Here’s everything you need to know about Ashleigh Hale, Meghan Markle’s niece

Harry and Meghan claim they were forced to uninvite her from their wedding

1 year ago

The first part of Harry and Meghans… shall we say, controversial new Netflix doc revealed a lot of home truths about the British press. From its overt racism to the misogynistic hounding of women who marry into – and date – the Royal Family, there isn’t a single redeeming moment. But, as we already saw a few years ago, Meghan’s family and the UK press make a toxic concoction. And it didn’t just affect Meghan, Harry and their kids – it left her niece distraught, too.

Ashleigh Hale spoke out for the very first time in the documentary. The daughter of Samantha Markle and an unnamed man, she was adopted by her paternal grandparents when she was two years old. She ended up losing touch with her biological mum after her hatred for Meghan became too much – and resulted in them both being uninvited from 2018’s Royal Wedding.

But, what the hell happened there? And what else do we know about Ashleigh’s life, as well as her relationship with Meghan?

Ashleigh Hale is Samantha Markle’s biological daughter

Photo via Netflix

Meghan Markle, up until a few weeks before her wedding to Harry, appeared incredibly close with her dad, Thomas. That being said, she claimed she wasn’t at all close with her half-sister, Samantha.

“I don’t remember seeing her when I was a kid, at my dad’s house,” Meghan said in the doc. “And then the last time that I saw her, that I remember, was when I was in my early twenties. I hadn’t had a fallout with her, we didn’t have a closeness to be able to have that.”

Nevertheless, when Thomas told Meghan his plans to reconnect Ashleigh with Samantha; the Duchess asked for her email too. From there, the relationship between Ashleigh and Meghan developed.

Ashleigh was adopted by her paternal grandparents alongside her brother when she was two years old. She stated, in the doc, that she considers her grandparents to be her actual parents.

What does Ashleigh do?

While her social media handles are all currently private, Ashleigh stated in the doc that she works as an Immigration Lawyer. According to Insider, she graduated from uni in 2007, after studying French.

Was she really uninvited from the Royal Wedding?

Photo via Netflix

Samantha Markle was becoming more-and-more vocal about Meghan as the wedding drew closer. Meghan claims she barely knows her half-sister; and naturally she wouldn’t have been invited to the wedding.

“How can we explain that this half-sister isn’t invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister’s daughter is?” Meghan questioned, while trying to explain how to attract as little negative press attention as possible. “And so, with Ashleigh, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding.”

Ashleigh described herself as being “hurt” by the guidance, but “understood where it was coming from.”

“To know that it was because of my biological mother that this relationship that was so important to me was impacted in that way… was taken away… has been hard,” she said.

Harry and Meghan: Part One is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, quizzes, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.