Meghan Markle's half-sister to blame for staged photos of dad
Meghan Markle's estranged half-sister is taking the blame for a series of
Meghan Markle's estranged half-sister is taking the blame for a series of "staged" paparazzi shot of their father ahead of the royal wedding.
Samantha Grant, who shares a father, Thomas Markle, with the future wife of Prince Harry, said on Twitter she came up with the idea to have their father photographed where he lives in Mexico in order to paint him in a positive light.
"The bad press over my father doing staged photos is my fault," Grant tweeted Monday morning. "The media was unfairly making him look bad so I suggested he do positive photos for his benefit and the benefit of the royal family."
She added, "We had no idea he would be taken advantage of. It was not for money."
The "Suits" actress has a complicated relationship with her father but announced via Kensington Palace on May 4 that he would walk her down the aisle on her big day.
According to the Daily Mail, Markle's father received $135,000 for the photos which included him getting fit for a suit for the wedding.
But Grant, who last spoke to her famous sister in 2014, insisted her father didn't call the paparazzi for money.
"I'm entirely the culprit. I said to him to show the world 'I'm getting in shape and getting healthy' so I suggested it,'" she admitted on Britain's "Loose Women."
Grant, who was not invited to Markle's first wedding to Trevor Engelson in 2011, was also not sent an invite to her sister's nuptials on May 19.
The news comes less than two weeks after Markle's half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. shared a handwritten letter to In Touch slamming her for not getting an invite to the wedding. He warned the 33-year-old royal that "it's not too late" to stop the wedding.
The 51-year-old insisted the 36-year-old American actress is a “jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage.”
Thomas went on to claim that their father is still struggling financially after he allegedly went into debt to support Markle’s dreams of becoming a sought-after actress. He also claimed the patriarch wasn’t invited to the wedding -- which is not true.
"What kind of person starts out by using her own father until he’s bankrupt, then forgets about him in Mexico leaving him broke, over mostly all her debts," he claimed. "And when it’s time to pay him back she forgets her own father like she never knew him.
Back in January, Grant told Fox News her brother has been speaking to the media without the family’s consent.
“My brother is out there acting like he’s the spokesman of the family,” she said. “He is estranged from my dad because he sold my dad out to photographers from my uncle’s house and tried to get my fragile uncle to talk.
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