Meghan Markle’s half-brother says he isn’t bitter. But that hasn’t stopped him from speaking out about not being invited to the Royal wedding, saying that his family has been deeply hurt that they weren’t invited to her upcoming nuptials with Prince Harry.
Thomas Markle Jr., 51, told the Mirror that fame changed the actress and that she’s “embarrassed” of her family.
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“Meg likes to portray herself as a humanitarian, a people’s person and a charitable person but she is none of those things to her family,” said Markle Jr., who shares father Thomas Sr. with Meghan Markle.
“She is giving the greatest performance of her life. She is acting phony. Once she got into Hollywood she turned into a different person. She’s clearly forgotten her roots and her family,” he said.
“Maybe the normal American family she has is embarrassing to her because we’re not producers and executive producers,” he wondered.
The dad of two said that he thinks family should be invited to the wedding, especially since over 2,500 members of the public will be in attendance.
“I’m confused and a little distraught because here is a person knowing the position she’s in and knowing the scrutiny she’s under and yet she has forgotten her flesh and blood,” he said. “I’m not bitter, just baffled. It’s hurtful given how close we once were.”
He told the Mirror that he and Meghan Markle spent a lot of time together from 2009 to 2011 as they cared for their grandmother who suffered from dementia.
“She was great with her. Meg would read to her all time. We were so close back then, but when our grandmother died, she moved to Toronto to start filming Suits and I didn’t see her. I haven’t seen her since late 2011,” Markle Jr. said.
Previously, Markle Jr. told the Daily Mail that they are not estranged.
“She got to the point where she got busier and busier so it was really hard to nail her down,” Tom said to Daily Mail in January. “It’s not really that we grew apart, it was she was out there (in Toronto) doing her job – it was the biggest deal she got on TV so she had no time. But we spent a lot of weekends together with our grandmother [Doris Markle] before she left.”
And while Meghan Markle’s other half-sibling, sister Samantha Grant, has also called out Markle for not inviting her family to the wedding, Markle Jr. says he initially defended Meghan from Grant.
“All I can say is like it all started with Samantha. That’s how I got involved in this, coming to Meghan’s defense. But trying to put a lid on Samantha and get her to be quiet backfired and started a rift of insults. It has torn my entire family apart,” he said.
“None of us has heard a word from Meg and what with all that has been said no longer do I speak to Samantha or my two sons. I had hoped Meg might have appreciated the support I gave but it’s meant nothing to her, it would seem,” he said.
Grant, who is reportedly writing a book about Meghan Markle, has been outspoken in her disappointment about not being invited to the royal nuptials.
Markle Jr. worries that the domestic incident involving his fiancée, Darlene Blount, may be to blame for his lack of invite. Blount was charged with fourth degree assault in Oregon on Jan. 1 after getting into a drunken fight with Markle Jr. around 4:20 a.m., according to the Daily Mail. Blount was reportedly held in custody in the Josephine County Sheriff’s Department for over 30 hours before being released.
Markle Jr. said he has tried to contact Markle via a Buckingam Palace communications officer multiple times but has received no reply.
“It has been completely ignored. They did not even acknowledge its receipt. That whole thing is hurtful.”
He said it’s up to the Royal Family to urge Meghan Markle to contact her family.
“Isn’t this where Charles or the Queen step in and say, ‘This is the way things are done. And your family need to be involved.’ Is no one saying, ‘It’s not right that your father is not coming. How bad is that going to look if he is not there?’”
Previously, Markle Jr. said his and Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, was “extremely hurt” after Prince Harry said the British royal family is the “family she never had.”
Markle Jr. told the Daily Mail that Markle had a “really good family” life, although her parents divorced when she was six.
“My father will be extremely hurt, actually,” Thomas Jr. said. “He dedicated the majority of all his time and everything to her. He made sure she had what she needed to be successful and get to where she’s at today.”
