Meghan Markle's Dad Slams Her Claims She Grew Up On Salads At A Budget Restaurant

Meghan Markle's father has responded to the duchess' claims that she grew up on salads at a budget restaurant.

In her letter to Congress advocating for paid leave for all back in October, the Duchess of Sussex wrote that she "grew up on the $4.99 salad bar" at Sizzler family restaurants and that "eating out was something special" for their family when she was a child.

However, her father, Thomas Markle, claimed during an exclusive interview with The Sun that while they may not have been rich, their family situation was not as bad as her daughter had suggested in her letter.

"She's never, ever, ever had to worry about anything like that in her life," Thomas told the outlet from his home in Rosarito, Mexico. "We'd do the best restaurants in town and we’d do Sizzler because it was convenient. We never had to rub our pennies together and just have the salad bar. She had the salad bar — but she had a meal as well."

Thomas also criticized his daughter's move to call herself "duchess" in the letter she sent to Congress, claiming that it was "totally wrong."

He also commented on Meghan's recent legal victory against the publisher of Mail on Sunday, Associated Newspapers, over a letter she sent to her father in 2018. The Court of Appeal rejected the publisher's attempt to have a trial in the privacy and copyright case, saying that it clearly breached her privacy by reproducing parts of the letter.

Thomas had given the letter to the Mail on Sunday in order to address what he thought were unfair media accounts.

The duchess' father told The Sun that the judgment "upset" him because it meant that he "still can't tell my story and defend myself."

"I thought there would be a fair trial, but now it’s not going to trial. It’s ridiculous. The British system has let me down," Thomas said. "Unless it's stamped 'private' on top of the letter, how can it be private? It doesn't make sense to me. If that's British law I don't know how anyone can get by."

Thomas claimed that he is now considering releasing a video on YouTube in which he will read the unpublished parts of Meghan's letter to him, adding that he believes it is only a matter of time before the whole letter is released to the public.

"I still love my daughter, but I hate what she’s become. She's changed so much," the former lighting director said.

This was not the first time Thomas has spoken out against statements Meghan has made publicly.

He previously claimed that the duchess lied in her story about an old car with faulty doors during her appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." During her chat with host Ellen DeGeneres, Meghan said she had to climb in and out via the trunk of the old Ford Explorer Sport she used to drive when she worked as an actress because the key no longer worked on the driver's side.

"The Ford Explorer she had in her early 20s that she mentioned was a good running vehicle. I don’t remember any time she had to crawl out of the back of it to get out, like she said," Thomas claimed during an interview with the Mirror. "The doors worked fine on that vehicle until the day she got rid of it."