Meghan Markle’s half-sibling Samantha releases her tell-all book ‘Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister’

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The Duchess of Sussex‘s outspoken half-sister Samantha has finally released her tell-all book about their relationship and the rift that has torn apart the Markle family, promising readers that the ‘truth is stranger than fiction’.

Samantha’s autobiography, titled ‘The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister: A Memoir, Part One’, is expected to heavily criticise Meghan for shunning her American relatives and what she sees as cutting off their father Thomas after he was unable to attend the royal wedding following a heart attack.

It lays bare details of the Markle siblings’ upbringing, including the rivalry between Meghan and Samantha when their father was still married to the actress’s mother Doria Ragland.

But Samantha also writes of her adoration for her younger half-sister as a baby and described the infant as ‘bi-racial, beautiful, and was both the color of a peach, and a rose’.

She branded Prince Harry’s comment in an interview that the royals were the ‘family that Meghan never had’ as the ‘ultimate insult’.  

The book’s publication is likely to cause anxiety for the Duchess, whose US media team has not commented publicly on its contents, amid claims the former Suits star burst into tears and was ‘sick to her stomach’ when she first heard Samantha was writing it. 

Samantha, 56, who battles with multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair-bound, completed the highly-anticipated memoir four years after announcing she was writing it.

The Florida-based author is 17 years Meghan’s elder, and they both share the same father, Thomas Sr, a retired lighting director, who later married yoga teacher Ms Ragland, Meghan’s biological mother.

In the book, Samantha recalls watching Meghan rise to fame after getting her breakout role in TV legal drama Suits in the same year she married her first husband, film producer Trevor Engelson.

But despite her success, Samantha says she couldn’t help but wonder how commuting and distance would affect her sister’s marriage, which she would later learn was on the rocks.

Meghan and Trevor ultimately divorced in 2013, two years after tying the knot in a ceremony in Jamaica, citing irreconcilable differences. 

Samantha’s rocky relationship with her sister exploded into public view after Meghan’s engagement to Harry was announced in 2017.

She was quoted by journalists as saying that ‘The Queen would be appalled’ and called her a ‘ducha**’ on Twitter.

Samantha gave numerous interviews attacking Meghan but has since backtracked and complimented her, a sign of how complicated her feelings are. 

In the dedication to the book, Samantha says that her family ‘collided with history in an unexpected but relatable way’.

She writes: ‘Our lives have not always been easy, and no one is perfect. We have, laughed, agreed, disagreed, and forgiven each other, which is what makes families so special’.

The author suggests that Meghan may well have been conceived in Santa Barbara, California, where the Duchess now lives with Harry, as that is where Ragland and Thomas Sr. used to take romantic getaways from their home in Woodland Hills.

Samantha says that when Meghan was a baby she knew her as ‘flower’ and adored her, writing that she was ‘bi-racial, beautiful, and was both the color of a peach, and a rose’.

Samantha writes that the future princess’ nickname for her was ‘Dat Duk’ and until Ragland and Thomas Sr. divorced they lived in one house and were a happy family.

But the sisterly bond began to fray when Meghan grew older and became ‘snippy’ and what Samantha called the ‘Pushy Princess of Vista del Mar’.

She writes: ‘I always thought that my sister would become more like my father, but it seemed that with each passing day, she was becoming more like her mother.’

Samantha admits she now struggles with her disdain towards Meghan in her adulthood, comparing the feeling of being torn to being tortured on a medieval rack. 

Released in the US via American bookselling giant Barnes and Noble, the book contains chapters called Queen Would be Appalled and Looking For Mr Right The Wrong Way.

And the 330-page autobiography claims to expose ‘hidden truths about her family’ and Samantha’s perspective on how and why Meghan’s ‘royal fairytale’ turned sour.

According to its pre-release description, she claims that when it comes to Meghan ‘things are not always as they seem’ and sometimes the ‘truth is stranger than fiction’.

Last month insiders told In Touch that the Duchess of Sussex, 39, who is currently living in her $14million Santa Barbara mansion with Prince Harry, 36, and one-year-old Archie, is upset about the book but ‘won’t act bothered in public.’

The book has the description: ‘Things are not always as they seem, in a world where social labels define who we are, how we live, and how we view each other.

‘Samantha Markle finds herself caught in between the cross hairs of media mayhem, when she reveals hidden truths about her family.’

According to Newsweek, who has today published extracts from the book, Samantha describes setting up the staged paparazzi shots for Thomas Markle before the royal wedding, which would lead to a rift between Meghan and her father.

She claims it was to paint her father in an ‘honest light’ and not for money.

Samantha writes: ‘I got a call from someone offering to connect me with a photographer friend by the name of Jeff [Rayner], who promised to discreetly take photographs of my father, putting him in an honest light.

‘I received no money for the deal per my request, and the goal for my father was not money, because he had been turning down $50,000 interviews. It was just allowing the Royals and the world to see him in his proper light, because he was so horribly labeled and photographed. It was like watching vultures feast.

‘The photographer said, ‘Don’t worry, I will take good care of your dad, and nobody will even see’.’

Samantha claims she asked the photographer to be ‘discreet’ and stay a safe distance from Thomas.

In her memoir she writes: ‘When I saw some of the photographs, I was delighted, until I saw an article that said he ‘staged photographs’.

‘I nearly choked, when I saw photographs of the photographer walking three feet behind my father. I was guaranteed it would be discreet.

‘I sent an email to the photographer, letting him know that I was horribly upset by what had occurred, and he said that he would arrange ‘something’ with my father that would make him happy, and that he would ‘fix the situation.’ The damage was done, and the thought of ‘fixing it’ was tragicomedy at best’.

Meghan is thought to have last seen her sister in 2008. 

A year ago it was reported that Meghan burst into tears after discovering her estranged half-sister was planning to write a book about her. 

The Duchess of Sussex felt she was being ‘taken advantage of’ by her sister, according to a close friends, but has not spoken about it in public.

Samantha first revealed her literary ambitions in April 2016 when Meghan’s romance with Prince Harry became public.

She is already writing a second book called: ‘In the Shadows of the Duchess’.

Meghan was said to be ‘furious’ with members of her family after ‘absurd claims’ were made against her as her relationship with Prince Harry took off.

Bombshell biography Finding Freedom, by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, claimed Meghan and her ‘estranged’ half-sibling had only bumped into each other twice since they were children.

Ms Markle has been keeping a lower profile in 2020 while completing her autobiography but appeared on British TV in January last year when Harry and Meghan quit as senior royals and decided to emigrate first to Canada, and then moved to LA.

Samantha said that the decision, then after just 20 months of marriage, was a ‘gross breach of duty’ and a ‘slap in the face’ for the Queen.

She said: ‘Prince Harry and Meghan have quite a bit of apologising to do. We aren’t talking about teenagers, we are talking about adults who knew what they were doing and in regards to my father it was so incredibly wrong and shocking’.

She also said Meghan initially enjoyed the attention of being a royal, accusing her of adopting a ‘contrived British accent’, but wanted out once she was criticised about her ‘spending’.

Ms Markle has also been forced to deny criticisms of Meghan, Thomas’ only child with Doria Ragland, were laced with racism, calling the claim: ‘A misplacement of blame to avoid accountability’.

Meghan, 39, is suing Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) for breach of privacy for publishing extracts of a letter she sent her father Thomas Markle, 76, after her royal wedding in 2018.

Her lawyers have applied for summary judgment, a legal step which would see the case resolved without a trial and without the need for witnesses, but the newspaper argues the case is ‘wholly unsuitable’ for it.

A ruling by Mr Justice Warby on the application is expected this month.

Four former aides of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have evidence which could ‘shed some light’ on Meghan’s letter to her estranged father, the High Court was told two weeks ago.

The publisher’s barrister Antony White QC told the court that a letter from lawyers representing the so-called ‘Palace Four’ said they would be able to ‘shed some light’ on the drafting of Meghan’s letter to her father.

He told the court it was also ‘likely’ there was further evidence about whether Meghan ‘directly or indirectly provided private information’ to the authors of an unauthorised biography of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Finding Freedom.

The letter was sent to the parties on behalf of Jason Knauf – formerly communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, whom the newspaper claims was involved in the wording of Meghan’s letter – and Christian Jones, their former deputy communications secretary.

The other two members of the so-called ‘Palace Four’ are Samantha Cohen, formerly the Sussexes’ private secretary, and Sara Latham, their former director of communications.

The court was told that another area that requires ‘factual investigation at trial’ is how Royal biography Finding Freedom, which tells the story of Meghan’s life and marriage to the Duke of Sussex, was written.

The newspaper claims she co-operated with its authors, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, or authorised her friends to and share details of the letter.

Meghan has denied the allegations – as has Mr Scobie – but she has conceded in a court document submitted at a hearing last year that she did authorise a friend to speak with them on her behalf.