‘If u love Meg please call me’: Sussexes’ pleas to Meghan’s dad revealed
The Duchess of Sussex has laid bare emotional text messages from her and her husband, Prince Harry, to her father, pleading with him to contact them before their royal wedding.
The duchess, who is suing Britain’s Mail on Sunday newspaper over the publication of a letter to her father in 2018, has filed court documents spelling out the family’s interaction with Thomas Markle, with messages urging him to accept help and stop speaking to the media.
The messages to Markle, who had been admitted to hospital with chest pains and did not fly to England for the couple’s wedding on May 19 2018, include an offer by the couple to send security to help him, a plea for him to “please, please” get in touch and, from Prince Harry: “If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me.”
The paperwork, filed before the first court hearing on Friday, lays out the duchess’s argument against the Mail on Sunday, which, in August 2018, published extracts from a letter she sent to her estranged father.
In it, the duchess accused Markle of breaking her heart “into a million pieces”.
The court documents were made public a day after the duke and duchess wrote to a selection of British tabloid newspapers to tell them there would be “no corroboration and zero engagement” with them from now on.
“What they won’t do is offer themselves up as currency for an economy of clickbait and distortion,” they said in a letter to the editors of the Mail, Sun, Mirror and Express.
The couple are now living in Los Angeles, with paparazzi pictures of them walking their dog and undertaking food deliveries being shared around the world.
In the case against the Mail on Sunday, the duchess is seeking unspecified damages relating to claims of breach of copyright, data protection and privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights.
It starts on Friday with a strikeout hearing, after which the trial is not likely to get under way until the end of the year.
The contents of the letter were published in a “highly manipulated, sensational and deliberately inflammatory way”, which deeply upset the duchess, her legal team said.
Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Mail on Sunday, has said it would defend the claim vigorously, categorically denying the letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning.
The newspaper has argued that the handwritten letter was given to it by Markle to set the record straight after its existence was made public in an interview given to US celebrity magazine People by five of the duchess’s close friends.
The duchess denies she authorised the interview, saying she was distressed after learning the deeply private letter had been mentioned.
In a new submission, her lawyers contest what they call the “tendentious and highly partial” description of her contact with her father, saying they would therefore lay out the full exchanges.
They took place after he was exposed as collaborating with paparazzi from his home in Mexico, and while he had been admitted to hospital with chest pains before their wedding.
THE TEXTS
May 5 2018 Meghan to Thomas: “I’ve called and texted but haven’t heard back from you so hoping you’re okay.”
May 14 Harry to Thomas: “Tom, it’s Harry and I’m going to call you right now. Please pick up, thank you.”
“Tom, Harry again! Really need to speak to u. U do not need to apologise, we understand the circumstances but ‘going public’ will only make the situation worse.
“If u love Meg and want to make it right please call me as there are two other options which don’t involve u having to speak to the media, who incidentally created this whole situation ... Meg and I are not angry, we just need to speak to u.”
“Oh any speaking to the press WILL backfire, trust me Tom. Only we can help u, as we have been trying from day 1.”
May 15 Meghan to Thomas: “I’ve been reaching out to you all weekend but you’re not taking any of our calls or replying to any texts ... Very concerned about your health and safety and have taken every measure to protect you but not sure what more we can do if you don’t respond ... Do you need help? Can we send the security team down again? ... What hospital are you at?”
Ten minutes later: “Please please call as soon as you can ... all of this is incredibly concerning. ”—