Thomas Markle says letter from Meghan included 'something horrible' and he wanted to 'destroy' it
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Meghan Markle's father has claimed the letter she sent him contained "something horrible" and doesn't believe it was intended to help them repair their relationship.
Thomas Markle Snr spoke out after his daughter won her legal battle with Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) for breach of privacy when they published parts of a letter she wrote to him after her wedding.
Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, he said: "I'm the one who released the letter, part of the letter, and that was because, a magazine was doing a story about me, Meghan's friends were telling a story about me that was lies.
"After reading these lies, I said I have to retaliate and by retaliating I released part of the letter.
"I didn't release the whole thing – had I done that, you would have seen something horrible.
"I had held that letter for six months and I was going to destroy it."
He said the letter was not intended to reconcile the pair.
Meghan, 39, sued ANL when sections of the letter appeared in the Mail On Sunday and the MailOnline in February 2019, and a judge ruled that her privacy had been invaded.
His summary judgment meant the case did not need to go to full trial, something which Markle Snr had said he wanted because he was willing to testify in court about the issue.
In court documents, Meghan's lawyer Justin Rushbrooke said the letter was intended to stop Markle Snr talking to the press about their relationship.
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He described the hand-written letter as “a heartfelt plea from an anguished daughter to her father”, asking Markle Snr to stop “talking to the press”.
He said the “contents and character of the letter were intrinsically private, personal and sensitive in nature” and that Meghan therefore “had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of the contents of the letter”.
In a witness statement, Markle Snr had said: "I believed, and still believe, that Meghan wanted her account of the letter to be published."
Lord Justice Warby sided with the duchess in a landmark ruling in February 2021, and awarded her 90% of her costs to be paid by ANL.
However, he did also call the letter a "long-form telling off".
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There are remaining issues to be dealt with, as lawyers decide whether there is more than one copyright holder because Meghan got some help in "ideas" for the letter.
Markle Snr also addressed talking to the press as he spoke to Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, saying he did it because he did not hear from Meghan.
He said he would do an article, wait 30 days for a response and then do another, and claimed he had not been contacted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex since the time of their wedding in May 2018.
