Meghan Markle blames ‘intrusive’ UK tabloids for ruining relationship with father

Lawyers for duchess say she and father ‘remained close until he was targeted three years ago by intrusive UK tabloid media’

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The Duchess of Sussex has blamed the UK tabloids for ruining her relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, her lawyers have said.

Meghan is in the midst of a lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday over a handwritten letter she sent to her father.

The Duchess’s lawyers have now stated in a new legal document submitted as part of the trial that she and Mr Markle “had a very close father/daughter relationship throughout her childhood and remained close until he was targeted three years ago by intrusive UK tabloid media”.

The statement also revealed that Meghan had been providing financial support to her father and had a “long-standing history of caring for her [his] health”.

Meghan’s lawyer said she had been giving her father money after she embarked on a career as an actor on the US legal drama Suits.

As the statement put it “she began making voluntary financial contributions to her father”.

The comments come after Meghan explained she felt “unprotected” by the monarchy.

According to court documents related to the case, as seen by the BBC, Meghan suffered “tremendous emotional distress” over the publication of her letter to her father.

The papers state: “The Claimant had become the subject of a large number of false and damaging articles by the UK tabloid media, specifically by the Defendant, which caused tremendous emotional distress and damage to her mental health.”

In reference to interviews that five of the Duchess’s friends gave to a US magazine in February 2019, the documents add: “As her friends had never seen her in this state before, they were rightly concerned for her welfare, specifically, as she was pregnant, unprotected by the Institution, and prohibited from defending herself.”