Meghan Markle‘s father Thomas Markle is defending his decision to make public parts of a letter his estranged daughter sent him earlier this year amid Prince Harry and Meghan’s legal battle against the British tabloid that published it. Prince Harry launched legal proceedings against the owners of British tabloids The Sun and The Mirror earlier this week as well over the alleged hacking of his phone as well as the published letter. Buckingham Palace confirmed that claims were filed in court regarding alleged hacking of his phone via illegal interception of voicemail messages.

Thomas Markle is now defending his choice to make the letter from his estranged daughter public. The tabloid The Mail on Sunday published excerpts from a long handwritten note which Thomas claims Meghan sent to him before her wedding. “I decided to release parts of the letter because of the article from Meghan’s friends in People magazine,” he said. “I have to defend myself. I only released parts of the letter because other parts were so painful. The letter didn’t seem loving to me. I found it hurtful.”

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Thomas claims that he needed to release the letter because its contents were previously falsely portrayed in a People magazine article by one of Megan’s friends. “He writes her a really long letter in return, and he closes it by requesting a photo op with her,” the friend had told People. “And she feels like, ‘That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m telling you I don’t want to communicate through the media, and you’re asking me to communicate through the media. Did you hear anything I said?’ It’s almost like they’re ships passing.”

Meghan and Prince Harry’s law firm released a statement last week saying, “We have initiated legal proceedings against the Mail on Sunday, and its parent company Associated Newspapers, over the intrusive and unlawful publication of a private letter written by the Duchess of Sussex, which is part of a campaign by this media group to publish false and deliberately derogatory stories about her, as well as her husband. Given the refusal of Associated Newspapers to resolve this issue satisfactorily, we have issued proceedings to redress this breach of privacy, infringement of copyright and the aforementioned media agenda.”

Prince Harry also made a statement comparing the tabloids’ treatment of his wife to his late mother, Princess Diana. “I’ve seen what happens when someone I love is commoditized to the point that they are no longer treated or seen as a real person. I lost my mother and now I watch my wife falling victim to the same powerful forces.”

 

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