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Samantha Markle‘s outspoken words about her half-sister Meghan Markle have landed her in some hot water.
According to The Times U.K., the police royalty and specialty protection unit put Samantha on what is called a “fixated persons list” due to her “reputational risk” on the royals.
The Times reports that Meghan’s personal officers spoke with Scotland Yard’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) about Samantha and the consequences of what would happen if she tried to reach out to the Duchess of Sussex in person again.
FTAC’s site explains their “purpose is to assess and manage the risks from lone individuals who harass, stalk or threaten public figures.”
The 57-year-old traveled to England in October and tried delivering a letter to Meghan at Kensington Palace. However, she was reportedly turned down by palace security. Before her attempted tête-à-tête with Meghan, Samantha went on public television and said the purpose of her trip was to “sort of speak the wishes and thoughts and sentiments of my father, and hopefully get a message to my sister.”
A Scotland Yard source explained to The Times about what Samantha’s placement on this list means for herself and the royals.
“You can’t protect someone like the Duchess of Sussex without knowing the background of her family,” the source said. “But someone like Samantha presents a risk rather than a threat. She is not committing criminal offences, but she is causing concerns for the royal family.”
The Scotland Yard insider added, “There is big potential for some major embarrassment for the royals. Samantha could make a scene and create headlines with her actions — and let’s face it she’s kind of already done that.”
The insider has a point. Samantha has repeatedly taken to Twitter to criticize the Duchess and defend their ailing 74-year-old father, Thomas Markle. Neither Samantha nor Thomas attended the royal wedding in May, and she has let her feelings about the royal couple be known.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire
In September for instance, she likened Prince Harry to a hamster while wishing him a happy birthday on Twitter. Their father is the common denominator in the majority, if not all, of her fiery tweets to Meghan.
On Dec. 17, Samantha tweeted about Meghan’s lack of communication with Thomas (who has a lot to say about the subject as well). “This woman thinks it’s cool to ghost an entire family, best friend of 30 years, ex-husband who treated her very well, and trade everyone out for the Royals and Clooneys,” she wrote.
In October, she called the former Suits star a “liar” after making a speech in Fiji where she spoke about paying for her education.
There have been a few instances where an olive branch was sort of extended. On Oct. 17, Samantha congratulated Meghan and Prince Harry on their pregnancy news. She told DailyMailTV, “I’m so excited, I’m so happy for you and I really, really am sorry for any of the past tension and confusion and misunderstandings and asinine things I’ve said when I just didn’t understand what was going on and I wanted things to work out for my dad.”
That time of peace was short-lived like most other times there seemed to be a detente. Most recently, Samantha insulted the Duke and Duchess’ Christmas card photo, which showed a never-before-seen snapshot of them from their wedding day. “Interesting that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have their backs turned. Is this towards the world or just the Ragland and Markle family? It’s a bit sad. Face the Christmas spirit.”
Days later, she retracted her Christmas greeting to Meghan. “I’ve never seen anyone so rude and hurtful and heartless and absent a soul in my life. #MeghanMarkle #SamanthaMarkle shame on you for what you have done to our father,” she wrote on Twitter on Christmas day.
According to The Times, Samantha begs to differ about the “risk” that she now reportedly poses. She told the paper, “I would only say that is ludicrous. I’m not a reputational risk.”
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