MEGHAN Markle accused the royals of “berating” Prince Harry over her estranged dad’s actions in a text to her former press secretary, it is claimed.
The Duchess of Sussex, 40, sent the message to Jason Knauf in August 2018 as she planned writing her “heartfelt” letter to Thomas Markle.
She told him the “catalyst” for writing the letter was “seeing how much pain” it was causing Prince Harry.
Meghan added: “Even after a week with his dad and endlessly explaining the situation, his family seem to forget the context and revert to ‘can’t she just go and see him and make this stop?’
“They fundamentally don’t understand so at least by writing [Harry] will be able to say to his family, ‘she wrote him a letter and he’s still doing it’.
“By taking this form of action I protect my husband from this constant berating and while unlikely, perhaps it will give my father a moment to pause.”
She also explained in the message how she feared her “private” letter to her dad would leak and that she had been “meticulous” in her wording.
Mr Knauf in his witness statement claimed Meghan had emailed with an electronic draft of the letter asking if anything stood out as a “liability”.
The papers read: “She also asked a specific question regarding addressing Mr Markle as ‘Daddy’ in the letter, saying ‘given I’ve only ever called him daddy it may make sense to open as such (despite him being less than paternal), and in the unfortunate event that it leaked it would pull at the heartstrings.”
Meghan sent her estranged father the “heartfelt” five-page letter in 2018 after they reached “breaking point”.
But the High Court heard this week how she claimed she only wrote the 1,250-word note on advice of senior royals “A” and “B”.
She said she was originally told by a Palace aide she should fly to Mexico and meet Mr Markle in person, which she felt was “completely unrealistic”.
Meghan also accused the royals of “putting significant pressure” on Harry and herself to deal with her father and said she “felt strongly” she had to “do something about it”.
She said: “It was only when my father began criticizing the royal family … that senior members of the family and their advisers expressed their concern over the public attacks, and expressed their desire to have them stopped.
“I felt that even if my attempt to stop my father talking to the media failed, at least my husband would be able to say to his family that I had done everything I could to stop it.”
BOMBSHELL CLAIMS
The explosive claims were revealed at the High Court where the Mail on Sunday are appealing against Meghan’s privacy win.
Meghan sensationally won the row in February after it published extracts of the handwritten note to her dad.
She said the articles in February 2019 misused her private information, infringed her copyright and breached the Data Protection Act.
The evidence came as Meghan apologised to the court for not remembering an email exchange agreeing Mr Knauf could provide information to the authors of Finding Freedom.
Mr Knauf said in his witness statement how the couple authorised “specific cooperation” for certain topics for the bombshell biography.
Mr Knauf also told how he met with Omid Scobie and Caroyln Durand to discuss the “briefing points” Meghan wanted him to share with the authors.
This included her “happiness about moving to Windsor” and details surrounding her wedding tiara.
Other topics highlighted in the witness statement include “information on how she had very minimal contact with her half-siblings throughout her childhood”.
The papers also say she wanted Mr Knauf to discuss how she had been “close [for] most of her life” with her dad “in spite of his reclusiveness”.
But Mr Knauf said as far as he knows neither Harry or Meghan met directly with the authors during his time as press secretary.
HARRY’S TEXT
He also told how Harry messaged him to ask if he would give Scobie and Durand a “rough idea” of what Meghan had gone through over the past two years.
The message continued: “Media onslaught, cyber bullying on a different scale, puppeteering Thomas Markle etc etc etc.
“Even if they choose not to use it, they should hear what it was like from someone who was in the thick of it.
“So if you aren’t planning on telling them, can I ?!”
Meghan has always denied having anything to do with the book, with Scobie saying the claims are “false.”
The court was also told Mr Knauf “regretted” not giving evidence after Meghan won her legal battle.
Lord Justice Warby ruled in February the publication of Meghan’s letter to her father was “manifestly excessive and hence unlawful”.
The judge said: “It was, in short, a personal and private letter.
“The majority of what was published was about the claimant’s own behaviour, her feelings of anguish about her father’s behaviour, as she saw it, and the resulting rift between them.
“These are inherently private and personal matters.”
Meghan was granted a summary judgment – meaning she won her privacy claim without a trial where she would have come face-to-face with her dad.
