ExclusiveMeghan Markle’s Learned It’s ‘Best Not to Engage’ With Dad and Sister: ‘She Pities Them’
Rising above it. Meghan Markle learned it’s “best not to engage” with dad Thomas and half-sister Samantha, a source exclusively tells In Touch amid ongoing family turmoil.
“[Meghan] is in a great space and is focusing on making the world a better place instead of being angry at her toxic family,” the insider says about how she is approaching the tense situation. “She pities them for succumbing to greed and having nothing better to do with their time than sell stories.”
![Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Speak Out](https://www.intouchweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Prince-Harry-and-Meghan-Markle-Speak-Out.jpg?fit=400%2C317&quality=86&strip=all&resize=400%2C317)
Drama between the estranged family members picked up again when the former Duchess of Sussex, 39, was asked about Samantha writing a tell-all about her in a CBS primetime special that aired on March 7.
“I think it would be very hard to ‘tell all’ when you don‘t know me,” Meghan said about the book titled The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister, adding, “I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know. I grew up as an only child, which everyone who grew up around me knows, and I wished I had siblings.”
Samantha, 56, later fired back, claiming “the truth was totally ignored and omitted” during Meghan’s interview. “I don’t know how she can say, ‘I don’t know her’ and she was an only child,” she told Inside Edition on March 8. “We’ve got photographs over a lifespan of us together. So how can she not know me?”
As for Meghan’s father, their relationship has also become increasingly strained amid her time in the royal spotlight. It’s been especially tense ever since Thomas, 76, admitted to staging paparazzi photographs ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry, something he later apologized for.
![Meghan Markle Learned Its Best Not Engage With Dad Sister](https://www.intouchweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Meghan-Markle-Learned-Best-Not-Engage-With-Dad-Sister-001.jpg?fit=400%2C400&quality=86&strip=all)
More recently, the former Suits star’s ex-boyfriend Joshua Silverstein talked about how Meghan and Thomas have struggled to get along since her childhood. “I knew her dad growing up as kids,” Joshua told Us Weekly on March 30. “I didn’t see him often … but I did know that Meghan’s relationship with her dad was complicated and I understood that as most teenager-to-parent relationships are.”
“We’re all human beings and we all have to create boundaries with people that we may not want to create boundaries with … but at the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for you and your family,” he added. “If that means creating a boundary with your parents, sometimes that’s what you have to do.”
After Meghan and Harry made the controversial decision to step down from their royal duties in January 2020, Meghan feels grateful to have the support of her mother, Doria Ragland. “The good Doria brings into Meghan’s life outweighs Thomas and Samantha’s drama,” the insider tells In Touch. Meghan and Harry now reside in California, which allows them to visit Doria more often.
Have a tip? Send it to us! Email In Touch at contact@intouchweekly.com.