Have Thomas, Samantha Markle Lied About Relationship With Duchess Meghan?

A lot has been made of interviews that Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas, and half-sister, Samantha, have made about her in the press since she married Prince Harry in 2018. However, some friends of the Duchess have now come forward to set the record straight, revealing in a new interview that Markle didn’t cut her family off the way they claimed.

Speaking to People magazine, friends of Markle state that her father’s claims he has had no way of being in touch with her aren’t exactly true.

“He knows how to get in touch with her. Her telephone number hasn’t changed,” a friend told the publication. “He’s never called; he’s never texted. It’s super painful because Meg was always so dutiful. I think she will always feel genuinely devastated by what he’s done. And at the same time, because she’s a daughter, she has a lot of sympathy for him.”

The friend also discussed the highly publicized scandals before Markle’s wedding in May, when her father was revealed to have staged several photos with paparazzi, before suffering from a heart attack. He was unable to attend the wedding as a result, and later revealed he hadn’t spoken to his daughter since then and was being kept from getting into contact with her. However, the friend says this isn’t the true story about what happened.

“Meg and Harry were still so focused on getting [Tom] to London. At no point was there talk of ‘Now that we know he lied, he’s in trouble.’ Tom wouldn’t take her calls, wouldn’t take Harry’s calls,” the friend stated. “The next morning when the car got there [to take him to the airport], he wouldn’t get in. [Later] Meg heard he had a heart attack and she’s calling and texting, even up to the night before the wedding. It was like, ‘Please pick up. I love you, and I’m scared.’ It was endless.”

To make matters worse, Markle’s friends claim she wrote her father a letter after the wedding asking him to let them repair their relationship, but he responded by requesting a photo op with her instead, a move that devastated her because it became clear he wasn’t understanding what she asking of him.

As for Samantha, the friend scoffed at her claims of a falling out with her half-sister, stating that they never did have a close relationship as kids and that it’s clear she is simply trying to capitalize on her sister’s newfound fame.

“They’ve been made to appear as siblings who were very close and then they had this falling out, and that’s not the truth at all. Fast way forward to Meghan dating Harry, and now Samantha is going by the last name Markle [after long using the name Grant],” the friend said. “And then she began this career capitalizing on Meg. Everyone who knows Meg knows that the two of them have no relationship.”

It’s unclear if Markle intends to try again at fixing things before the birth of her first child this Spring.