Meghan Markle‘s father has released a personal letter she wrote to him in the wake of her royal wedding toPrince Harrylast May, confirming her friends’ account inthis week’s PEOPLE cover story.
“If you love me, as you tell the press you do, please stop. Please allow us to live our lives in peace. Please stop lying, please stop creating so much pain, please stop exploiting my relationship with my husband,” Meghan continued. “I realize you are so far down this rabbit hole that you feel (or may feel) there’s no way out, but if you take a moment to pause I think you’ll see that being able to live with a clear conscience is more valuable than any payment in the world.”
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In the week beforeMeghan’s May 19 weddingtoPrince Harry, Thomas decided not to attend after an arrangement with paparazzi to stage several photoshoots ahead of the big day was revealed. Since then, Thomas andMeghan’s half-sister Samantha, who claimed responsibility for arranging her father’s paparazzi photos before the wedding, have continued to speak critically of her to the U.K. tabloids.
In the emotional letter, Meghan wrote that she never heard from her father that he wouldn’t be coming — nor did she receive messages from him about hisheart attack, which he said occurred just before her nuptials.
“I have only ever loved, protected, and defended you, offering whatever financial support I could, worrying about your health,” she continued. “So the week of the wedding to hear about you having a heart attack through a tabloid was horrifying. I called and texted…I begged you to accept help — we sent someone to your home…and instead of speaking to me to accept this or any help, you stopped answering your phone and chose to only speak to tabloids.”
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Thomas toldThe Mail on Sundaythere were no “missed messages” between him and his daughter leading up to her wedding, but speaking with PEOPLE, Meghan’s best friends offered a very different perspective.
A longtime friend of Meghan’s said that after the paparazzi photos emerged, “Meg and Harry were still so focused on getting [Tom] to London.”
“The next morning when the car got there [to take him to the airport], he wouldn’t get in,” explained the close friend, one of five who spoke to PEOPLE. “[Later] Meg heard he had a heart attack and she’s calling and texting, even up to the night before the wedding. It was like, ‘Please pick up. I love you, and I’m scared.’ It was endless.”
Meghan and Harry.Chris Jackson/Getty Images
In her letter, Meghan wrote that Thomas’ claims she had never helped him financially were “untrue.”
“You’ve said I never helped you financially and you’ve never asked me for help which is also untrue; you sent me an email last October that said: ‘If I’ve depended too much on your for financial help then I’m sorry but please if you could help me more not as a bargaining chip for my loyalty,’” she wrote.
“To hear about the attacks you’ve made at Harry in [the] press, who was nothing but patient, kind and understanding with you is perhaps the most painful of all,” she wrote to Thomas, who said he had received “modest” financial gifts from his daughter.
WATCH: The Truth AboutMeghan Markle’s Dad- and the Letter She Wrote Him After the Wedding
Thomas confirmed toThe Mail on Sundaythat he sent a lengthy response to Meghan, which included a request for a photo op with Meghan and Harry to “show harmony.”
“You can hate me if you want. I can’t force you. I made a big mistake. I’m human and I’m sorry! How much longer must I say it?” he wrote. “I wish we could get together and take a photo for the whole world to see. If you and Harry don’t like it? Fake it for one photo.”
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Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland, and her dad, Thomas, split when she was 2 years old. Her half-siblings, Samantha and Thomas Markle Jr. (from Thomas’ previous marriage), were in their mid-to-late teens when Meg was born and “not a part of her life,” the friend said.
source: people.com
