Ashleigh Hale shed tears as she opened up about her relationship with her step-aunt Meghan Markle in a bombshell new Netflix series. The streaming service's brand new documentary, Harry & Meghan, takes a look into the lives of the royal couple from their own perspective.
The series, split into six episodes with the first three available to watch now, features a number of Harry and Meghan’s close friends and relatives, including Ashleigh, the daughter of Meghan’s elder half-sister Samantha Markle. Ashleigh and Meghan both talk about having a special bond after connecting with each other around 15 years ago, but strained family relationships meant she was unable to attend the Royal Wedding of Harry and Meghan in 2018.
Ashleigh, who is an attorney, told the programme that it was agreed when she was a child that she would be raised by her paternal grandparents, who went on to adopt her. In the documentary, Meghan recalls hearing from her father, Thomas Markle, that Samantha had found her biological daughter and was in touch with her.
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Meghan said she wanted to contact her herself and began emailing Ashleigh in 2007. The pair "hit it off", Meghan said and developed a close relationship.
“I think we both craved the same thing. I wanted a sister and she was like a little sister," Meghan explained, while Ashleigh echoed that there was a "sister element" to their friendship. "There’s something maternal, she’s a best friend," Ashleigh told the programme.
The pair would go on holiday together, as well as texting and calling each other several days a week. The documentary featured photos of the two women taken during a trip to New Orleans while Meghan was filming for Suits.
Despite her close relationship with Ashleigh, Meghan says her relationship with Ashleigh's mum Samantha was not the same. The duchess denied having a “fall out” with her elder sister, saying: “We didn’t have a closeness to be able to have (one) – and I wanted a sister.”
Speaking about her relationship with Samantha in the run-up to the wedding, Meghan said: “My half-sister, who I hadn’t seen for over a decade, and that was only for a day and a half, suddenly it felt like she was everywhere. I don’t know your middle name, I don’t know your birthday. You are telling these people that you raised me and you are calling me Princess Pushy?”
Meghan suggested that her distance from Samantha resulted in her having to uninvite Ashleigh from the wedding. Meghan said of the Kensington Palace press office, who worked for Harry, Meghan and the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge: “I don’t think anyone understands what that very small comms team was dealing with. They just couldn’t wrap their head around it and I have compassion for it.
“How do we explain that this half-sister isn’t invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister’s daughter is? And so, with Ashleigh, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding."
Meghan recalled phoning her niece to tell her the news, describing it as a 'painful' moment. “I was in the car with H, and I called her and I had her on speakerphone and we talked her through what guidance we were being given and why this assessment was made and … that’s painful," she said.
Describing the phone call, an emotional Ashleigh said: “I think I said I was hurt on some level, but I understood where it was coming from. To know that because of my biological mother, this relationship that’s so important to me was impacted in that way. To feel like because of her it was taken away.”
Speaking about the period ahead of the wedding, Ms Hale said: “Communication with Meg became less and less frequent. My impression was that her relationships were being managed on some level.” Meghan added: “Ash was put through quite a bit through the media, just by association. I didn’t want her life to be plagued by all that drama.”
Harry and Meghan tied the knot on May 19 in 2018 at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The wedding was attended by around 600 guests including more than 30 members of the royal family and the celebration was watched by a global television audience of millions.
Several of Meghan's close friends attended the ceremony, but her mother Doria Ragland is thought to be the only family member of the duchess who was present after her father pulled out of attending following a health scare.
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