A tender moment between father and son was quickly overshadowed by furious in-laws who felt personally attacked. In 2017 Meghan Markle sp...
A tender moment between father and son was quickly overshadowed by furious in-laws who felt personally attacked.
In 2017 Meghan Markle spent her first Christmas with the Royal Family before she and Prince Harry got married.
In his book, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, royal biographer Andrew Morton writes: 'Though it was fresh and exciting for Meghan, Christmas at Sandringham has a regular soothing rhythm, like one of the many grandfather clocks that dominate the corridors.'
'Calling my mum, and she's like, "How's it going?" And I said, "Oh my gosh, it's amazing."
'It's just like a big family like I always wanted,' she added. 'And there was just this constant movement and energy and fun.'
But while Meghan was doing her best to charm her in-laws - and seemingly doing quite well - her half-sister was harbouring resentment
Between the period when Harry began dating Meghan in 2016 and the pair announced their engagement in November 2017, Meghan's half-sister Samantha had been selling stories to the media.
Over the years, Samantha has publicly spoken ill of Meghan, and infamously helped stage paparazzi photos of their father, Thomas Markle, in the run-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding.
In the royal biography Finding Freedom, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that Harry could hardly believe how badly Meghan's family members were behaving.
Meghan's father Thomas allegedly felt caught between his feuding daughters.
The biographers wrote: 'It was hard for him to watch the effects on his fiancée. She was frustrated and angry at the things Samantha and [her half-brother] Thomas Jr. were selling to the papers.
'Even more frustrating was the fact she couldn't just throw out a statement or jump on Twitter to defend herself.'
Shortly after Meghan and Harry's Sandringham holiday, rumours began circulating after Harry skipped the annual Boxing Day pheasant shoot.
Meghan was accused of stopping Harry from going - and of being vegan.
But the royal couple had simply returned to London early because Harry had agreed to guest edit the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
The December 27 episode featured a pre-recorded interview with Barack Obama and - surprisingly - the then Prince Charles.
Scobie and Durand wrote: 'Listeners were treated to a rare insight into the more tender side of Harry's relationship with his father.'
'What I've tried to do all these years is make sure that I can ensure that you and your children, my grandchildren, also everyone else's grandchildren, have a world fit to live in,' Charles said in the interview.
Harry replied: 'I totally see it and I totally understand it because of all these years of conversations that we've been having.
Then came a heartwarming exchange between the father and son.
'Well, darling boy, it makes me very proud to think that you understand,' Charles said.
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The relationship between Harry and Charles was already unsteady at this point.
Harry resented his father for the lack of physical connection they had - especially after the death of Diana.
In his memoir, Spare, Harry describes a loving but sometimes distant father, who called him his 'darling boy'.
But he also claimed that Charles would leave him notes on his pillow in which he told him he was proud of him.
And when he married Meghan, Harry's relationship with his father grew more strained.
This was exacerbated after Harry left the Royal Family, moved to America and committed the cardinal sin of unleashing a barrage of public criticism at his family.
But, in 2017, Harry poured fuel on the fire for Meghan's family, too.
During his Radio 4 interview, Prince Harry was sked if there were family traditions he needed to explain to his future wife, and he replied: 'Plenty. We've got one of the biggest families that I know of and every family is complex as well.
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'She's done an absolutely amazing job. She's getting in there and it's the family, I suppose, she's never had.'
Scobie and Durand wrote: 'Harry's comment only heightened the already tenuous family dynamic and foreshadowed what was to come'.
In response, Samantha, 60, took to X (formerly Twitter) hours after the show aired.
She wrote: 'Actually she has a large family who were always there with her and for her.
'Our household was very normal and when dad and Doria divorced, we all made it so it was like she had two houses. No one was estranged, she was just too busy.'
She said: 'The first thing I thought was "I don’t think Harry has been given the full story".
'Something was not right. Though we weren’t the classic family together on schedule for every holiday, we were family.
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'Then we questioned why… why would she be embarrassed about her family? Why would you need to set the stage differently?
'It was starting to feel like she wasn’t reaching out to the family.'
Samantha also questioned the motives behind a letter sent by the Duchess to her father.
In the letter, which Thomas made public, Meghan pleaded with her father to stop speaking to the press.
Meghan wrote: 'If you love me, as you tell the press you do, please stop. Please allow us to live our lives in peace.'
Samantha accused her father of breaking her heart 'into a million pieces' by this.
When neither of Meghan’s half-siblings, Samantha or Thomas Jr, were invited to her and Harry’s 2018 wedding, Samantha slammed Meghan on social media and in the press.
Her anger led her to self-publish her tell-all book, The Diary Of Princess Pushy's Sister, in 2021.
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Despite her rocky relationship with other family members, Meghan and her mother, Doria Ragland, have a very close and supportive relationship, described by Meghan as a 'one-of-a-kind' bond.
But Samantha does not seem to be backing down.
A judge has set a date for Samantha to try to revive her libel case against the Duchess of Sussex in the week commencing August 11.
Samantha first filed a libel lawsuit against Meghan in late 2022 - two years after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as senior working royals.
She sued her half-sister over remarks made in the Sussexes' interview with Oprah Winfrey and their Netflix documentary, but lost the case in March 2024.
Her team previously alleged that the show guided viewers into believing that Meghan's half-sister played a role in orchestrating the hate campaign against the Duchess of Sussex.
It is likely Harry regrets commenting on Meghan's family in the Radio 4 show - but at least it offered viewers a sweet glimpse into the loving relationship between Charles and Harry that seems to be bubbling under the surface.
It seems that even after stepping down as senior royals, it is still extremely challenging for the couple to keep their family life private.
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