Samantha Markle hits back at Meghan’s claims she hasn’t seen half-sister for 19 years – with pic from 2008
SAMANTHA Markle has hit back at Meghan claims that she hasn’t seen her half-sister for 19 years with a picture from 2008.
The 56-year-old said today that Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey “totally ignored and omitted” the truth.
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In newly released footage, when Oprah asked Meghan about Samantha’s tell-all book, The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister, the Duchess said: “I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me.”
Meghan also claimed that she was raised as an “only child” and that she hadn’t seen her half-sister in nearly 20 years.
However, Samantha insisted that Meghan’s comments could not be further from the truth.
“I don’t know how she can say I don’t know her and she was an only child,” Samantha told Inside Edition.
“We’ve got photographs over a lifespan of us together. So how can she not know me?”
The 56-year-old shared images of herself with her half-sister at different stages throughout their lives, the most recent from 2008.
Meghan also claimed that Samantha had only changed her surname back to Markle after Meghan began dating Harry, suggesting she wanted to capitalise on the interest in the family.
“She changed her last name back to Markle… only when I started dating Harry,” the expectant mum said.
“So I think that says enough.”
Samantha refuted Meghan’s claim and insisted that she had changed her name in 1997 showing Inside Edition her college diploma that shows: “Samantha M. Markle”.
“I was a Markle before she was,” Samantha said.
“I thought that was kind of weird that she would say I only changed my name back when she met Harry.
“Markle has always been my name.”
The feud between both sisters began when bitter Samantha hit out at her famous half-sister after her romance with Prince Harry was revealed, branding her a “social climber” who is “not fit to be a royal”.
Since then, she has repeatedly laid into Meghan after being snubbed from the royal wedding.
She has regularly used social media to criticise her younger sibling and attacked Meghan as a “narcissist” after pals tried to stick up for the pregnant Duchess.
Last time Samantha attempted to reach out to her sibling, she was turned away by security after showing up at Kensington Palace uninvited in October.
During the UK visit, she was spotted bizarrely buying a commemorative mask of her younger sister and Prince Harry after the awkward and unsuccessful visit.
Since the birth of Archie, Samantha has claimed it’s her half-sister’s “turn” to reach out to her estranged family.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, Thomas Markle said how Meghan and Harry “didn’t care if I died” after his heart attack in 2018.
Meghan’s estranged father this morning hit back at his daughter after she accused him of betraying her in her explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“I also feel that she let me down,” Thomas said.
“I was in a hospital bed the last time we talked. They didn’t care if I died.
Despite having returned to hospital numerous times for heart operations, Thomas said his daughter and her husband never reached out.
“I never heard from them again,” he said.
“I had a stent in here, and a stent in here.
“And that’s when we talked. I haven’t heard from them since.”
Thomas went into further detail about his last call with Meghan and Harry saying it was when he told them he couldn’t fly to be at their wedding.
The 76-year-old told GMB that “snotty” Harry phoned him when he was recovering after suffering a heart attack.
He said: “Harry had said to me if you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened to you.
“Me, laying in a hospital bed after a having procedure, I had a stint put here and put here and that was kind of snotty so I hung up on him.”
In her candid interview with Oprah, the Duchess of Sussex opened up about her relationship with her dad and said she was left feeling crushed when he lied to her.
More of the jaw-dropping interview was released yesterday, which saw Meghan say she tried to “protect” her parents from the “media frenzy” sparked due to an “obsession about anything in my world”.
It was the first time Meghan has publicly discussed her dad, who she has not spoken to since before her wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018.
Thomas, an ex-Hollywood lighting director, has spoken about her daughter’s relationship publicly and described their decision to walk away from the royals as embarrassing.
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Their relationship soured in the run-up to their 2018 Windsor Castle wedding, when he admitted agreeing to stage pictures of himself.
Meghan was asked if it felt like a “betrayal” when she found out her dad was working with the Press, and replied: “I’m trying to decide if I’m comfortable even talking about that.
“It was… if we were going to use the word betrayal.”