Prince Harry pictured with wife Meghan in February 2019 (Image: GETTY)
Prince Harry once made a brutal comment about Meghan Markle’s family that reportedly “heightened” her family rift. Meghan is said to only be close to two members of her family – her mum, Doria Ragland and her niece – Meghan’s half-sister Samantha Markle’s daughter – Ashleigh.
Meghan, who was once said to be incredibly close to her father, fell out with Thomas Markle shortly before her royal wedding in May 2018. Thomas, who was reportedly set to walk his daughter down the aisle, was caught arranging paparazzi photos of himself in preparation for the wedding and subsequently received payment for them – this then led to the pair becoming estranged.
During a conversation with Radio 4 before their wedding, Harry was questioned about any family traditions he had to explain to Meghan.
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He responded, “Plenty. We’ve got one of the biggest families that I know of and every family is complex as well. She’s done an absolutely amazing job.”
He then added an apparent swipe at his then-soon-to-be wife’s family, saying: “She’s getting in there and it’s the family, I suppose, she’s never had.”
Harry’s comment about a family that “she’s never had” reportedly didn’t go down well with her family, with authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand sharing in their book ‘Finding Freedom’ that it further escalated the rift. They wrote: “Harry’s comment only heightened the already tenuous family dynamic and foreshadowed what was to come.”
Shortly after Harry’s comment, Samantha Markle, 60, also publicly reacted to her half-sister’s husband’s comment via her X account.
Thomas Markle has been estranged from his daughter Meghan since 2018 (Image: ITV)
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Taking to her account, Samantha – who is Thomas Markle’s elder daughter – wrote: “Actually she has a large family who were always there with her and for her. 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.”
Samantha also spoke further on Harry’s comment in the 2019 Channel 5 documentary Meghan And The Markles: A Family At War.
She said: “The first thing I thought was: ‘I don’t think Harry has been given the full story’. Something was not right. Though we weren’t the classic family together on schedule for every holiday, we were family.
“Then we questioned why… why would she be embarrassed about her family? Why would you need to set the stage differently? It was starting to feel like she wasn’t reaching out to the family.”
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