Meghan Markle’s father has been left ‘extremely hurt’ after Prince Harry claimed the royals are like ‘the family she never had’, her brother has told DailyMail.com.
Thomas Markle Jr, 51, of Grants Pass, Oregon, said the actress has a family who had ‘smothered her with love’ and made a point of celebrating every holiday together.
Their father, Thomas, is deeply hurt by the prince’s remarks, Markle Jr said. The prince has still to meet his fiancee’s father, who lives in Mexico, although he has met her mother, Doria Ragland, who
lives in Los Angeles. The couple divorced when Meghan Markle was six.
On Wednesday, Harry, 33, told the BBC that former Suits star Meghan, 36, had enjoyed a ‘fantastic’ Christmas at Sandringham in Norfolk, England, and said the Royal Family ‘loved having her there’.
He added: ‘I think we’ve got one of the biggest families that I know of, and every family is complex as well.
| Meghan’s relatives have since slammed Harry’s claim, saying Meghan had a ‘really good’ family ‘who were always there with her. ‘Childhood photos provided by her half-brother Thomas Jr show 11-year-old Meghan with her father Thomas Sr, her nephews, and sister-in-law
‘She’s done an absolutely amazing job. She’s getting in there and it’s the family I suppose that she’s never had.’
But Thomas Jr, speaking at his home in Oregon, told DailyMail.com that Harry’s incendiary charge was far from the truth.
‘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 the city [Los Angeles] – we still all got together.
‘Obviously, she had a family. She was very privileged. She got everything she ever wanted. We did the best that we could in terms of getting together for holidays and whatnot.’
Of their father, retired lighting director Thomas Markle Sr, 73, he added: ‘My father will be extremely hurt, actually.
‘He dedicated the majority of all his time and everything to her. He made sure she had what she needed to be successful and get to where she’s at today.’
Thomas Jr’s comments echo those made by his estranged sister Samantha Grant, 53, of Ocala, Florida, who said on Wednesday that Meghan has a ‘large family who were always there with her’.
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Writing on Twitter, she continued: ‘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) [sic] 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. She has a large family. She always did. Our dad is amazing and completely self-sacrificing.
‘We made it so that she had two houses. How fun it was!’
Meghan, whose engagement to Prince Harry was announced at the end of November, has spent most of the past month in London.
The couple made several public appearances together following the announcement, including a trip to Nottingham and a visit to Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s annual pre-Christmas party.
Along with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, guests included Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and Princess Michael of Kent.
So far, two of Meghan’s half-siblings Thomas Markle Jr and Samantha Markle have spoken out against Harry’s statement saying the actress had a ‘privileged’ life. They only ‘lost touch’ after she moved to Toronto, Canada, to amazing and completely self-sacrificing’
In a break with tradition, Meghan went on to spend Christmas at Sandringham, the royals’ Norfolk home, with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh – a privilege not usually extended to royal fiancées, among them Kate, Camilla, and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, until they are married.
The 36-year-old, who stayed with Harry at William and Kate’s Norfolk mansion Anmer Hall, also turned out for church on Christmas morning with the rest of the Royal Family.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Harry said: ‘The family loved having her there. There’s always that family part of Christmas, [where] there’s always that work element there as well, and I think together we had an amazing time.
‘We had great fun staying with my brother and sister-in-law and running round with the kids. Christmas was fantastic.’
The royal festivities are a far cry from those Meghan enjoyed growing up in Los Angeles, but Thomas Jr says her divorced parents routinely went to great lengths to make Christmas special.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘She always had a Christmas, no matter what. We opened up presents in the morning. What else would we do? Stockings, a tree, even lights on the tree.
*Harry couldn’t have said so if she didn’t tell him*
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