If the main purpose of Netflix’s splashy new docuseries about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is to let the couple open up about their “love story” and explain their reasons for fleeing royal life, another is to settle scores with people they believed have wronged them.
One of those people is Meghan’s estranged half-sister, Samantha Markle, who began excoriating the future Duchess of Sussex in tabloid interviews soon after it became known that she was dating Harry and was going to marry into the British royal family. Samantha famously labeled Meghan, 17 years her junior, “Princess Pushy” and claimed she was a social climber.
Not only does Meghan insist in “Harry and Meghan” that she was never close to Samantha Markle, Episode 3 also presents a first-time-ever interview with Samantha’s daughter, who defends her royal aunt. Ashleigh Hale, a 37-year-old immigration attorney, describes her very close relationship with Meghan, while also painting a harrowing portrait of her mother, saying that her open hostility to the duchess is the reason she wasn’t allowed to come to her 2018 royal wedding.
“There’s a sister element, there’s something maternal, she’s a best friend, she’s kinda all the things,” Hale said during her on-camera interview, while Meghan noted, “I wanted a sister and she was like a little sister. Ash was put through quite a bit by the media just through association. I didn’t want her life to be plagued with all that drama.”
