It's, like, the understatement of the year to say Meghan Markle and her father, Thomas Markle, have a strained relationship.
From staging paparazzi pics to missing her wedding to giving interviews about private conversations, Meghan's dad has been a whirlwind. Most famously, he sent the Daily Mail a letter that she wrote to him after her wedding. Excerpts of the letter were published without her knowledge or consent, which (I hope) we can all agree was a shitty thing to do.
Well, the Duchess of Sussex opened up about the hot mess that is her dad during Oprah's long-awaited interview. It aired today as part of the extended interview.
"Did it feel like betrayal when you found out your father was working with the tabloids?" Oprah asked.
Meghan explained that the tabloids knew her father's location for about a month but decided to hold off publishing the story until the Sunday before her wedding "because they wanted to create drama."
"We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said, 'No, absolutely not.' I said, 'You know, the Institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we're not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our own kids one day,'" Meghan recalled.
"I said, 'I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can help.' And he wasn't able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother."
"Not being willing to protect you?" Oprah clarified.
"And also, me saying, full stop, 'If we use this to protect you, we won't be able to protect our own children one day.' Well, I'm talking about your grandchildren. I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. So it's hard for me to reconcile that," the Duchess of Sussex replied.
She then compared her father to her mother, who has also been hunted down by the press but remained in "silent dignity" for years. "Everyone has accountability," Meghan said.
When Oprah asked about her half sister on her father's side and the "tell-all" book she wrote about Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex was VERY clear about her feelings.
"I think it would be very hard to 'tell all' when you don't know me," she said. "This is a very different situation than my dad, right. When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with."
"That's why I'm so excited to be pregnant, so Archie has someone," she said after explaining that she grew up as an only child. "The last time I saw [Samantha] must have been at least 18, 19 years ago."
"She changed her last name back to Markle when I started dating Harry. I think that says enough," she concluded.
You can watch the full clip of Oprah's convo with Meghan about her father and half sister here.
