist and then lied about not having a family and lied about she doesn't have a family that she's always wanted. We've always been here."
After watching the Netflix documentary, Thomas decided to make his own film and is going to use “unprecedented files, photos and videos and documentation.”Meghan’s estranged half-sister also alleged that the Duchess of Sussex’s comments about not being able to invite her niece to her wedding due to Buckingham Palace guidance policy were a lie.
"Ashleigh was lied to, and my sister, in fact, was the one reportedly who told Ashleigh she couldn’t go to the wedding," Samantha told the British media. "So I felt like she was manipulating my daughter, and that’s really sad because my daughter seemingly was holding a grudge and feeling like I was the reason she couldn’t come to the wedding."
Since Meghan and Harry decided to step down as working royals to embark upon a life of financial independence, their public activity has become the subject of many controversies. Documentaries and interviews with so-called “truth bombs” regarding both Meghan and Harry’s families, particularly last year’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, have seriously damaged their relationship with relatives and dealt a blow to their image in the UK.
‘Such Hypocrisy’: Meghan Markle’s Half-Sister Slams Harry For Remarks About ‘Protecting’ Queen22 April, 13:43 GMT
