Meghan Markle may have a seriously acrimonious relationship with her estranged half-sister Samantha Markle, but it’s a whole different story when it comes to her niece!
In Netflix’s new docuseries Harry & Meghan, Samantha’s daughter Ashleigh Hale sits down to discuss her relationship with the Duchess of Sussex for the first time — and it is a VERY eye-opening conversation.
As we reported on Thursday, the Suits alum did not hold back from speaking about the messy dynamic between her and her father, Thomas Markle, and his other daughter, Samantha. Both of them have taken aim at the 41-year-old in the media several times over the last few years. It’s been complicated AF!
Innerestingly, though, there was one Markle family member who wasn’t afraid to speak out in Meghan’s defense! In a surprising twist, Samantha’s daughter Ashleigh took part in the documentary series to open up about her very chummy relationship with the mother of two!
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By the way, Ashleigh and her brother were raised by their paternal grandparents, whom she considers her parents. According to her, she hadn’t seen her biological mother since she was 6 — until they reconnected in 2007. It was around this time that Meghan and Ashleigh began to get close, too. Eventually, things between the mother-daughter duo deteriorated when Samantha couldn’t get over her anger at her younger half-sister. Describing her connection with the actress-turned-royal, Ashleigh shared:
“There’s a sister element, there’s something maternal, she’s a best friend, she’s kinda all the things.”
Whoa! Sounds like they’re REALLY close! Prince Harry’s wife completely agreed, adding in her own confessional:
“I wanted a sister and she was like a little sister. Ash was put through quite a bit by the media just through association. I didn’t want her life to be plagued with all that drama.”
Oh, we just know that “sister” comment is bound to irritate Samantha! Meghan has always maintained she wasn’t close with the Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister Part 1 author growing up despite the scorned half-sister insisting otherwise. Of course, the facts have always seemed to be on Meghan’s side — her half-sis was Samantha Grant right up until the Suits star became world-famous by dating Harry. That’s when she changed back to Samantha Markle. Seemed pretty transparent to us.
But here’s the thing: it wasn’t just Meghan taking shots at her half-sister during the explosive show. Ashleigh, an immigration lawyer, used her time in the limelight to do the same, adding:
“After the news first broke, Samantha pretty quickly began expressing a lot of angry words about Meg towards me. What was communicated to me was maybe some resentment, and it felt like no matter what I said, you know, her perspective didn’t change and seemed to get angrier and bigger, and we stopped talking. Some people you just can’t reason with.”
She calls her mom Samantha? So tough! Unfortunately, the damage was already done. Ashleigh was notably NOT present for Meghan and Harry’s 2018 wedding in the UK… and there was a very specific reason for that. Nope, they weren’t fighting, but The Firm didn’t think it would be very good for optics considering Samantha was not receiving an invite.
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In the third episode of the docuseries out on Thursday, Meghan revealed her communications team’s position on the sticky matter, saying:
“How do we explain that this half-sister isn’t invited to the wedding but the half-sister’s daughter is. So with Ashleigh, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding. I was in the car with H, and I called her and we had her on speakerphone and we talked her through what guidance we were being given and why this assessment was being made and… and that’s painful.”
Oof. What a difficult phone call to make! It was clearly really hard news for Ashleigh to receive since she recounted the memory in tears, telling cameras:
“I think I said I was hurt on some level but I understood where it was coming from. To know that it was because of my biological mother that this relationship that’s so important to me was impacted in that way… to feel like because of her it was taken away has been hard.”
Yeesh. Frankly we don’t understand it. The optics at the time were actually more that Meghan was trying to distance herself from her entire non-famous fam, and cutting off everyone played right into Samantha’s hands. If she’d invited Ashleigh, everyone would have gotten a clearer idea that it was specifically her half-sis and dad not getting the invite, and they’d understand it was personal disagreements — not Meg forgetting herself.
Though, it must be said, she probably would have gotten quite a lot of attention that would have changed her life — for good or ill, who knows.
Despite not getting to witness her aunt say “I do” in person, it appears as though Ashleigh and Meghan have remained close — since she decided to partake in the latter’s docuseries after all! Perhaps we’ll hear more from the pair when part two of the six-episode series drops next week. For now, thoughts? Can you believe Meghan wasn’t allowed to invite Ashleigh?! Sound OFF (below)!
[Image via Netflix]
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