Meghan’s sister and a family row with Harry
MEGHAN Markle’s estranged halfsister has lashed out at Prince Harry’s suggestion that the royals are ‘the family Meghan never had’.
Harry made the comment when he was guest-editing Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday, as he described his fiancee’s first Christmas at Sandringham as ‘fantastic’.
Miss Markle, 36, was the only child born to yoga teacher Doria Ragland and Hollywood lighting director Thomas Markle. The couple divorced when she was six but remained on good terms.
Throughout her childhood, Miss Markle periodically lived with Mr Markle’s children by his first marriage, Thomas Jnr and Samantha.
Yesterday Samantha leapt on Harry’s comment, posting on Twitter: ‘Actually she has a large family who were always there with her and for her.’
In tweets that have since been deleted, Samantha Grant, 52, who lives in Florida, added: ‘ Our household was very normal and when Dad and Doria divorced, we all made it so it was like she had two houses.
‘No one was estranged – she was just too busy. Meg’s family (our family) is complete with sister, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins and the glue of our family, our amazing completely self-sacrificing father.
‘She always had this family – marrying merely extends it.’
Harry had told listeners that Miss Markle, the first unmarried partner to be invited by the Queen to join the festivities, had to have several family traditions explained to her, but added intriguingly: ‘I think we’ve got one of the biggest families that I know of, and every family is complex as well.
‘No, look, she’s done an absolutely amazing job. She’s getting in there and it’s the family, I suppose, that she’s never had.’
Kensington Palace declined to comment on the spat, but it is known that Miss Markle has been estranged from her half-sister for almost a decade.
Mrs Grant has frequently taken to social media to post critical comments about the royal brideto-be since news of her romance with the Queen’s grandson emerged. She also claims to be writing a book entitled The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister.
Harry also said on the programme that the couple had spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with his brother and sister-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
He said: ‘Together we had an amazing time – we had great fun staying with my brother and sisterin-law and running round with the kids. Christmas was fantastic. We are really looking forward to new year and looking forward to 2018.’
Miss Markle had fitted in well and his family had ‘loved having
‘I never saw them fight’
her’, he added. The couple will marry at Windsor Castle on May 19. Kensington Palace has suggested that Miss Markle’s mother and father, who lives a reclusive life in Mexico, will be closely involved in the wedding, which is being funded by the Royal Family. But it is unlikely either Mrs Grant or her brother Thomas, who was arrested earlier this year after drunkenly holding a gun to his girlfriend’s head, will be invited.
In an interview about her divorced parents given before meeting Harry, Miss Markle said: ‘I never saw them fight.
‘We would still take vacations together. Dad would come on Sundays to drop me off, and we’d watch Jeopardy! eating dinner on TV trays, the three of us… We were still so close-knit.’
PriNCe HArrY dropped a clanger at the end of his guest editorship of radio 4’s Today programme this week.
When asked by the BBC how Meghan Markle had coped with her first Christmas at Sandringham, Harry reported that it had been ‘fantastic’. His fiancee, he said, had ‘really enjoyed it’.
Yes, they had an ‘ amazing time’; yes, there was a complicated knot of Windsorian traditions to be explained to an incomer, but it had all ‘been fun’. And then came the howler. ‘She’s done an absolutely amazing job. She’s getting in there,’ he enthused. ‘it’s the family, i suppose, that she never had.’
Uh-oh. Sound the in-law warning klaxon. run the Jolly roger up the flagpole of family friction. Set the dials for stormy waters. The family she never had? The family she never
had? What is she, an orphan? Harry’s words hung in the air like an icy reprimand; an unintended slight to the actual Markle parents, who divorced in 1987 when Meghan was six years old.
First to register annoyance was Meghan’s half- sister Samantha Grant, who was not best pleased.
‘Actually [Meghan] has a large family who were always there with her and for her,’ she said. ‘Complete with sister, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins and the glue of our family, our amazing, completely selfsacrificing father.’
YikeS.
Harry may have the benefit of the best education money can buy, the character- building attributes only ten years in the Army can bring and the sensitivities of a man in touch with his inner ginger, but he has a lot to learn about the politics of in-law dom.
And rule No 1 for any new husband is never, ever to publicly state that your family is somehow better, happier and more loving than her family, even if you believe it to be true. especially at this time of year, when kinship loyalties and festive one-upmanship can create tension, hurt and misery. And particularly for those couples who are forced to choose with which set of in-laws they will spend their Christmas, often leaving the other set feeling bereft and unloved.
imagine that feeling magnified a hundredfold when the opposing side is the House of Windsor, replete with palaces, a Boxing Day pheasant shoot and royal prestige. Who could compete with that?
The Prince’s remarks were not only clumsy, they opened up a whole silo into the nature of his relationship and whirlwind courtship with this extraordinary young woman. For him to say this, Meghan, at some deep level, must have presented herself as a victim — or a casualty of family circumstances at the very least. Meanwhile, he clearly sees her as someone he has to rescue; a damsel in distress, a broken sparrow, a lost Cinderella he can wrap his arms around and ensconce behind the castle ramparts.
One can see how seductive this fairy-tale fantasy must have been for them both, adding another thrilling, sexy layer to their clandestine wooing. The romance of it all is utterly killing.
Yet however much Harry loves his Pa and his Grandma, the notion of the Windsors providing a calm, benevolent haven for anyone, let alone a Hollywood actress with a mind of her own, is laughable.
THEY have their strong points, but even key members of the Firm would surely agree that they are one of the most dysfunctional family units on the planet, right up there with the Borgias and the krays.
Not only must new wives negotiate the protocols of a complex hierarchy, they are requested to curtsey every time granny trundles into view. One big happy family? Three of the Queen’s four children have divorced; one ex-wife ( Duchess of Ferg) is still banished to Nutter Cottage on the Sandringham estate every Christmas; most of the kids seem incapable of holding down any job except Chief Paperclip Sorter in an art gallery; some members seem to love horses more than humans; Uncle Andy is a major worry; and — for God’s sake — no one mention the Diana word.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Huff is not talking to the Duke of Puff, her family is banned, his goose is cooked and the families of royal consorts are off the festive guest list for ever. For those caught and shaken up in the snow globe of royal life, cosy and loving are the last words that spring to mind.
By this time next year, Prince Harry will be a husband — hopefully one who understands that his family is not the only family in his marriage. And maybe he will also realise that while Christmas is a time of jolly and holly, it is also a time of compromise and tact.
All this he is going to have to grasp fast. Though something tells me the only person keener to relegate the wider Markle clan to the margins is Little Miss Meghan herself.