Meghan only added fuel to fire of a painful family feud
FOR six months, it had been a ticking time bomb.
A profoundly emotional, handwritten letter penned by Meghan Markle, that ever since its delivery to her father was being held hostage.
Now, after it appears the Duchess of Sussex went rogue and granted permission to five of her friends to speak out anonymously in her defence, the move has badly blown up in her face.
Meghan’s American friends spoke out, they said, to counter the “global bullying” directed at her, but in doing so they went further in launching a personal attack on her father.
For two years, the Duchess has barely spoken to Thomas Markle.
Their relationship, once so very close, was left hanging by a thread after he was found to have cashed in by faking pictures with a paparazzi after he felt snubbed by his daughter since she met Harry.
The exposé led to him suffering a heart attack which then prevented him from travelling from his home in Rosarito, Mexico, to walk her down the aisle at her wedding last May.
Ever since Mr Markle, 74, has given numerous interviews while Kensington Palace has failed to tame his outbursts.
But last week the relationship plummeted to new depths after Meghan’s friends spoke out. And like all the best forms of defence, they went on the attack, heavily criticising her father.
“He knows how to get in touch with her. Her telephone number hasn’t changed,” said one longtime friend.
“He’s never called; he’s never texted. It’s super painful, because Meg was always so dutiful. 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.”
One friend, described as a former co-star, said: “Meg has silently sat back and endured the lies and untruths,” before adding “we worry about what this is doing to her and the baby. It’s wrong to put anyone under this level of emotional trauma, let alone when they’re pregnant.”
They then told how Meghan had written to her father saying “Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.”
They said he responded by asking for a photo shoot.
Their choice of words and their target were clumsy beyond belief.
It was like a red rag to an already enraged bull. The Mexican stand-off that had been ongoing for two years exploded.
Whereas before Mr Markle has used the media to communicate with Meghan, this time he exacted his own calculating revenge.
Furious about her actions in permitting her friends to speak, he did the unthinkable – handed over his daughter’s letter for the world to see.
In it, she blamed him for breaking her heart “into a million pieces” by giving interviews, manufacturing stories and attacking her new husband.
She went on to complain he had made no attempt to contact her, while chastising him for falsely claiming he is the one who has been shunned, a criticism he vehemently denies.
In response, he went as far as to show texts he’d sent Meghan while calling her phone in the presence of a reporter, only to be greeted with an automated message.
Never before has such a sorry royal affair been played out so publicly.
Meghan’s apparent collusion with her friends to trash him in a magazine by disclosing the existence of a letter, one he had kept a secret for months, is at best questionable.
It gifted her father the perfect opportunity to have yet more fuel poured on the fire of their relationship. Even God can’t seem to save the Queen from this tawdry US soap opera.
Their choice of words and their target were clumsy beyond belief. It was like a red rag to an enraged bull.