Finding Freedom: Duchess left furious by her estranged brother and sister’s ‘absurd’ claims against her, book reveals
MEGHAN Markle was “furious” with her brother and sister when they started making “absurd claims” against her, a new book has claimed.
Prince Harry could also not believe how “badly” Meghan’s family behaved after they gave a series of interviews accusing the duchess of shunning Samantha because of her MS – and ignoring their dad, according to the bombshell biography Finding Freedom, published today.
⚠️ Read our Meghan and Harry blog for the latest news on the Royal couple.
The actress had not seen her “estranged” half-sister Samantha in more than a decade and had only crossed paths with her twice since growing up, the book claims.
In a chapter called “A Problem Like Samantha” a “confidant” accuses Meghan’s sister of trying to pretend the pair were close siblings with a “Kate and Pippa dynamic”.
“That’s not the case,” the confidant told authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand. “Meg didn’t grow up with Samantha. She barely saw her.”
When her brother Thomas Markle Jr wrote an open letter to Prince Harry claiming Meghan was not the right woman for him – and accusing her of leaving their father “forgotten, alone and bankrupt”, Meghan and her inner circle were said to be extremely “angry”.
Finding Freedom claims revealed today include:
- Meghan felt people wanted her to serve her child "on a silver platter" after Archie was born
- The Sussexes had to let go of Archie's nanny in the middle of her second shift
- Prince Harry was "delightfully surprised" when Meghan reportedly peed in the woods on their luxury camping trip in Botswana
- The duke started to scout for an engagement ring just six months after dating Meghan
- Harry was stunned after Meghan's estranged family gave a series of interviews criticising the duchess
- Meghan had to undergo SAS kidnapping training after an unusually high number of threats
- She fell for Prince Harry after seeing him play with pal Jessica Mulroney's kids
- The Duchess of Sussex saw Prince Charles as a "second father"
According to the book, Thomas Sr had declared bankruptcy twice in 1991 and 1993 despite winning $750,000 on the lottery in 1990, but despite his financial mistakes, Meghan still sent him money to cover “bills and other living expenses”.
Meghan was also described as “weirded out” when Samantha tried to deliver a letter to Kensington Palace requesting a face-to-face meeting with her – although the letter was actually dropped off at the wrong security gate, according to the book.
She was also annoyed that her brother and sister complained about not being invited to the wedding, with one source saying that they never went to her first wedding to Trevor Engelson and probably didn’t even know she got married and didn’t care.
“It’s such a joke,” the source said. “Of course they care now that she’s marrying a prince.”
Meghan asked her dad “more than once” to intervene and stop Samantha giving interviews and attacking her.
He did and Samantha apparently replied: “All Meghan needs to do is contact me herself to put an end to it.”
Meghan never reached out to Samantha because she was afraid she would “tape the call”.
Prince Harry found it hard to see the effect Samantha and Thomas Jr’s comments were having on his then-fiancee, according to the book.
Meghan meanwhile was said to be frustrated she couldn’t “throw out a statement or jump on Twitter to defend herself”.
As well as attacks from her siblings, Meghan was also subject to hate mail which arrived “almost daily”.
Officials were “overhwhelmed” with threats via post, email and social media, according to the book.
After one racist letter was received containing an unidentified white powder, Meghan “barely slept”, authors said.
Meghan also felt hurt and betrayed when her old school friend Ninaki Priddy sold all of their childhood photos to the Daily Mail.
Around this time a friend called her “Grace Under Fire” because no matter what pressure she was under, “she didn’t fall apart”.
It has been previously reported how the book told how Prince Harry was “delightfully surprised” when he took Meghan on a camping trip and she took bathroom breaks in the woods.
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Meghan, 39, and Harry, 35, have insisted they had nothing to do with the book, from which The Times published extracts two weeks ago.
Author Scobie, who has close ties to Meghan, also said he had not spoken to them directly.
