‘Scheming’ Meghan Markle was behind devastating smear campaign against her frail dad, bombshell court papers claim – The Sun
MEGHAN was seen last night for the first time since the “Megxit” crisis exploded — leaving her Canadian hideaway in a seaplane.
The Duchess, 38, had been lying low at an £11million retreat on Vancouver Island while Prince Harry thrashed out their royal breakaway deal in Britain.
She flew out as bombshell court papers claimed she was behind a devastating smear campaign against her estranged father Thomas Markle, 75.
There was no sign of nine-month-old son Archie, who is believed to be with a nanny. It was the first sighting of Meghan since the row over their plans to step down as frontline royals.
She was escorted to the plane by a bodyguard. An airport source said: “She didn’t have to sit and wait with other passengers inside the terminal.”
Meghan flew out as court documents filed at London’s High Couroutlined the extent of her fall out with dad Thomas Markle — and claimed she was behind a smear campaign against him.
The documents have been filed by the Mail On Sunday as it fights a legal action bought by Meghan.
BROKEN RELATIONSHIP
They say intimate details of her broken relationship with Thomas, revealed in a US magazine by five “friends,” could only have come from her. They also accuse Meghan of scheming to use friends to pressure UK journalists into dropping stories about her.
She is suing the newspaper for damages after it published a leaked letter she wrote to Thomas three months after her May 2018 wedding. Meghan claims it was misuse of her private information and breach of copyright.
She could be forced to hand over private text messages, emails and phone records as part of the legal disclosure process. And she is likely to be called as a witness if the case is not settled out of court.
The five-page handwritten letter was posted to Thomas by the Duchess of Sussex’s Los Angeles-based business manager.
Thomas, a retired Hollywood lighting director, later said he decided to release parts of it after five “friends” of Meghan spoke anonymously about her relationship with him to US People magazine.
In its detailed 44-page defence, the MoS said the February 2019 People article hinted that Thomas had made “false claims” about his daughter and was “entirely at fault” for missing her wedding.
One of the anonymous friends told People, which is read by 40million Americans: “It’s super-painful, because Meg was always so dutiful. I think she will always feel genuinely devastated by what he’s done. And at the same time, because she’s his daughter, she has a lot of sympathy for him.”
'FALSE NARRATIVE'
But the MoS says the information “could only have come (directly or indirectly) from the claimant, not least because it presented events entirely from her perspective.
It adds: “The People interview depicted Mr Markle as having acted unreasonably and unlovingly, having cold-shouldered his daughter, and being solely to blame for the estrangement. This was a one-sided and/or misleading and false narrative.”
The MoS says Meghan’s letter was an attack on Mr Markle, accusing him of “breaking her heart, manufacturing pain, being paranoid, fabricating stories, attacking Prince Harry and continually lying.”
The documents also say frail Thomas, now 75, has still not met grandson Archie. And they allege he did not even receive a “get well soon” card from Meghan after emergency heart surgery.
The documents state Thomas was taken into hospital in Mexico for surgery on May 14 — five days before Meghan’s wedding — and he texted her the same day to say he was unable to make the wedding.
They state: “He told the Claimant he loved her and wished her the best. He sent a follow-up message asking who would ‘be giving her away’ and saying if she really needed him he would come and that he was sorry ‘about all this’.”
Thomas got a text response signed “Love M and H” but it read “as if it was from Prince Harry”, the documents say.
It is claimed the text set about “admonishing Mr Markle for talking to the press and telling him to stop — and accusing Mr Markle of causing hurt to his daughter. The text did not ask how the surgical procedure had gone or how Mr Markle was or send him good wishes.
“Mr Markle was deeply hurt and responded with a curt message: ‘I’ve done nothing to hurt you Meghan or anyone else. I’m sorry my heart attack is any inconvenience for you’.”
It is claimed all texts and calls that Thomas made to Meghan after the May 19 wedding were ignored.
The MoS says Kensington Palace refused to comment on whether People’s sources had cooperated at Meghan’s request. And it states Meghan “stayed silent” on the issue.
Thomas claims he paid off Meghan’s student loans even after she became a star of TV show Suits, the defence documents state.
They add: “He had paid her private school fees. He had paid all her college tuition, and after she left Northwestern University he continued to pay off her student loans, even after she had landed a well-paid role in Suits.”
Pal pressure
MEGHAN recruited her best friend to put pressure on a former business adviser not to speak to a newspaper, according to the legal documents.
The Mail on Sunday had interviewed Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne, an ex-commercial adviser and friend of Meghan, a month before her wedding to Prince Harry.
But before publication Gina, 54, was contacted by Meghan’s best friend Jessica Mulroney, the documents state. The newspaper claims Meghan asked Jessica, 39, to intervene to put pressure on Gina to withdraw the interview “or change statements she had made.”
The documents say the MoS wrote to Harry’s communications chief Jason Knauf to complain about the interference.
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