Thomas Markle says he released Meghan’s letter to ‘defend’ himself

As Meghan Markle gears up to sue The Mail on Sunday for publishing a letter she sent to her father, he has defended giving it to the paper.

In a letter in August 2018, Meghan begged her father Thomas to stop "lying" and "exploiting her relationship with Prince Harry".  It was published in The Mail on Sunday in February of this year. Now Thomas has said that he only decided to make it public after Meghan's friends mentioned it in a People Magazine article.

"[The letter] was presented as her reaching out and writing a loving letter in the hope of healing the rift, but the letter isn’t like that at all. I have the right to defend myself. The letter didn't seem loving to me. I found it hurtful," he told the Daily Mail. "When I opened the letter I was hoping it was the olive branch I'd longed for. I was expecting something that would be a pathway to reconciliation.

"There was no loving message in there, nothing asking about my health, nothing from her saying, 'Let's get together and heal our differences'."

The palace announced last week that Meghan was pursuing legal action against The Mail on Sunday for publishing the letter. Days later, Prince Harry announced that he was separately suing a handful of British newspapers for alleged phone hacking. It is not known when the hacking is claimed to have taken place.