Prince Harry Faced 'Constant Berating' From Royals Over Meghan's Strained Relationship With Dad: Report

Meghan Markle's text messages and emails have revealed the royal family's reaction to her strained relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, a report says.

On Friday, the Duchess of Sussex's messages were released by London's Court of Appeal as a result of her lawsuit against MailOnline and The Mail on Sunday's publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), People reported.

In the messages Markle sent to her former communications chief Jason Knauf, she informed him of her plans to write a note to her dad in order to protect Prince Harry.

According to the messages, the royal family had been "berating" the Duke of Sussex over Thomas' media interviews about his daughter after he pulled out of attending her May 2018 wedding

"The catalyst for my doing this is seeing how much pain this is causing H," Markle texted Knauf in August 2018, using her pet name for Prince Harry. "Even after a week with his dad [Prince Charles] 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?'"

She continued, "They fundamentally don't understand so at least by writing H will be able to say to his family… 'She wrote him a letter and he is 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.'"

The palace had not yet responded to requests for comment regarding Markle's messages as of this writing.

In the messages, Markle also said she was aware that the letter "could be leaked," so she has been "meticulous in my word choice" when she was drafting it. She also mentioned handwriting the letter with few paragraph breaks and numbered pages so it couldn't be easily manipulated.

The Duchess of Sussex also discussed the decision to address the note to "Daddy," telling Knauf that this was how she'd always called her father and that "in the unfortunate event that it leaked it would pull at the heartstrings," according to the messages revealed in court.

In February, Markle successfully sued ANL for breach of privacy and copyright, over five articles that published parts of the "personal and private" handwritten letter sent to her father.

High Court Judge Mark Warby awarded Markle $625,000 in legal costs and ordered ANL to pay 90% of her legal expenses and 10% of the remaining court costs. The judge also ordered Mail on Sunday's publisher to print a front-page statement admitting that it had infringed Markle's copyright, but it has yet to be published due to the pending appeal.

Earlier this week, lawyers for ANL appeared before the U.K. Court of Appeal to challenge her win. They argued that Knauf's statement that Markle knew her letter could be publicized proved the note was not an "intimate communication for her father's eyes only."

Markle was asked about her legal battle with ANL when she appeared at The New York Times DealBook Online Summit in New York City Tuesday.

"In terms of this appeal, I won the case and this issue, frankly, has been going on when I had no children at all, I now have two children as you know. It's an arduous process," she said.