"Showed no concern": Thomas Markle slams Meghan in court
Meghan Markle's father Thomas Markle has slammed his royal daughter in court, claiming that a private letter Meghan sent him "signalled the end of our relationship".
The letter, which was written in 2018, is at the centre of a highly-followed court battle with the former Duchess of Sussex suing Associated Newspapers for breaching her privacy by publishing the letter.
Associated Newspapers is the publisher of Mail on Sunday, which is where the letter was first made public.
Thomas said that he felt like he had no choice to make parts of the letter public after reading an article written by People magazine with quotes from Meghan's friends.
One of the quotes in the article read: “After the wedding she wrote him a letter. She’s like, ‘Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.’”
Thomas claims that this comment is a "total lie" and the letter wasn't an attempt to save their relationship but was a "criticism" instead.
“(The People quote) suggested to people that Meg had reached out to me with the letter, saying in the letter that she loved me and that she wanted to repair our relationship.
“That suggestion was false. The letter was not an attempt at a reconciliation. It was a criticism of me.
“The letter didn’t say she loved me. It did not even ask how I was. It showed no concern about the fact I had suffered a heart attack and asked no questions about my health.
“It actually signalled the end of our relationship, not a reconciliation.”
Thomas then spoke about how the People article hurt him and his reputation in the statement.
“(It) vilified me by making out that I was dishonest, exploitative, publicity-seeking, uncaring and cold-hearted, leaving a loyal and dutiful daughter devastated”.
He also said that he didn't release the whole letter "because I thought the letter as a whole made Meg look terrible", according to his statement.
Lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex said that the publication of the “intrinsically private, personal and sensitive” letter was a “triple-barrelled invasion of her privacy rights”.
“It (the letter) is a heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter to her father (the word ‘pain’ or ‘painful’ appears no fewer than five times), begging him to stop talking to the press.”
Anthony White QC, who is representing Associated Newspapers, has argued that Meghan penned the letter “to defend her against charges of being an uncaring or unloving daughter” and must have known “that her father might choose to disclose it”.
Meghan's lawyers have applied for a summary judgement to be handed down, which means that the case could be resolved without going to trial.
However, if the case goes ahead, both Thomas and Meghan could take to the stand as witnesses.