MEGHAN Markle refused advice from the Palace to visit her dad and slammed the royals for putting “pressure” on her and Prince Harry.
The Duchess of Sussex, 40, sent her estranged father Thomas Markle a “heartfelt” five-page letter in 2018 after they reached “breaking point”.
But in sensational court documents released today, Meghan has now 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”.
It comes as:
- Meghan KNEW dad’s letter would leak and called him Daddy so ‘if it went public it would pull at the heartstrings’
- Duchess offered to HELP write Finding Freedom despite saying she had nothing to do with it, court docs reveal
- She refused Palace advice to visit Thomas Markle & blasts royals for ‘putting pressure on her and Harry’
Instead, she reignited the discussion over how to “deal with the concern surrounding” her dad and “his dealings with the media” while visiting the senior royal B with Harry.
Meghan said: “While my husband and I were sitting with Senior Member B, I was told that Senior Member A was on the telephone and wished to speak to me.
“The telephone was passed to me and we had a discussion about the situation in the presence of Senior Member B and my husband.
“Once the call ended, we continued discussions with Senior Member B, and it was only after these discussions, and in accordance with the advice that I received from the two senior family members, as stated in my Re-Amended Reply, I decided, that I would write a letter to my father.”
She 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”.
Meghan added: “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.”
Read our Meghan and Harry live blog for the latest updates
The papers were revealed today 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.
The court was told at the time how “anguished” Meghan had written to her dad begging him to stop talking to the press.
Her lawyer Justin Rushbrooke QC said it was written “by a daughter who felt she had reached a breaking point with her father”.
But the new court documents suggest Meghan was not only advised to send the letter by royals, but also did so for her husband.
Separate papers by her former press secretary Jason Knauf claim she text him in 2018 about writing the note, saying: “The catalyst for my doing this is seeing how much pain this is causing H.”
Mr Knauf continued in his statement: “The Duchess said she was writing the letter in part to allow The Duke to demonstrate to his family that some action was being taken by the couple to stop Mr Markle from continuing to engage with the media.
“She added that ‘…while unlikely perhaps it will also give my father a moment to pause’.”
Mr Knauf also revealed in his witness statement how Meghan had been “meticulous” in her wording.
He told how she messaged him with an electronic draft of the letter where she asked 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 later text Mr Knauf again, saying: “Honestly Jason, I feel fantastic.
“Cathartic and real and honest and factual. And if he leaks it then that’s on his conscience.
“And at least the world will know the truth, words I could never voice.”
The court was also told she was “happy for the public to read” the letter she sent her dad if he leaked it.
PRIVACY WIN
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.
She also won most of her claim the publication of the letter breached her copyright.
