Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle, has leaked a letter she sent to him days after her wedding in which she pleaded with him to stop speaking to the press.
The move comes in reaction to a candid interview with People, during which five of Meghan's friends spoke anonymously about the heartache the Duchess had endured over the behaviour of her father. They also disclosed that Meghan had written to her father, attempting to offer an olive branch and begging him to stop disclosing details of her life to the press.
And now Meghan's father has released the private letter to the Daily Mail, claiming he wants to show that his daughter was not conciliatory as her friends had claimed.
One of the friends revealed Thomas replied to the five page letter with a request for a photo opportunity, despite Meghan's wishes to not communicate through the press.
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But, according to Thomas, this claim is exactly why he leaked the letter, telling the publication: "The letter was presented in a way that vilified me and wasn't true."
After receiving the letter reportedly written in August 2018, Thomas says it was "not the olive branch [he'd] longed for."
He told the Mail: "I was expecting something that would be a pathway to reconciliation. Instead, it was deeply hurtful. I was so devastated I couldn't show it to anyone and never would have had it not been for the events of last week."
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According to the excerpts leaked by the publication, Meghan told her dad: "Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces - not simply because you have manufactured such unnecessary and unwarranted pain, but by making the choice to not tell the truth as you are puppeteered in this. Something I will never understand."
She continued: "If you love me, as you tell the press you do, please stop. Please allow us to live our lives in peace. Please stop lying, please stop creating so much pain, please stop exploiting my relationship with my husband... I realise you are so far down the rabbit hole that you feel (or may feel) there's no way out, but if you take a moment to pause I think you'll see that being able to live with a clear conscience is more valuable than any payment in the world."
After Meghan's friends first spoke publicly of the letter, the Duchess' half-sister Samantha Markle took to social media to brand the interview as 'bullsh*t'.
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"This article is total bullsh*t there are plenty of text messages and receipts to prove otherwise. Stop the PR crap," she wrote, before sharing a message that read: "When a narcissist has lost control over you, they try to control how others see you."
Featured Image Credit: PA ImagesTopics: Celebrity News, Celebrity Entertainment, Meghan Markle