Meghan Markle's dad calls her 'olive branch' Harry letter 'cruel and …
Thomas Markle has described the letter daughter Meghan Markle wrote to him ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry as 'cruel and insulting'. The late Queen urged the Duchess to reach out to her estranged father ahead of her 2018 ceremony. Retired lighting director Thomas, 78, leaked extracts of the letter the Duchess of Sussex wrote to him in 2018 to the Mail on Sunday - despite Meghan going to "great lengths to get that letter to my dad discreetly".
Meghan said the published extracts were a "dagger to the heart" and she later sued the Mail on Sunday's publisher Associated Newspapers for misuse of private information and copyright over them publishing the private letter, which she later won. In her Netflix documentary series, 41-year-old Meghan also claimed how she wrote the message to her estranged father upon instruction from The Queen, who died age 96 in September. However, Thomas has now claimed that despite instructing the Duchess of Sussex to write a letter, the Queen "never saw" the note.
In an explosive interview with 7NEWS Spotlight, where he appeared alongside Meghan's half siblings Samantha and Thomas Jr Markle, Thomas Snr was quizzed on if the Queen 'approved' the letter.
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Thomas Markle discussed the infamous letter from his daughter, which he leaked extracts of to the press
"Yes, the Queen never read this letter because it was a horrible letter. Very insulting and cruel," Thomas claimed. And, when asked why he leaked portions of the letter, Meghan's father claimed:"Because at the same time, People Magazine were coming out with it - the fact that Meghan had shared it with six other people, right?"
Asked if he thought sharing the letter wasn't a "big deal", he responded: "No that's not the point, I thought I have to get my side into this, too and I put out a little part of it. The other things in that letter are so hateful and so cruel, that I wouldn't put it out and that's more protecting her than myself." When asked if the letter was 'mean', Thomas said: "I have the letter.
I don't know what what I can do with it. I got offered a lot of money for the letter. I'll burn it before I sell it."
Meghan wrote the letter after seeking advice from The Queen (Getty Images)
King Charles also suggested Meghan write a letter to her dad (Getty Images)
Thomas insisted he was not given a return address to respond to the five-page message.
"It was pretty much a kiss off," Thomas said. Both Meghan and Harry have discussed her private letter to her father after it was leaked to the press. Speaking about the Queen and the now King Charles' encouragement to write to her father, Meghan explained in her Netflix documentary sh was told her father publicly disparaging her wedding was "very embarrassing for the family" and viewed as "a problem that needed to be solved. . . they wanted me to make it stop".
The Duchess of Sussex's estranged father said extracts of the letter, which he hasn't released, are 'very insulting and cruel' (Netflix)
She added: "And of course, I reached out to Her Majesty and was like, 'This is what's going on.
What do you want me to do? I want . . . whatever advice you have'. "But ultimately, it was suggested by the Queen and the Prince of Wales [now King Charles] that I write my dad a letter."
While Harry wrote in an extract of his book, Spare: "There's nothing in that letter to be ashamed about, a daughter pleading with her father to behave decently.
Meg stood by every word."