“The U.K. media, I truly believe, wanted my mom’s side of my family to be the ones that all this drama could be stirred up with,” Meghan said, with the documentary showing slews of racist headlines and articles about her mother, Doria Ragland. “And suddenly you have my mom, who’s just classy and quiet and there … and then you have my other side of my family, that is just acting differently.” Samantha, Meghan’s half-sister from father Thomas Markle’s side of her family, delivered numerous tabloid and television interviews slamming the former Suits star since the time Meghan and Harry’s relationship first became public. Samantha is even suing Meghan for defamation. However, despite Samantha claiming she and Meghan were close before she entered the royal fold, both Meghan and Ragland denied that. “Thomas’ kids were a good 17 years older than her, and Meg and I left when she was 2,” Ragland said. “My half-sister, who I hadn’t seen in a decade—and that was only for a day and a half—suddenly, it felt like she was everywhere,” Meghan said incredulously. “I don’t know your middle name, I don’t know your birthday, and you’re telling people that you raised me and you’ve coined me ‘Princess Pushy?’” “I don’t remember seeing her when I was a kid at my dad’s house, if and when they would come around. And then the last time that I saw her that I remember is when I was in my early 20s,” she continued. “I hadn’t had a fallout with her—we hadn’t had the closeness to be able to have that. And I wanted a sister!” Samantha Markle’s biological daughter, Ashleigh—Meghan’s niece—appeared on the show and said her own maternal grandparents raised her, noting that everyone in her life agreed it was for the best at that time. “My biological mother, I hadn’t seen her since I was six years old, and then in 2007, we reconnected,” Ashleigh said. When Thomas Markle told Meghan about Ashleigh, Meghan began communicating with Ashleigh via email. “And then we just hit it off,” Meghan said. The two became quite close, with Meghan taking Ashleigh on a trip with her to New Orleans while she was on a break from Suits. “I think she takes on a lot of roles for me. There’s a sister element, she’s a best friend—just all the things,” Ashleigh said of the Duchess of Sussex. “I wanted a sister, and she was like a little sister,” Meghan said. Ashleigh said that Samantha appeared to resent Meghan once the news of Meghan and Harry’s relationship went public. “No matter what I said, her perspective didn’t change, and her anger seemed to get bigger and bigger,” Ashleigh lamented. “We stopped talking … there are some people you just can’t reason with.” Next, check out the rest of the bombshell revelations from Harry & Meghan.
