Meghan Markle’s future sister-in-law has revealed her most recent arrest came after a row that left future husband Thomas Markle Jr, 51, with a black eye.
Darlene Blount, 37, of Grants Pass, Oregon, recounted the chain of events that led to her being handcuffed and said the fight began as the pair made their way home from a local bar at 5.30pm last Thursday.
The cause, Blount said, was her decision to go out with some of her girlfriends, adding that Markle Jr ‘gets pretty jealous’ if she goes to a bar without him.
Blount says she demanded to get out of the car but accidentally clipped Markle Jr in the eye with the corner of her purse as she made her exit.
She spent the evening at her mother’s home nearby, where she had ‘a few drinks’ before returning home just after midnight.
When she got there, it was to find the window fitter, 51, ‘wasted’ and sporting a black eye, and standing in a ‘destroyed’ house.
Troubled couple: Darlene Blount and Thomas Markle Jr., the Duchess of Sussex’s older half-brother, are separated by a temporary restraining order after she was arrested on allegations of domestic violence
Impression: Darlene Blount said she was concerned about what the royal family would think and said that she and Markle were putting off their plan for a wedding this year after the arrest
Blount exclusively told DailyMail.com: ‘He said he’d already called the cops on me. I was just like “whatever, I didn’t do nothing to you”.
‘I thought he was joking at first and then the cops showed up and arrested me.’
Markle Jr added: ‘We got into a pretty heavy argument and she screamed at me to let her out of the car but as I was starting to pull over, she swung around to reach her purse in the back seat and caught me in my right eye with her elbow.
‘I thought she intentionally hit me, which wasn’t the case. When we got home the argument continued, so I then phoned police and she left the house.
‘I made a report saying she punched me in my eye while driving which almost caused me to wreck.’
The 37-year-old mother-of-one was booked into Josephine County Jail on assault charges and spent the next two nights sleeping on a concrete floor before being bailed out Saturday by her fiancé.
Blount and Markle Jr are currently being kept apart by a police-imposed no contact order, with Blount staying at her father’s home until Monday when she hopes the restriction will be lifted.
Once reunited, the two plan to have alcohol and couples counseling but say they are worried about how the royal family will react to their latest brush with the law.
Blount told DailyMail.com: ‘Yeah, I am worried [about what they will think] but it is what it is and there’s nothing I can do to change it.
‘People will message me on Facebook now and things like that – rude things. I just block them because I don’t even know who these people are.’
Markle Jr added: ‘It’s hard to say how Meghan might feel about this – she doesn’t live in the real world with real life situations like everyone else.
‘I don’t think she plans on reuniting with anyone in our family.’
He continued: ‘I think Meg might be having a hard time getting used to her new role as a Duchess but the only thing I think she’s doing wrong is ignoring her father and not visiting him, like the rest of the family.’
The latest arrest comes less than eight months after Blount was cuffed for another drunken fight with Markle Jr on New Year’s Eve.
On that occasion, the 37-year-old spent two nights in jail after calling the cops and claiming the 51-year-old was ‘being really f***ing weird’ and beating himself up.
Family trouble: The Markle clan have proved to be a source of running embarrassment for the royal family, with Prince Harry’s father-in-law Thomas Markle Sr. repeatedly speaking out
Another source of stress: Samantha Markle, who is estranged from both her sister and her brother, has been named as a possible participant in Big Brother in the UK
Estrangement: Thomas Markle Jr. told DailyMail.com that he and the rest of the family wanted Meghan to visit their father
Audio of the police call from New Year’s Eve revealed that she accused him of being ‘mentally abusive’ and told the operator that she was afraid for his safety.
She also said he had been drinking when he became jealous, thinking she was trying to ‘f*** some dude’ she knew when out at a local bar.
The then 36-year-old claimed to be ‘scared’ of Thomas because he is ‘a big guy’, suggesting to the operator that he could be mentally ill.
When police arrived, Blount was arrested instead but the charges were later dropped.
Markle Jr has also spent time in Josephine County Jail and was arrested in January 2016 for drunkenly holding a gun to Blount’s head during yet another argument.
Like his fiancée, he was bailed out two days later and the charges were ultimately dropped.
Blount says she is still waiting to find out if the district attorney will prosecute the assault charge pending after her latest arrest but says she and her fiancé will stay together regardless.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘Yeah, we are still getting married – we’re going to have to work on things but yeah.
‘We were thinking [of doing it] this year but we might put it off a little bit until all this c**p goes away. Tom helps me a lot and he’s a father to my son.’
Markle Jr added: ‘We have always stayed together through rough times. We have a lot of work to do – counseling for couples, alcohol counseling – but we do plan to be together.’