April 20, 2024

For Meghan Markle’s American Family, a Relentless U.K. Glare

Reports that Mr. Markle would not attend the wedding came Monday night from the American celebrity news website TMZ. Kensington Palace, while neither confirming nor denying the report, soon released a statement that asked “for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr. Markle in this difficult situation.”

Even before the publication of The Mail on Sunday article, Kensington Palace had already tried to crack down on media coverage of Ms. Markle’s parents, sending a confidential letter to British editors imploring the tabloids to stop harassing them. Ms. Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, has remained silent but has also been hounded by paparrazi, even on her way to and from work.

Ms. Ragland is already set to accompany her daughter to the wedding site — a break with tradition — but, if Mr. Markle does not come, she could wind up walking her down the aisle, too.

Ms. Markle’s half brother, Thomas Markle Jr., was arrested in Arizona in January. He recently called Ms. Markle a “jaded, shallow, conceited woman.”CreditMichael Ochs Archives, via Getty Images

Having lured the family into their trap, the tabloids are now adding to the abuse. Writing Tuesday in Mail Online, Piers Morgan, the television presenter, accused Ms. Markle’s family of having “already behaved like the worst kind of vile, dysfunctional, money-grabbing misfits in the run-up to her marriage.”

It has to be said that others in Ms. Markle’s family — particularly ancillary members who have not been invited to the wedding — have not helped. Ms. Markle is estranged from her two half siblings, products of her father’s first marriage; they are the ones currently making the most mischief, egged on with promises of fame and with monetary compensation from the tabloids.

Samantha Markle, the half sister who on Monday rose to her father’s defense, announced last fall that she was writing a book — pure fiction, she insisted — called “The Diary of the Princess of Pushy’s Sister.”

More recently, Thomas Markle Jr., Samantha’s brother and Meghan’s half brother, called Meghan a “jaded, shallow, conceited woman.” He also warned Harry, in an open letter he provided to the news media, that the marriage would be “the biggest mistake in royal wedding history,” which is saying a lot when you consider that the royal family has been around for 1,000 years and that its history includes, to name a random example, the murderous matrimonial behavior of Henry VIII.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/world/europe/meghan-markle-prince-harry-family.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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