‘Berating from royals': Meghan Markle says she wrote letter to father to save Harry

Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle penned the infamous letter to her father requesting him to ‘stop talking to the British press’ in order to protect her husband, Prince Harry, from the “constant berating” by the Royal family ahead of their marriage in 2018, according to a trove of text messages released by London’s Court of Appeal, accessed by UK’s Daily Beast.  Meghan talked about Harry’s strained relationship with Prince Charles in the letter which was published by the Mail on Sunday.

The Duchess of Sussex later also sued Associated Newspapers Ltd. (ANL) alleging that the media hampered her privacy and breached copyright. But ANL argued that Meghan had intended the letter to be leaked as the case was heard by London’s court. After the appeal concluded Thursday this week, the court released the texts in redacted form. 

Meghan told ex-aide Jason Knauf to 'make this stop' 

As her relations with her father fell apart, Meghan, who wrote to her dad told an ex-aide Jason Knauf that the Royals were not aware as to why she refused to visit her dad in Mexico. With family tussle intensifying, and The Duchess of Sussex’s dad approaching the media, Meghan told her aide to “make this stop” adding that the situation causes “pain" to Prince Harry.

The 40-year-old then, agitated at Associated Newspapers Limited for the leak filed a privacy case, but the paper filed an appeal to overturn the ruling at the Court of Appeal heard this week. In the now accessed letter briefly, Meghan allegedly told her former communications chief that her husband Harry was being pressured by his father and therefore she decided to pen down the letter to Thomas Markle, her dad. 

“The catalyst for my doing this is seeing how much pain this is causing H. Even after a week with his dad 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?” The Duchess of Sussex said in the texts to her ex-aide Knauf, the content for which was cited by Daily Beast. 

“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 texts further read. 

While Meghan won the privacy case against ANL with a “summary judgment” and the judge decided that there might be no chance for the paper to win the case, ANL submitted an appeal to the court to contest the judgment. The new text, email, and witness statements are the evidence submitted by Knauf that undermines Meghan’s narrative. He had also reportedly reached out to ANL, saying that he “regretted” not handing the evidence earlier. 

(IMAGE: AP)