The Duchess of Sussex has said she cannot fathom hurting Archie the way her own father ‘betrayed’ her before the royal wedding.
In newly released footage from the Oprah interview, Meghan said she has ‘found it hard to reconcile’ with Thomas Markle for insisting he had not been speaking to the media.
She said: ‘I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child.’
Meghan drew a contrast with her mother Doria Ragland, who she praised for remaining ‘in silent dignity for four years’.
The clip also saw Meghan distance herself from her half-sister Samantha, who has released a ‘tell-all’ book about their relationship.
The Duchess retorted: ‘I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don’t know me.’
She said she grew up ‘an only child’ and even claimed Samantha only changed her surname back to Markle after Meghan struck up a romance with Harry.
A young Meghan is pictured with her father Thomas Markle, who she said ‘betrayed’ her
The tension between the Markles was addressed in unaired sections of the Sussexes CBS sit-down with Oprah, who probed about her relationship with Thomas.
Thomas was supposed to walk Meghan down the aisle in May 2018 but pulled out of the ceremony following health problems.
The two were also engaged in a row about him speaking to the press.
Oprah asked: ‘Did it feel like betrayal when you found that your father was working with the tabloids?’
After weighing up if she was ‘comfortable’ delving into the issue, Meghan said her father had assured he had ‘absolutely not’ spoken to the press.
She said: ‘If we’re going to use the word betrayal it’s because when I asked him, when we were told by the comms team this was a story that was going to be coming out which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a key point in all this, they don’t report the news, they create the news.
The Duchess of Sussex has said she cannot fathom hurting Archie the way her own father ‘betrayed’ her before the royal wedding
‘We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said no, absolutely not.
I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our kids one day.
She added: ‘I said we won’t be able to protect our own kids one day, and I said, I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can
‘And he wasn’t able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.’
Meghan went on: ‘And also me saying just full stop, if we use this to protect you, we won’t be able to protect our own children one day, I’m talking about your grandchildren.
‘I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I go I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. I can’t imagine it. So it’s hard for me to reconcile that.’
Meghan also distanced herself from her half-sister Samantha, who has released a ‘tell-all’ book about their relationship
Meghan also said that despite her sister Samantha releasing a book about her, she ‘doesn’t know her’ and they’ve never been close.
Samantha’s autobiography, titled ‘The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister: A Memoir, Part One, goes into detail about their childhood.
But the duchess said: ‘I don’t feel comfortable talking about people that I really don’t know. But I grew up as an only child, which everybody who grew up around me knows.’
She added she wished she had had siblings and was pleased Archie was going to have a younger sister.
Meghan said she last saw Samantha almost 20 years ago and added: ‘She changed her last name back to Markle… only when I started dating Harry. So I think that says enough.’