Now that she’s broken through as an international star, it seems as if Meghan Markle’s family is coming out of the woodwork to get a piece of the action.
Like Oprah’s family before her and even Barack Obama’s Kenyan half brother, whom the GOP loved trotting out, Meghan’s half sister, Samantha Grant—her father’s daughter and 17 years her senior—has gone on record calling her little sis a “shallow social climber” and “not fit to be a member of the Royal Family.”
She’s also reportedly set to write a tell-all.
Markle is the only child of Tom Markle (Grant’s father) and Doria Ragland and reportedly grew up knowing her two half-siblings from her father’s first marriage.
Grant, who many say is stewing in jealousy over her baby sis—I mean, damn, she is marrying a prince, and a prince of England at that—has announced her book, The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister, according to her Twitter account (which weirdly now lists her last name as “Markle”).
(Sidenote: We’re all calling her a future princess, but just for the record, Markle will not actually be a princess when she marries Prince Harry, she’ll be a duchess, because she does not have royal blood. The same was true in Kate Middleton’s case. The only way she will get that title is if the queen makes an exception to the rule.)
A site called Providr reports that Samantha is a former actress and model who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, leaving her reliant on a wheelchair. She said her disability marked the beginning of Markle’s desertion.
“I didn’t feel a separation from her until I was in a wheelchair. The more high profile she became, she never mentioned me,” said Grant.
She later retracted that statement.
Metro U.K. also reports that last year, before the engagement was made official, Grant said, “The royal family would be appalled by what she’s done to her own family. The truth would kill her relationship with Prince Harry.”
However, in recent months, Grant paints her book not so much as a tell-all but something more elevated. She told British television in October:
First of all, it’s only a tell-all in that I go through and recant some of the beautiful nuances of our lives, our family home. But more importantly it has to do with the inter-racial evolution of this country through the lens of my life and my family since the Civil Rights Act until present, and how that intersects with this recent event with my sister, you know, my feelings about it, my family’s feelings about it and how sad it was going through it all. But it’s more of a beautiful, warm, witty story of our lives and my life.
Whatever it will be, it’s clear that Grant would not have a book deal were it not for her sister. Let’s hope that the family can contain their mess before the royal wedding.