Meghan Markle Reportedly ‘Lives in Fear’ Father Will ‘Leak’ Shared Conversations

Meghan Markle is reportedly having a hard time keeping up a relationship with her father, fearing that he will speak to tabloids about her.

Markle, the newly minted Duchess of Sussex, has not commented much on her father’s ongoing presence in the headlines. Thomas Markle has given numerous interviews and shared his conflicting emotions with reporters. This is highly uncommon for the royal family, who tend to keep a reserved, distant composure.

Now, sources close to Markle have told Us Weekly that she is beginning to feel like she can’t have any relationship with her father without it getting out to news outlets.

“Meghan is so upset over Thomas,” an insider said. “She’s upset for a couple of reasons. She doesn’t even know how to communicate with her dad without knowing he won’t exploit her.”

Thomas has reportedly been paid a lot of money by news outlets to do interviews, talk about his daughter and appear in photos for them.

“She lives in fear that he’ll leak their communication,” the source continued. “If he’s spoken this much already, why wouldn’t he leak their conversation?”

The Duchess is reportedly starting to see her relationship with her father as irreparable, fearing she will never be able to trust him enough to talk to him in confidence again.

“She would like to speak to him, but there is no trust there anymore,” the source said. “And it doesn’t seem like it could ever be rebuilt. The damage is done.”

They assured reporters that Markle “cares about her dad,” but unfortunately she can’t risk any more media circuses.

Thomas has generally had a legitimate reason for showing up in the news, but the source said that these are often just stunts.

“First, he faked this weird heart attack, which he hasn’t admitted was fake, and now he’s doing all these interviews. She has no other choice but to ignore him,” they recounted.

Most recently, the 74-year-old has gone on the record unbidden to say that his daughter looks “terrified” and is “under too much pressure” in her new royal role. The royal family itself has not officially commented on any of his statements since the wedding.

Markle and Doria Ragland had Meghan in 1981. The couple divorced six or seven years later, according to CNN, and it is unclear how much of a role he played in his youngest daughter’s life after that.