Prince Harry has 'lost his father' in royal rift, Meghan reveals in lengthy interview
The Duchess of Sussex says her husband told her “I lost my dad” while the pair discussed their difficulties with the royal family.
She made the statement in an interview with The Cut magazine, saying about her husband the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry: “Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process.’"
The quote appeared to suggested Harry was talking about his reportedly strained relationship with his father, Prince Charles.
But hours after the interview was published, the couple’s biographer Omid Scobie claimed the Duchess’ quotes had been misreported.
He said the Duchess, 41, known as Meghan Markle before she married Prince Harry, was actually referring to the rift with her own estranged father.
It is still unclear who Meghan was referring to in the quote as the Duchess has not publicly clarified the reported misinterpretation.
Duchess Meghan is understood not to have spoken to her dad Thomas Markle, 78, since he leaked a letter to The Mail on Sunday in which the Duchess pleaded with him to stop speaking to reporters.
Prince Harry’s relationship with the royals is widely reported to have become almost as strained after he and Meghan gave an interview with Oprah Winfrey last year in which they branded the royal family “racist” while sharing a story about one member of the family – who they did not name – asking them what shade of skin their mixed-race baby would have.
Meghan told The Cut: “Harry said to me, ‘I lost my dad in this process’.
“It doesn’t have to be the same for them as it was for me, but that’s his decision.”
Meghan's comments appear to echo those Harry has made about his father in the past, previously telling Oprah his dad cut him off financially and stopped taking his phonecalls.
Harry was said by The Cut interviewer Allison P Davis how Prince Harry briefly joined his wife for the chat at their home in Montecito, California, and told her some members of his family “aren’t able to live and work together”.
The Duke said: “Most people that I know and many of my family, they aren’t able to work and live together.
“It’s actually really weird because it’d seem like a lot of pressure. But it just feels natural and normal.”
Davis said Prince Harry enunciated the word family “with a vocal eye roll".
He added: “I think we always knew the first few years of creating this new life from scratch were going to be the busiest.
“With everyone weighing in. If you do something, they criticize you. If you don’t do anything, they criticize you anyway. It’s a lot, but… .”
It comes after the Duchess revealed used the first of her new podcasts on Spotify to say she “felt the negativity” of being labelled “ambitious” when she joined the royal family.
- Bang! Showbiz