Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, was apparently “extremely hurt” by Prince Harry after he said his bride-to-be is finally part of the “family she’s never had,” according to her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr.
Harry, 33, was speaking on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” about spending Christmas with his loved ones and taking part in their family traditions, when he said of Markle, 36: “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. She’s getting in there and it’s the family, I suppose, she’s never had,” he added.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Markle Jr. said of their father: “He dedicated the majority of all his time and everything to her,” adding, “He made sure she had what she needed to be successful and get to where she’s at today.”
Markle Jr. said that he, too, was hurt by Harry’s comments. “She’s had a really good family,” he said. “We were as close as we could be, as tight as we could be, that’s what we were. We’d get together on Christmases, on holidays, on birthdays, on Thanksgivings. It was always somewhere, even though we lived in different parts of [Los Angeles], we still all got together.”
As for whether he’ll receive an invite to the wedding, Markle Jr., who has not spoken to his half-sister since 2011, said, “I don’t know if she gets to invite who she wants. But she’ll reach out if she wants me there, she’ll call me. She knows where to find me. But that’s up to her, there’s no pressure. I wouldn’t mind seeing my little sister have the biggest wedding in the world. That would be incredible … If my dad doesn’t walk her down the aisle, then I will.”
Markle’s half-sister Samantha Grant — both have the same father — also hit back at Prince Harry after hearing his remarks.
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Daily Express royal correspondent Richard Palmer tweeted the final sentence of Harry’s interview, to which she replied: “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. Read my book complete with facts and photos,” Grant, who recently spoke out about the royal engagement on “Good Morning Britain”, added.
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Grant is Thomas Markle’s daughter from his first marriage to Roslyn Loveless.
Meanwhile, Meghan’s father and mother, Doria Radlan, divorced when she was 6-years-old.
Grant added that Markle “always had a big family” and that “marrying merely extends it.”
See the reaction to Grant’s tweets below.
