Meghan Markle hasn’t seen her father in two years, blames newspaper for rift

Meghan Markle has not seen her father in two years, it was claimed on Friday — as she accused a British newspaper of causing a deep rift between them. The Duchess of Sussex is suing Associated Newspapers, owner of the Mail on Sunday, for publishing parts of an emotional handwritten letter she wrote to her …

Meghan Markle has not seen her father in two years, it was claimed on Friday — as she accused a British newspaper of causing a deep rift between them.

The Duchess of Sussex is suing Associated Newspapers, owner of the Mail on Sunday, for publishing parts of an emotional handwritten letter she wrote to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018, three months after he decided not to walk her down the aisle at her wedding to Prince Harry.

In a pre-trial hearing at London’s High Court, Meghan’s legal team said she was “deeply shocked and upset” by the newspaper’s reporting, which “intended to portray her in a false and damaging light” — and accused the publication of “harassing” her father.

In a virtual hearing held amid the coronavirus pandemic — to which Meghan and Harry listened in from their new Los Angeles home at 4 a.m., Page Six is told — the High Court was also told that Associated Newspapers had an “obvious agenda” to publish “intrusive or offensive stories” about her.

Thomas infamously missed the chance to walk his daughter down the aisle after being caught apparently staging paparazzi photos just days before the royal wedding, and said he suffered a heart attack because of the stress.

Meghan claims her letter was edited to “purposely mislead” readers, which Associated Newspapers vehemently denies.

During the Friday hearing, her legal team argued that the Mail on Sunday had actually caused the breakdown of the relationship between Meghan and Thomas, claiming it was the very publication responsible for “harassing” Thomas in the first place and “exposing him to the world as a royal scammer” after publicizing that he had set up the paparazzi photographs.

But Antony White QC, an attorney for Associated Newspapers, told presiding judge Mr. Justice Warby it was “curious” that the Mail on Sunday is accused of “harassing, humiliating, manipulating and exploiting” Thomas when his daughter hasn’t spoken to him.

He suggested that Meghan couldn’t possibly know how her father feels about his treatment by the Mail, if she hasn’t been in contact with him in years.

White argued that parts of Meghan’s claim should be struck out, including that the Mail on Sunday had “acted dishonestly ” in cutting out words and sentences from the letter in order to paint a misleading picture of the relationship between father and daughter.

The judge said he’ll make a decision within a week.

Meghan is seeking damages for misuse of private information, copyright infringement, and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. There is no trial date set yet.