Watch out, Harry!
Prince ‘would be appalled’ if he knew truth about his new girlfriend... warns her SISTER
THE American actress being romanced by Prince Harry was last night at the centre of an extraordinarily bitter family rift.
Divorcee Meghan Markle, 35, was accused by her half-sister, Samantha Grant, of failing to support her family.
Miss Grant said the Queen’s grandson would be ‘appalled by what she’s done’.
The 51-year-old has the same father as the television star. Thomas Markle, it can be revealed, was declared bankrupt only weeks ago. Once one of Hollywood’s most successful lighting directors, he filed for bankruptcy with debts of $30,000 (£24,600), in what appears to have been a dramatic fall from grace.
The 72-year-old has since decamped to Mexico without leaving a forwarding address or telephone number.
Meghan’s mother, Doria, who divorced Mr Markle when their daughter was six, also separately declared bankruptcy several years ago with credit card debts of $52,750.
Mr Markle has another son, from before his marriage to Doria, who has also recently declared himself bankrupt.
Miss Markle’s extraordinary family background emerged as she was busy declaring herself ‘the luckiest girl in the world’.
Miss Grant, a writer from Florida, said she had brought up the actress for 12 years when she lived in California and declared: ‘The Royal Family would be appalled by what she’s done to her own family. The truth would kill her relationship with Prince Harry, he wouldn’t want to date her any more because it puts her in a bad public light.
‘I certainly don’t think Harry or his family would want to associate with her afterwards.’ According to a report on the US website Radar Online, both Miss Grant and her
‘Father’s just been declared bankrupt’
father have been hurt by Miss Markle’s ‘lack of emotional and financial support’ since she became famous.
The website also claimed that the actress was ‘overwhelmed’ by the interest in her blossoming royal romance and is ‘barely sleeping’. An insider was quoted as saying: ‘She is desperate for the relationship to work.’
None of this, however, was apparently stopping the ambitious Miss Markle from either publicising her new clothing range, which goes on sale today, or her glossy ‘life and style’ website.
In an interview, she told a Vancouver newspaper: ‘My cup runneth over and I’m the luckiest girl in the world!’
Describing her style as ‘aspirational girlnext-door’, she also admitted that she was a ‘brash American’ who liked to have her say, but said her mother, a yoga instructor, always cautioned her to dress less sexily as she should ‘never give the milk away for free’.
Despite refusing to comment on the stories about her royal romance, there was still time for her to post a picture of a cup of tea and a jigsaw to publicise her website, The Tig, on the picture-sharing site Instagram.
She also uploaded an enigmatic shot of two bananas cuddling with the words ‘sleep tight’.
The post prompted a flurry of comments from her 1million followers, who referred to her as ‘Princess Meghan Markle’, and asked ‘which one is Prince Harry?’
Miss Markle’s Instagram feed also boasts several teasing posts, including one from a visit to London in early July when she is believed to have met Harry for the first time, which showed a picture of a sweet bearing the caption ‘KISS ME’ and the words ‘Lovehearts in London’.
She divorced US film producer Trevor Engelson after a marriage that lasted just two years and recently split from the Canadian celebrity chef Cory Vitiello. According to sources, Miss Markle has been dating Harry for two to three months after they met in London and bonded over their shared passion for humanitarian work.
She has never hidden the fact that she endured a sometimes difficult childhood, both due to her mixed-race heritage and her financially strained family background.
Her mother, who is AfricanAmerican, married her father, who is of Dutch and Irish extraction and originally from Pennsylvania, in 1979.
He was working on the hugely popular drama General Hospital and had won the first of two Emmy awards for his work.
He also lit the TV broadcast of the 1986 Oscars ceremony, at a time when the family had a smart house in a Los Angeles suburb.
‘I never know when he’ll be back’
When he split from Miss Markle’s mother, he agreed to pay maintenance totalling £900 a month. Mrs Markle drove a car with a personalised number plate – MEGNMEE – and their daughter went to a good Catholic private school
By 2002, however, Mrs Markle was living on a shoestring and in 2002, according to bankruptcy papers, had no property of her own and just $1,000 in the bank. She has since become a yoga teacher and works with adults who have suffered memory loss.
In September Miss Markle’s father was made a bankrupt, with records showing he has assets of barely £3,000 and more than £24,000 of debts with large amounts of tax still owing of up to £49,000.
He now lives in a shabby apartment in Hollywood. A pregnant woman living there yesterday confirmed he owns the property but is away travelling in Mexico.
She said: ‘I stay here and watch the place for him when he is away. He loves to spend time in Mexico and to get away from things.
‘He has been gone for two or three weeks already and I never know when he is going to come back, it could be next week it could be next month, who knows?
‘He does not have a phone or use email so there is no way of contacting him, he just shows back up here when he is done.’
Harry, meanwhile, has remained tight-lipped on the rumours. The prince has no public engagements in his diary this week and Kensington Palace has refused to confirm whether he is even in the country.