‘It Was Suggested By The Queen And Charles’

Anyone who has watched Netflix’s documents Harry & Meghan He knows that the Sussexes have shared several shocking claims regarding the royal family’s treatment of them, and other points fans may have not previously thought about.

In the fifth episode of the hit series, Meghan Markle, 41, said that she reached out to the late Queen Elizabeth II for advice regarding her father’s infamously disparaging interviews about the royals after her and Prince Harry’s 2018 wedding.

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Meghan Markle Shares Queen Elizabeth’s Alleged Advice Re: Her Father’s Interview Drama

The former Suits star’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, 78, has a history of talking down about his own daughter both before and after her wedding, and she acknowledged this in the episode. Meghan Markle described her father’s criticism of the royal family at the time to be “very embarrassing for the family,” and “a problem that needed to be solved…they wanted me to make it stop.”

She went on, explaining how the queen got involved, adding, “And of course, I reached out to Her Majesty and was like ‘This is what’s going on. What do you want me to do? I want…whatever advice you have,’” she said. “But ultimately, it was suggested by the queen and the Prince of Wales [now King Charles] that I write my dad a letter,” she continued.

This letter as Newsweek reports, was penned by the Duchess of Sussex in August 2018, and she also explained to viewers how she went to “great lengths to get that letter to my dad discreetly.” Two months later in October of 2018, British outlet Mail on Sunday published extracts from the letter. Thomas Markle provided the letter to the newspaper, and deemed its contents to be a “dagger to the heart.”

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The letter, as Meghan Markle explained, expressed her understandable disapproval of her father’s actions after her marrying Prince Harry, 38. The mom of two also said in the docuseries that the reaction to the leaked letter was “horrendous.” Prince Harry also claimed that the leaking of his wife’s handwritten letter to her estranged father “caused” a devastating miscarriage that she.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry sued the publication for printing the private communication between the father and daughter. “We sat down with the lawyer for the institution [monarchy] and senior members of the palace,” she said. “And it was in those meetings that I reminded them I wrote that letter at the guidance of senior members of the family.”

The two alleged that the palace stalled in bringing legal action against Mail on Sunday, and then the couple spoke about their decision to bring the case privately. The Deal or No Deal alum dubbed this legal case to be a turning point when it came to her relationship with the British media. “Everything changed after that,” she said in the episode.

While the lawsuit lasted two years, Meghan eventually won the case after Mail On Sunday appealed an initial ruling in her favor. The Court of Appeal upheld the judge’s finding, as Newsweek writes, that Meghan had a “reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter and those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest.”

In May of this year, Meghan faced criticism for not visiting her father after he reportedly had a stroke. Before this, Thomas allegedly planned to travel to London after being invited by a right-wing news channel to see Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, when Meghan and Harry were scheduled to attend. Meghan’s relationship with her father, as Newsweek adds, is “complicated by the lawsuit against her” by her half-sister Samantha Markle.