Meghan Markle ‘denied knowing her own half-brother’

Meghan Markle denied knowing her own half-brother when he reached out to her for help, according to his lawyer.

Tom Markle Jr., said his half-sister’s response was ‘harsh’ and a ‘slap in the face’ after he asked Meghan for assistance in dealing with the press since her royal engagement.

The 51-year-old, who was 14 and living with his and Meghan’s father Thomas Markle Sr., when she was born in 1981, admits they haven’t been in touch since his actress sister moved to Toronto, Canada, in 2011, to take up a role in Suits.

But he insists he ‘spent a lot of time with her growing up,’ telling InTouch claims he didn’t know her, were ‘ridiculous’.

‘We were as close as we could be, as tight as we could be, that’s what we were.’ 

Meghan Markle (left with her fiance Prince Harry) allegedly denied knowing her half-brother Tom Markle Jr. (right)

Tom, who shares a father with Meghan, pictured with his half-sister when she was a baby

Tom Markle said he reached out to his half-sister in a touching letter, to congratulate her on her engagement to Prince Harry, 33, and apologize if his personal had ’caused you any embarrassment’. 

But Markle says Meghan, 36, never responded to his heartfelt note.

And when her half-brother attempted to reach her by contacting the palace of her soon-to-be-in-laws, he learned she wanted nothing to do with him. 

He told InTouch that his lawyer, who had been communicating with the palace to ask for assistance with dealing with the press, had forwarded him Meghan’s reply. 

‘My lawyer had a phone meeting with her lawyer, and he emailed me some of her direct words. She said, ‘That’s distant family and I don’t know those people.’ That’s pretty harsh,’ he said.

Markle believes that news of his recent brushes with the law may have embarrassed his half sister who is avoiding him.

‘Never my intentions whatsoever,’ he said in his letter to her. ‘I’ve only ever tried to silence vonnie(sic) from the start. Those tabloid mags, reporters and articles are sick. Untrue.’

Markle was in the news recently when he was thrown in jail for two days for a drunken brawl with his fiancee Darlene Blount on New Year’s Eve. Last year he was also arrested for brandishing a gun at his fiancee during another drunken fracas, although the charges were later dropped.

He blamed his behaviour on struggling to cope with the extra pressure and scrutiny he and the rest of his family have faced since Meghan’s royal engagement. 

Last month he said: ‘It hasn’t been easy. Meghan’s relationship with Prince Harry has shone a spotlight on our family. It doesn’t help when you have issues and your sister is engaged to Royalty. It adds a whole new level of scrutiny.

Tom Markle Jr. insists he ‘spent a lot of time with (Meghan) and that claims he didn’t know her, were ‘ridiculous’. Childhood photos provided by her half-brother Thomas Jr show 11-year-old Meghan with her father Thomas Sr, her nephews, and sister-in-law

‘We’ve been under a lot of stress because of all the attention. At some point you find yourself drinking too much to escape the pressure.’

In his letter to the Suits star, Markle said he’d had a hard enough time starting over and had no interest in becoming another headline ever again.  

‘Truly i don’t want to be in the papers or media again, just want to move to the country and start my animal rescue farm and do what I love for the rest of my life,’ he wrote.

‘I wish you and harry all the best, you guys look amazing and happy together,’ he added. ‘I’m so proud of you, you’re awesome. Love you meg.’  

Markle claims he’s been forced to move three times since Meghan and Harry announced their engagement in November. He also said he’s ‘lost a lot of work’ because he’s allegedly being hounded by the press.

‘There was a time where people were following me around at work, taking pictures and posting horrible stories about me and my family saying I’m a white supremacist, a drug addict and a dealer, all this crap that just isn’t true,’ he told the magazine. 

He wanted the royal palace to help him seek retractions for stories he feels are defamatory and damaging.

It appears a palace spokesperson put him in touch with a lawyer, but Markle told him that he could not afford their recommended legal representation after moving house so many times.

Tom Markle’s own lawyer had previously warned him in October that: ‘I don’t think there will be any improvement with the media unless you talk to your sister.’

Prince Harry and fiance Meghan Markle (pictured leaving the Endeavour Fund Awards in London on February 1) are due to tie the knot in May

Tom said: ‘I don’t believe Tracy [his ex-wife] or my sons have the right to call themselves Markles. If this embarrasses Meghan then I am sorry, but Tracy can’t go on claiming to be a Markle’ 

Markle, who currently lives in a bungalow in Grants Pass, Oregon, with his fiancee Darlene Blount, shares a father with Meghan.

While he has not seen or spoken to his 36-year-old half-sister since 2011, he insists they are not estranged, and revealed he would be honored if she would invite him to her wedding in May.

‘She got to the point where she got busier and busier so it was really hard to nail her down,’ he told the DailyMail.com, of them losing touch after she moved for her role in Suits. 

‘It’s not really that we grew apart, it was she was out there [in Toronto] doing her job – it was the biggest deal she got on TV so she had no time.

Last month Tom got into a drunk NYE brawl with his fiancee, which he blamed on the stress from the added attention and scrutiny from being related to Ms Markle

‘But we spent a lot of weekends together with our grandmother [Doris Markle] before she left.’ 

‘We’d get together on Christmases, on holidays, on birthdays, on Thanksgivings… It was always somewhere, even though we lived in different parts of the city [Los Angeles] – we still all got together.

‘Obviously, she had a family. She was very privileged. She got everything she ever wanted. We did the best that we could in terms of getting together for holidays and whatnot.’

He is still hoping that the Markle clan will one day be reunited for Christmas and says that while he doesn’t expect an invitation to Meghan and Harry’s May wedding, it would mean a lot to get one.

The 51-year-old, who was arrested last January for putting a gun to his fiancée’s head but released without charge, added: ‘I don’t know if she gets to invite who she wants. But she’ll reach out if she wants me there – she’ll call me. She knows where to find me.

‘But that’s up to her, there’s no pressure. I wouldn’t mind seeing my little sister have the biggest wedding in the world – that would be incredible.

Tom Markle, of Grants Pass, Oregon, isn’t the only one to be hurt by Meghan’s apparent dismissal of her family.

Their father, Thomas, was ‘deeply hurt’ by recent remarks by Prince Harry, who suggested, after his fiance spent Christmas with the royals, that they the big ‘family I suppose that she’s never had.’

Thomas Markle Jr old DailyMail.com that Meghan Markle had enjoyed spending time at Christmas with her father (left), him (center) and her nephews including Tyler Dooley (right), having become his aunt when she was just 10

Thomas Markle Snr. (pictured with his daughter Meghan as a baby) was also said to be hurt after his daughter’s husband-to-be Prince Harry suggested the royals were the big ‘family I suppose that she’s never had’

The prince has still to meet his fiancee’s father, who lives inMexico, although he has met her mother, Doria Ragland, who lives in Los Angeles. The couple divorced when Meghan Markle was six.

Thomas Jr’s comments echo those made by his estranged sister Samantha Grant, 53, of Ocala, Florida, who also spoke of a ‘large family who were always there with her’. 

‘No one was estranged, she was just too busy. Meg’s family (our family) [sic] is complete with sister, brother, aunts, uncles, cousins, and the glue of our family, our amazing completely self-sacrificing father.;

She previously criticized her famous half-sister for allegedly not supporting their dad.

‘If you can spend $75,000 on a dress, you can spend $75,000 on your dad,’ she told InTouch, referencing the pricey gown that Meghan wore to pose alongside future husband Prince Harry in their recently-released engagement photos.