Anyone who has already watched the Oprah interview with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, will know that she did not hold back in discussing her tumultuous time with the royal family. Some people, however, were slightly confused by omissions. She and Harry, for example, did not disclose the name of the member of The Firm who made racially charged comments relating to their son, Archie. They did not discuss Prince Andrew, whose status as son of the Queen presumably means that his relations must grin and bear his presence around the Christmas dinner table. There was also much head-scratching when the show ended without more than a passing reference to Thomas Markle, Meghan's father. Now, however, it's clear that she did indeed discuss him.
A new clip released by CBS establishes that he simply didn't make the cut for the main programme. And it's very interesting. In it, Meghan talks through why her relationship with her father is essentially over, compared him to her beloved mother Doria, and addressed the book written by her estranged half-sister Samantha.
'There was such an obsession about anything in my world, including tracking down my parents. And I did everything I could to protect both of them in that media frenzy,' she says. 'But for over a year, the UK tabloids were trying to find my dad, offering people so much money to try and find his address. Once they did, I remember being told there was a huge headline: "We found him" or "We got him."You're talking about someone's father. And from that point in, the tabloids moved in to the apartment next door and across from him, giving him gifts. The whole thing brings us to where we are today.' The particularly story, which set the scene for months and years of bad relations between Meghan and her father, concerned the fact that Thomas facilitated media opportunities with the press. Oprah asks if this felt like a betrayal. Meghan is slow to answer, seemingly reluctant to discuss him.
'If we're going to use the word betrayal, it's because when I asked him [if he had spoken to the press]. And he said "no! Absolutely not." I said the institution has never intervened on anything for us but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if we do this once, we're not going to be able to use this same leverage to protect our kids one day. So when I said [that], he wasn't able to do that. And that has really resonated now... as a mother. I can't imagine doing anything to cause pain to my child, so it's hard for me to reconcile that.'
Oprah asks if she has sympathy, if she feels that Thomas was accountable in the mess or if she points the finger solely at the machinations of the press. 'Everyone has accountability,' she responded, making it clear that she does hold Thomas responsible to some extent. 'They've hunted my mom down. She's remained in silent dignity for years.'
Samantha Markle also comes up. Formerly Samantha Grant, the women share a father, Thomas, but spent limited time together in their youth.
'You don't know me,' Meghan balks in the clip. 'This is a very different situation than my dad. I don't feel comfortable talking about people that I really don't know. I grew up an only child. I wish I'd had siblings... The last time I saw her was eighteen or nineteen years ago, and before than ten years before that. She changed her last name back to Markle only when I started dating Harry. I think that says enough.'
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