Meghan Markle’s Sister Says Father Stressed by Media Pressure

Meghan Markle‘s half-sister Samantha Markle says their dad, Thomas Markle Sr., is in a “dangerous situation” because of pressure from the media in the days leading up to Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry.

Grant told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday that Markle Sr. panicked while driving on the highway because he was being followed by numerous press cars.

Grant also denied that Markle Sr. suffered a heart attack, contrary to what he told TMZ Monday, when it was reported he would not attend Markle’s wedding after being caught posing for paparazzi photos to try and change his negative image in the media — a photo shoot arranged by Grant.

Markle Sr. had been expected to walk Markle down the aisle before she marries Prince Harry, but he told TMZ that he made the difficult decision not to go to the event at all because he “does not want to embarrass the Royal Family or his daughter.”

Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan laid into Grant’s claims that the media has been harassing her and Markle’s father, calling her a “media vulture.”

“There’s no bigger media vulture in this wedding than you. You are doing a book called the Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister,” Morgan said to Grant, who admitted on the show that she hadn’t talked to Markle since 2015.

Morgan added that Grant has been “trading off her very tenuous connection” with Markle, who “she has not seen in 10 years.”

“It’s pretty rich coming from you Samantha to accuse the media of being vultures,” Morgan said. “Many of our viewers will have watched your activities and think you have treated your sister in a very shabby way and that’s maybe why you are not invited to the wedding. You’ve been trashing her for years, you little vulture.”

A Kensington Palace spokesman said Monday night: “This is a deeply personal moment for Ms Markle in the days before her wedding. She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr. Markle in this difficult situation.”

Monday, Grant took the blame for Markle Sr.’s photo staging scandal.

“I have to say I am entirely the culprit,” Samantha said during an appearance on British talk show Loose Women on Monday, according to PEOPLE. “As we know the media can take very unflattering photographs of people on their casual days and blow it way out of proportion. I said, you know, the world has no idea you’re getting in shape, doing healthy things. They don’t photograph you buying vegetables and PH water. They photograph you as unflattering ways as they can.”

“So I said, really you need to show the world that you’re getting in shape and doing great healthy things,” she added. “So I suggested it. There’s a lot of scrutiny that it was money motivated, it was not. It was my suggestion that to benefit him and to benefit the royal family that everyone looked good and they depict you as you are – in shape and doing healthy things.”

“I merely wanted him to be seen in a respectable light. I didn’t feel that was being done so I suggested that the photographers show him as he is, doing positive things and that was never addressed,” she concluded.

News of the scandal broke on Sunday, less than a week before Markle and Prince Harry are set to say “I do.” The Daily Mail published surveillance footage appearing to show the 73-year-old Markle Sr. arriving at an internet cafe with photographer Jeff Rayner in Rosarito, Mexico, where he now lives. The two appear to be staging a photo of Markle Sr. looking at a photo of his daughter and Prince Harry on a computer screen.

The internet cafe photo was just one of several images sold to newspapers around the world that were taken with Markle Sr.’s cooperation. The others show him working out with weights to apparently get in shape for the wedding, getting measured by a “tailor” for a custom suit and looking at a book on British landmarks in a Starbucks.

A source close to the soon-to-be princess claimed that Markle “is upset and disturbed” by the scandal and that she “doesn’t want to let anything ruin her day.”