Meghan’s estranged brother Thomas Markle Jr launches attack on his half-sister after her Netflix series is released – and accuses her of telling ‘malarkey stories’ about her childhood

Meghan Markle’s estranged brother has criticised her new Netflix series as ’embarrassing’ – and accused her of telling ‘malarkey stories’ about her childhood.

Thomas Markle Jr, 58, gave his verdict on With Love, Meghan, which aired on the streaming service today, to journalist Kevin O’Sullivan in an interview which aired on TalkTV tonight at 8pm.

He claimed: ‘This is probably the first time I felt sorry and embarrassed for her’, before adding that he hasn’t let father Thomas Markle Sr watch it yet because of his delicate health.

Asked if Meghan’s father had watched the show, Mr Markle Jr said: ‘I didn’t have enough heart medication for him to watch it. I didn’t want him to kick the bucket, so I’d have to go refill the prescription before I let him watch it.’

During episode two of her eight-part series, the Duchess of Sussex called herself a ‘latchkey kid’ who ‘grew up with a lot of fast food and TV tray dinners’, listing off US chains Pollo Loco, Taco Bell and Jack In The Box.

In 2021, Meghan similarly explained how she apparently ‘grew up on the $4.99 salad bar at Sizzler’ and how her family was poor in an letter to US politicians, asking them to consider her plea for paid leave for parents.

But on her claims that she grew up poor, Mr Markle Jr said: ‘That’s just another one of the malarkey stories she sold to the Royal Family for sympathy. We weren’t poor. She didn’t have to rub two nickels together at Sizzler’s salad bar.’ 

Critics have previously pointed out that Meghan was raised in middle class comfort in the suburb of Woodland Hills in a home Thomas Markle, an Emmy-award winning lighting director, bought shortly before Meghan was born in 1981. 

He sent her to Hollywood’s private Little Red Schoolhouse, whose old students include Elizabeth Taylor and Judy Garland, where staff feed students six different types of organic vegetables from the school garden each week.

When Meghan was nine he won $750,000 in a lottery and the money helped send Meghan to the $16,000-a-year Immaculate Heart Catholic School, one of LA’s finest.

Her estranged brother said: ‘The entire world knows how she treated her family, especially her father, who gave her everything. That’s why nobody’s buying it.’ 

Discussing the cookery programme in his interview, Mr Markle Jr said: ‘Halfway through, I realized there’s something better I could be doing with my time. Dropping bricks on my pinky toes would probably be better.

He continued his attack on his sister’s series, adding: ‘Everybody’s going to watch the first episode, and it’ll be the worst critically acclaimed episode of all time. 

‘Then, five or six minutes into the second, they’ll probably commit themselves to a psychiatric ward.’ 

Elsewhere in his interview, Mr Markle Jr claimed Meghan ‘didn’t cook anything for anybody ever growing up’ and discussed what he labelled the Duchess ‘death stare’.

He said: ‘There was always that little look. The Meghan Markle death stare, like her viper jaw pitches up, and she’s about to strike.’ 

The Duchess, 43, has reportedly not spoken to her half-brother for more than a decade. 

His latest attack comes after he was condemned for appearing to mock Meghan in a series of YouTube video rants last year – dressing up with a cushion stuffed inside his jumper and calling himself ‘Me-gain’.

Mr Markle Jr fired off a series of insults and conspiracy theories in clips targeting his estranged half-sister and was seen in one seeming to put a cushion up his top while wearing a wig and tiara and ridiculing the Duchess.

Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond slammed the videos as ‘grotesque’ and accused him of committing ‘the ultimate betrayal’.

And an ex-government minister also called for tougher action by internet firms to combat ‘campaigns of harassment and intimidation’.

Meanwhile, Mr Markle Jr has also suggested plans to bring out his own range of merchandise such as glasses, mugs and T-shirts, the Sunday Mirror reported.

In one of his clips, he addressed the camera as if in a dialogue with the Duchess, raging: ‘It’s not just your freedom of speech, Meghan, it’s everybody’s freedom of speech.

‘So if you don’t like it, don’t watch, right? I’m gonna be riding those coat-tails, baby – oh, yeah, if it wasn’t for Meghan Markle I don’t know what I’d be doing.’

Journalist and royal family expert Bond responded by saying: ‘To have your own flesh and blood lead the assault must feel like the ultimate betrayal for Meghan.’

Conservative MP and ex-tech and the digital economy minister Damian Collins said: ‘The major social media companies must do more to combat harmful content on their platforms, including campaigns of harassment and intimidation.

‘They have created systems that have not only allowed conspiracy theories to thrive, but are actively promoted by the recommendation systems designed by these big tech companies.’

It is not the first time Meghan’s half-brother has caused controversy. 

Ahead of the Duke and Duchess’s wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018, Mr Markle Jr sent Harry a letter telling him it was not ‘too late’ to back out of marrying her – describing his sister as ‘obviously not the right woman for you’.

He slammed the American former actress, insisting she was a ‘jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage’.

The sibling wrote telling Harry: ‘As more time passes to your royal wedding, it became very clear that this is the biggest mistake in royal wedding history.

‘Meghan Markle is obviously not the right woman for you. I’m confused why you don’t see the real Meghan that the whole world now sees.

He also took part in 2021 in a Big Brother VIP Australia series in which he told fellow contestants about warning Harry his ‘very shallow’ sister would ‘ruin’ his life and had abandoned her ‘own flesh and blood’.

Yet later in the show’s run he was filmed writing a second letter in which he apologised to the couple for his ‘harsh’ words.

Reading the note aloud on screen, he said: ‘Dear Meghan and Harry, the first thing I want to say to both of you is that I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart for the awful mean letter that I wrote to you prior to your wedding.

‘And I want both of you to know it did not come from the real person that I am, but came from a very dark and hurt part of my heart.

‘I am not a mean person at all and I have more love inside me to give than anything.’

Mr Markle Jr went on to say the first despatch to Harry was written out of ‘hurt’ after Meghan had described him as ‘distant family’. 

He said: ‘The letter was definitely written out of me feeling like really hurt and confused when I was informed of your response that I was distant family and that you did not know those people. 

‘I was very hurt and confused because of the amazing bond and relationship we shared growing up together and all I could do was put up a defence wall to protect my heart.

‘I know that it was very immature and wrong and I truly regret it. When your relationship with Harry became known to the world, my life then became public.

‘I along with everyone in our family became public figures overnight. No more privacy. And let me tell you it was very, very stressful to have to deal with all alone and no help at all.

‘A real nightmare and constant pressure. I wish I could turn back the clock and do it all over, knowing what I know now.’

Meghan’s new lifestyle series finally launched today after the Duchess delayed its release from January due to the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles.

During each of the eight episodes, which dropped at 8am GMT on Tuesday, the former working royal was joined by guests as she offered lifestyle tips from inside a rented $8million (£5million) mansion near the Sussexes’ Montecito home.

Although Meghan did not directly mention the Royal Family or her reasons for stepping down from royal duties, she was more than happy to discuss her life in California with husband Prince Harry and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

With Love, Meghan gives viewers an intimate look into everyday life for the Sussexes, including how the children have named two of their pet chickens ‘Phil’ and ‘Jill’.

The Duchess, who lives in an $14million (£11million) home with Prince Harry and their children, insists that even people in ‘little flats’ in London can enjoy a ‘small piece’ of her luxury Californian lifestyle. 

But the programme quickly came under attack from some reviewers who described it as ‘gormless lifestyle filler’ with a ‘tangible desperation’.

The series, promoted as a chance to see Meghan ‘share personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection’, is being seen as a a make-or-break moment for the couple’s $100million streaming deal.