Meghan Markle’s dad released a private, handwritten letter she wrote to him about their strained relationship and then publicly asked to get together with her for a photo.
Thomas Markle has released a private, handwritten letter from his daughter in which she implored: "Please stop creating so much pain."
Meghan Markle sent the five-page letter to her father in August 2018 after it emerged he had been paid by photographers to stage images ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry.
In her signature cursive handwriting, the letter begins, "Daddy, it is with a heavy heart that I write this, not understanding why you have chosen to take this path, turning a blind eye to the pain you're causing."
The letter continued, "Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces, not simply because you have manufactured such unnecessary and unwarranted pain, but by making the choice to not tell the truth as you are puppeteered in this. Something I will never understand."
It added, "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."
Royal expert Victoria Arbiter weighed in on the letter.
"It's heartbreaking, isn't it?" she told Inside Edition. "This is, at the end of the day, a daughter pleading with her father to keep this between them, to stop playing it out in the media."
But Thomas Markle shared the letter with the Mail on Sunday, which published it in part this weekend. He also responded to the letter with his own note.
"You can hate me if you want. I can't force you," he reportedly wrote. "I made a big mistake. I'm human and I'm sorry!" He then asked for a photo opportunity: "I wish we could get together and take a photo for the whole world to see. Fake it for one photo and maybe some of the press will shut up!"
Arbiter said releasing the letter was one step too far.
"To me this is the ultimate betrayal, and what a tragedy," she said. "He does have grandchildren already but this is his first grandchild with Meghan, and I think the chances of him meeting this grandchild are slim to none."
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