The Duchess of Sussex has had a devastating week. Last Thursday, Thomas Markle was publicly outed as an (alleged) PDFile, and it turns out that Thomas Markle’s first wife wrote a letter to the Met Police, warning them about Thomas and telling them to keep Thomas far away from Meghan. Meghan was advised by police and lawyers to say nothing publicly, which is exactly what she did. She’s been issuing statements and her team in the UK has been working to provide background on all of the British media’s stories about her garbage father. Well, all of these stories broke as Archie and Lili’s half-term began. So it sounds like Prince Harry took his wife and children out of the country for a break.

The Duchess of Sussex is being supported by friends outside the UK as she comes to terms with devastating allegations made against her father Thomas Markle Snr, HELLO! can reveal. She and Prince Harry have taken Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet overseas for a short break and are understood to be spending time with close friends. Meghan’s circle are also calling her daily to check in.

“She’s just really, really upset,” a friend tells HELLO!. “She keeps on looking at Lili and she’s in tears, and thinking about all the children, the alleged victims. She has young children herself. It’s just devastating.”

“She decided a while ago, before this happened, that she was going to take herself away from the media and not look at anything, for her own mental health. But obviously, she’s been getting sent a lot of messages from friends in the UK and people all over saying how sorry they are, but it’s just been an emotional rollercoaster for her. She’s in bits.”

Meghan first became aware of serious allegations against her father in 2018, when the Metropolitan Police passed her a letter written by his first wife, Roslyn Loveless, in which she made what Meghan has since described as “disturbing” claims. She had only met Roslyn, mother of her stepsister Samantha Markle and stepbrother Thomas Jr, once or twice, HELLO! understands.

It is understood that Meghan was advised at the time not to go public with the allegations. But she decided then to sever all ties with her father, a retired Hollywood lighting director. After he continued to complain about their estrangement in media interviews, she wrote to him a final time in December last year, to explain why she had cut contact.

“There is some relief that it is finally out there,” adds the friend.

[From Hello Magazine]

A source – probably the same source – went to People Magazine with similar quotes, saying that Meghan is “holding up” but “it’s been really difficult. She’s really cut up. She has young children, and I think that, alongside the victims, is just weighing on her mind. It’s traumatic….There is a lot to process emotionally. But she’s doing okay. She’s holding up. She’s surrounded by loved ones and is feeling supported right now. She has great people around her getting through this moment.” I can’t even imagine. And for all of this to happen just a few months after the Sussexes moved back to the UK as well, with many members of the rancid British press twisting themselves in knots to blame Meghan for her father’s depravities. Those same people who screamed for years that Meghan was horrible for cutting off her father. In addition to everything else, I bet Meghan has whiplash from the press’s volte-face.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Meghan’s Instagram.