Meghan Markle: Family and Background - November 2017-May 2018

[Countessmeout]

Meghan had TWO loving parents, still does. Tom seems to continually be forgotten or shoved aside by everyone. Like many teens, she had some estranged issues with her dad in her teens, but she has said they are close.

But as stated, being an only child is quite different then a large extended family. There seemed to be Christmases when she was with her other siblings, from photos, but she was closer in age to her niece and nephews then to her siblings.

It doesn't seem to have been meant to be an insult to anyone. Just simply that a huge extended family Christmas was a new experience for Meghan. If Meghan thought Either of her parents were insulted, she likely would have wished for some type of clarification.

[ladongas]

Teacup? Thimble!

[AdmirerUS]

Originally Posted by tommy100;205821...
[I

Asked if there were family traditions to explain to his future wife, the prince said: "Plenty. We've got one of the biggest families that I know of and every family is complex as well." ... "She's done an absolutely amazing job. She's getting in there and it's the family, I suppose, she's never had."[/I]

Well, this is a FAMILY NONE OF US HAVE EVER HAD. Literally. Even if you believe the general advise that we all come from dysfunctional families, this is the only one extant where the matriarch has been head of State for most of the nation's populace lifetime. Who have all lived a lifetime of public and changing scrutiny that is difficult to imagine. That have job descriptions and expectations unlike anything I've ever experienced in the corporate world. Whose marriages have been precluded, occluded, encouraged, discouraged based on political winds more than on affection or love (whatever that is).

This all drifts off topic, but Harry saying his family is "different" from the one she had is a bit like me saying my family is tall. It's only offensive if someone chooses to take it that way, IMO.

[soapstar]

I’ve deleted and edited a number of posts that discussed the Paradise papers, Trump, Brexit, Kate’s family, the UK elections and how the younger vs the older generation feels abut the monarchy. Let’s stick to the topic which is Meghan’s family and background.

On another note, I’ve had to delete some comments regarding Samantha Grant. I understand that she is a controversial person, but some of the comments in this thread have crossed a line. Calling her loony, crazy, nuts, mentally ill, vile and referring to her as Meghan’s “supposed family” is not acceptable (neither is referring to Kate’s uncle as "Uncle Bang Bang"). We expect our members to be respectful of the people they are discussing. Criticism is fine, but personal insults and attacks are not. This is a public forum and anyone can see your words, so please be mindful of the things you say.

Thanks.

[ACO]

Not bothering to link it but now her estranged brother is harping about how hurt he is. The brother who says in the same article he hasn't talked to her since 2011. Okay. It makes more and more sense why Meghan wants nothing to do with the Markle side of her family,

[Countessmeout]

Originally Posted by ACO

Not bothering to link it but now her estranged brother is harping about how hurt he is. The brother who says in the same article he hasn't talked to her since 2011. Okay. It makes more and more sense why Meghan wants nothing to do with the Markle side of her family,

Its already been linked and discussed.

Meghan does have something to do with the Markle side. Her father. She is close to her niece, Samantha's daughter. There also seems to be at least one nephew, her niece's brother, who has not spoken out.

[ACO]

Meghan is actually close to her parents. I am sure she has talked to them since all this happened. I doubt nor her parents are paying these siblings any mind. I doubt any of them care about their obvious attention seeking antics.

[Rudolph]

“Prince Harry dropped a clanger at the end of his guest editorship of Radio 4’s Today programme this week.

“When asked by the BBC how Meghan Markle had coped with her first Christmas at Sandringham, Harry reported that it had been ‘fantastic’. His fiancee, he said, had ‘really enjoyed it’.

“Yes, they had an ‘amazing time’; yes, there was a complicated knot of Windsorian traditions to be explained to an incomer, but it had all ‘been fun’.

And then came the howler.

‘She’s done an absolutely amazing job. She’s getting in there,’ he enthused. ‘It’s the family, I suppose, that she never had.’

Uh-oh. Sound the in-law warning klaxon. Run the Jolly Roger up the flagpole of family friction. Set the dials for stormy waters. The family she never had? The family she never had? What is she, an orphan?”

Read more: Jan Moir: Prince Harry has broken rule number one

[Osipi]

Meghan's Christmas this year was unlike any she probably ever had before. First there was the extended family lunch. Then the celebrations at Sandringham with the inner circle of the family. Totally unique experience of uncles and aunts and cousins by the dozens among great aunts and uncles and cousins twice removed and so forth and so on. No matter what the relationship, if you are in any way related to a monarch of 91 years old and her husband at 96 years old, you were part of the family. Count all these people up and its a huge bunch. This is Meghan's new family. This is the family that will gather en masse for the wedding.

Meghan's family that she's had since birth is a horse of a different color. As the parents divorced when Meghan was still very small, there wasn't that sense of family unity we see with the Windsor clan. A lot of people on the outs with each other and not talking or being of such an age difference that the closeness of growing up with siblings just wasn't there. Of course Meghan was extremely close with both her mother and her father but in the true sense of the word, the family sense of togetherness was missing. I'm willing to bet my last turkey sandwich that there has never been a huge gathering for the holidays with *all* her familial relations in one place.

To me, the complaints made by half siblings to the media prove the point. If they had been the family that they claim that Meghan always have had, they would be the ones supporting Meghan and not trying to make Harry the scapegoat by denigrating his statement. Not only were some of her half siblings estranged from each other, they're doing a bang up job of making themselves look pretty bad by bleating to the press.

So, we can expect the Windsor family with aunts and uncles and cousins by the dozens at the wedding. What we won't see is a united Markle family there to celebrate the union. That, I think, is the proof in the pudding.

[MARG]

Coming from a large extended family who got together every Christmas, I can see what Harry was saying. I grew up with uncles, aunts and cousins sitting around the Christmas table and it was a wonderful thing.

The point was that it was the one time everyone stopped to smell the roses so to speak. We all caught up on the annual news, hugs, cuddles, celebrations of achievement in school, university, work. It all comes together because it's the one time of year we were all in the same place at the same time.

One thing never changed though and I would bet my last dollar it is the same for a lot of families, certainly the royal family, we all went out of our way to make it special for the kids. I've lost count of the number of windows broken with backyard Cricket games over the years.

If you are lucky enough to have something like. it's a very different sort of special as an adult, especially being the favourite aunt or uncle that spoiled the kids rotten, and I am not talking about presents.

I suspect that was the sort of "family Meghan never had" that Harry was talking about. Big, rowdy, related and loving, and every year there were more and more people as the annual 'Christmas' was hosted on a rotating basis as we didn't have anywhere as big as Sandringham!

[Lady Reem]

He didn't say they are the first family she's had. Close to her parents isn't the same as having a bustling large family like this.

This is pure common sense

[Empress Merel]

He could have worded it differently. Like it's been mentioned, she is not an orphan, grew up being loved by her parents and I guess other family members we probably don't even know about.

I can kinda understand though. I come from a very large family that is only getting larger and my brother's ex is an only child with a schizophrenic father who has been in clinic for over a decade before he died. To her, we were the kind of family she never had. The brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews etc. and it's a big loss for her now their relationship has ended.

Like I said, could have worded it differently and KP threw some major shade.

[Lady Reem]

It’s quite clear Harry wasn’t referring to Meghan’s parents. He has met, likes and respects Doria. He is is also aware as most, that Meghan is an ONLY child of her mum & dad together. She also refers to herself as an only child. I think people should respect that.

Originally Posted by Madame Verseau

The half brother wants his 15 minutes now. No direct quote from the father, but the press will hunt him down for comment. Jr. and Sammy have proven Harry's point to a degree; these two know they won't be invited to the wedding and they are lashing out and collecting any payouts from the tabloids. No word from Doria and her side of the family; but anyone who sold Meghan out should expect to watch the wedding on TV from their living room couch.

Exactly.

Meghan is an only child and her parents are decent, you won’t ever catch them yapping off to the press with fake tales for coin. That’s the difference.

[Pranter]

Meghan has lived as an only child most of her life. There were not these annual joyful holiday get togethers with her half siblings, this big happy family. It was she and Doria after her parents divorced.

Harry's not done anything wrong...his family, a big group of them, get together every year..it's not something she's ever had. Most likely it is something she might of wanted...which I hear sometimes from friends who are 'only' children. The big family at the holidays.

Folks need to chill out. I'm sure Meghan understood what Harry was saying and if she didn't then that's for them to work out between them.




LaRae

[Ish]

Originally Posted by Lady Reem

It’s quite clear Harry wasn’t referring to Meghan’s parents. He has met, likes and respects Doria. He is is also aware as most, that Meghan is an ONLY child of her mum & dad together. She also refers to herself as an only child. I think people should respect that.

That’s kind of the kicker. If Meghan has referred to herself as an only child it certainly implies that she doesn’t consider her half-siblings to be close family.

I don’t think Harry misspoke at all. Meghan seems to be a woman with a close relationship with her mother, a good relationship (albeit not particularly close) with her father, and not much of a relationship with her extended family. Harry, on the other hand has a brother and sister-in-law he’s very close with, a father and step-mother he’s on good terms with, cousins he’s close with, uncles and aunts who he sees fairly frequently, and grandparents who he has a good relationship with. That is all completely unlike what we know about Meghan’s family.

Absolutely nothing about Meghan’s family makes it seem like she has anything comparable to the somewhat close extended family within the Queen and DoE’s children and grandchildren. And that’s not considering the fact that the Queen’s niece and nephew, her cousins, and all their families get together a few times throughout the year - which is something very unlike most families; after all, how much contact does the average 30-something have with their parents’ cousins, or their grandparents’ cousins?

[pooky929]

This brother is estranged from his own sons and his father..her sister is estranged from her children and her mother. They did not grow up with Meghan. Her sister lived in Florida and brother in Oregon during Meghan's formative and teenage years. Bouncing a baby on knee is not the same as growing up with it. The baby has no memory of this . Her brother was 16 and sister was 18 when she was born and they lived with grandmother. I am convinced that Meghan's half siblings are bad eggs.

[XeniaCasaraghi]

Originally Posted by Lady Reem

This is pure common sense [emoji2]

This right here. I adore my parents they are my world; I am an only child and have only spent Christmas with them. Never had one where it was grandma grandpa nieces nephews cousins 2nd cousins, brother, sister, cousins of grand parents etc which is what Harry has every year and what he introduced Meghan to.

[pooky929]

Even Meghan's nephew says he wishes he had stayed close to Meghan but a falling out between Tom Markle Jr. and Tom Markle Sr caused a great divide. Nephew says both his father,Tom Jr. and aunt Samantha are crazy.
Meghan has a niece,Ashleigh, she is close to who is 31.Ashleigh is a lawyer. Her mother Samantha did not raise her or brother Christopher and they are estranged from her. Judge felt children better off with their dad.
Sister remarries and divorces again. Had daughter Noel who left home at 14 to live with maternal grandmother because abuse from Samantha's ex-convict boyfriend who still lives with her. Harry was right!

[ACO]

Meghan has referred to herself a few times as an only child. That says a lot. There is nearly 2 decades between her and her siblings. They don't know each other and this bitterness they spewing is pathetic.

[Curbside]

She is so far apart in age from her half-siblings that she may as well be an only child.