The letter that broke Meghan’s heart
Her public family feud intensifies
Dressed in a striking high-necked white Calvin Klein dress and matching coat, the Duchess of Sussex managed to put on a brave face as she attended a glittering gala performance in London.
The outing, with her devoted husband Prince Harry at her side, came after one of her toughest weeks yet. And as pressure mounts on the seven-months pregnant royal, her friends fear she could be on the verge of a disastrous emotional collapse.
“Things just get worse and worse, and Meghan’s beginning to show signs of cracking,” says one. “She is crying all the time and feeling
desperate. She just wants to hide herself away.” The embattled 37-year-old has come under fire over her apparent decision to allow her best friends to defend her in an extraordinary US magazine interview last week. It’s understood that palace aides had no idea about the People article before it was published. In it, her allies spoke anonymously about “the real Meghan”. A former co-star said it was time to “stand up against the global bullying”, while others spoke about Meghan and Harry’s cosy cottage, the duchess’ caring personality and her devastating feud with her father Thomas Markle. It was even revealed that the former Suits star helps to write the prince’s speeches. “They do it together,” said a member of the inner circle. While the royal couple apparently hoped the bold move would help restore the duchess’ reputation, it only led to more damning headlines and the shocking decision by her estranged father Thomas to make public a deeply personal five-page letter from her. “Meghan obviously thought that letting her friends speak out would help the situation, but it has backfired spectacularly and she’s absolutely heartbroken this letter is now public,” tells our source. “She didn’t think her dad would stoop so low
and she says she’ll never, ever get over the betrayal.”
The heartbreaking letter reveals the duchess’ anguish over her father’s decision to pose for paparazzi photos before their wedding, and lashes out at him for his criticism of her and Harry, 34.
“I believed you, trusted you and told you I loved you. The next morning, the CCTV footage came out,” she wrote, referring to how the betrayal was discovered just days before her May 19 wedding. “We all rallied around to support and protect you from day one, and this you know. So to hear about the attacks you’ve made at Harry in the press, who was nothing but patient, kind and understanding with you, is perhaps the most painful of all.”
Meghan also spoke of the agony over her half-sister Samantha’s regular public outbursts. “You watched me silently suffer at the hand of her vicious lies. I crumbled inside,” she wrote.
Just like Diana
Thomas claims the letter was “cold” and “nasty”, and says she left him no choice but to reveal its deeply personal contents. And now, with Kensington Palace lawyers said to be considering legal action against him, commentators have weighed in to express their horror.
Royal expert Richard Kay warned that Meghan was “playing with fire” and drew parallels with the duchess’ late mother-in-law Princess Diana, who made similar moves by engaging with the press without notifying her staff.
“Far from pouring water on the volatile situation, the intervention appears to have stoked it up,” he mused. “Using an intimate circle to disseminate such personal views as Meghan’s friends have, does suggest something is wrong at the palace.”
He went on to say that Meghan had “emasculated” her husband by revealing she helps write his speeches and that it was “hypocritical” for her to use the media while begging her father to stop giving interviews.
Former Buckingham Palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter also spoke out, saying, “The issue with her father is an open wound and I’m not entirely sure it is the best idea to aggravate that.”
Meanwhile, actor George Clooney, 57, has weighed in, expressing his fears for Meghan, who’s a close friend of his lawyer wife Amal.
“She’s a woman who is seven months pregnant and she is being pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was, and it’s history repeating itself,” he said last week. “And we’ve seen how that ends. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to see that.” A source tells
Day that the Clooneys have become one of Meghan’s biggest sources of support, with Amal, 41, even offering to mediate between her and Thomas.
“Amal is spending vast amounts of time at Meghan’s side and wants to make things better for her, but she isn’t ready to engage with her dad. In fact, she sobs at the mention of her father and
everyone around her is very concerned for her wellbeing. She’s in pieces.”
Meanwhile, Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, 62, is due to fly to the UK from her Los Angeles home to try to support her daughter in her final weeks of pregnancy.
Tells our source, “Doria says
she’s never seen Meghan in such a state before and she’s terribly worried about her daughter’s health. She’s talking to both Meghan and Harry every day, and she’s just hoping things die down before late April when she’s due to give birth. It’s a very difficult time.”