Meghan Markle’s blog posts are coming back to haunt her.
As the public buzzes about the Duchess of Sussex's resurfaced blog post about sister-in-law Kate Middleton in her now-defunct lifestyle site "The Tig," several royal experts have shared an even more compelling post they described as "heartbreaking." The piece focused on the former "Suits" star's father, a former Hollywood lighting director.
This comes as Markle's estranged half-sister, Samantha Markle, sued the duchess for allegedly making false statements during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Samantha accused her younger sibling of defamation "based on demonstrably false and malicious statements" made in the sit-down on March 7, 2021. Samantha alleged that the duchess’ "lies" were "designed to destroy [her] reputation" and have subjected her to "humiliation, shame and hatred on a worldwide scale." Samantha wants the former "Suits" star to admit she lied about their sibling relationship and upbringing to sell a "rags-to-royalty" narrative.
"After all the turmoil and acrimony, Meghan's words of love for her father seem more poignant than ever," Christopher Anderson, author of "The King," told Fox News Digital. "There's plenty of blame to go around, I suppose. But it seems to me that Meghan, whose ‘Tig’ posts are brimming with wokeness, would be able to do whatever it takes to heal her relationship with her father before it's too late."
"They obviously had an exceptionally strong father-daughter bond – Thomas Markle was a hard-working, hands-on, incredibly supportive dad," Andersen shared. "For all that to be obliterated for no discernable reason other than pride seems like one of the real tragedies here."
In a Father’s Day post from 2014, Markle praised the 78-year-old for being a doting dad who encouraged her to "draw your own box."
"I think of so many moments with my dad," Markle recalled. "Our club sandwich & fruit smoothie tradition post my tap & ballet class - classes, which by the way, he religiously took me to on Saturday mornings after working 75+ hours a week as a lighting director. The fishing trips along the Kern River and Big Bear Lake to catch catfish or trout and cook it up for dinner, and the commitment he made to lighting my high school musicals so that they felt as grand as a Broadway show. The blood, sweat and tears this man (who came from so little in a small town of Pennsylvania, where Christmas stockings were filled with oranges, and dinners were potatoes and spam) invested in my future so that I could grow up to have so much."
"He helped me turn my bathroom into a darkroom when I was 12 because I wanted to be a photographer – shading my windows in red lighting gels and filling my cabinets with extra jugs of fixer," she shared. "He put gas in my car when I went from audition trying to make it as an actress. He is the person who believed in this grand dream of mine well before I could even see it as a possibility. He taught me to write thank you notes, to always arrive early, to drink Arnold Palmers, to find my light when I’m on camera…and beyond."
"And that, right there, is the point: my dad taught me to find my light. And he taught me to always make my own box," Markle continued. "To my dad – my thoughtful, inspiring, hardworking Daddy – Happy Father’s Day. ‘If I had all the water in the world, I’d give all the water to you…’ (You won’t get that quote, but he will. And for Father’s Day, that’s all that matters)."
In that same post, Markle also wrote, "This is the same man who took apart two Barbie boxed sets (because you could only buy a white Barbie or a black one), and made a custom one to bring home to me - his speciality [sic] set included a black Barbie mom, a white Ken doll dad, and two kids - one black and one white. I picture him standing there in Toys R Us, moms glaring at him for taking the toys apart, perhaps and employee saying ‘excuse me sir, you can’t do that’ - as my dad carefully separated the boxed sets to make one that echoed my reality. One that showed me that I should (and could) make my own box."
In a 2022 episode of her podcast "Archetypes," Markle made no mention of her father’s co-parenting.
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"With this episode on my brain, it got me thinking about all the ways my mom supported me, how she took care of me and the house and herself… and how she just juggled so much," she said.
Schofield said the heartfelt post from "The Tig" makes her wonder why Markle hasn’t been able to reconcile with her father. Tensions between father and daughter came to light after the patriarch appeared in staged paparazzi photos days before Markle’s royal wedding. The duchess recently won her claim against the Mail on Sunday’s publishers after it published portions of a handwritten letter meant for her father. Thomas, who missed his daughter’s wedding due to heart surgery, hasn’t spoken to his daughter.
"She is candid about her closeness to her father and discusses a closeness to members of her mother's side of the family that we never see or hear from," said Schofield. "If anything, I think ‘The Tig’ calls into question her relationship with her family."
Markle shut down "The Tig" months after she began dating Harry in 2017. However, there were rumors that she was going to relaunch it on Valentine’s Day.
Much of the drama surrounding the Markle family dates back to 2018. Samantha and her brother, Thomas Markle Jr., revealed that they were "baffled" when the royal couple allegedly snubbed them from the wedding guest list. In the days leading up to the wedding and following the nuptials, Samantha was vocal about her frustration with the duchess and her actions toward the family.
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During her sit-down with Winfrey, Meghan addressed the tension. At the time, it was reported that Samantha was writing a memoir titled "The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister."
"I think it’d be very hard to 'tell all' when you don’t know me," Meghan claimed to the media mogul. "This is a very different situation than my dad – when you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with, right? I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know."
"The last time I saw [Samantha] was [about] 19 years ago, and before that, 10 years [previously]," said Markle. "She changed her last name back to Markle I think … only when I started dating Harry. So, I think that says enough."
The duchess also opened up about her complicated relationship with the patriarch.
When Winfrey asked Markle whether it "felt like a betrayal" when she learned that Thomas "was working with the tabloids" in staging paparazzi photos, the duchess replied, "The tabloids had apparently known [his location] for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama."
"We called my dad and I asked him [about staging the photos]," she recalled. "He said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I said, ‘The institution has never intervened [on] anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our own kids one day.’"
"I said, ‘I just need you to tell me, and if you tell me the truth, we can help,’" Markle continued. "And he wasn’t able to do that. And that, for me, has really resonated, especially now as a mother. I look at Archie … and I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. I can’t imagine it. So, it’s hard for me to reconcile that."
Thomas later expressed regret over the staged shots.
In the interview, the duchess said she "grew up as an only child" but wished she "had siblings." According to reports, Markle’s parents divorced when she was 6 years old.
"That’s why I’m so excited to be pregnant – so that Archie has someone," added Markle.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex reside in California with their two children.
