Who is Meghan Markle’s granddaughter? Everything you need to know about Ashleigh Hale

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s much-talked-about Netflix docuseries features a roundup of the couple’s close friends and family, from Serena Williams to Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland. But one of the lesser known faces is Meghan’s niece, Ashleigh Hale, who is rarely seen.

In the third episode, sitting in a crisscross blue dress, with her hands folded in her lap, she reflects on how her personal relationship with Meghan has been influenced by her biological mother, Samantha Markle, half-sister of the Duchess.

“This relationship, which is so important to me, was influenced a lot by her,” she says, starting to cry and rolling her eyes in an attempt to keep calm: “It was difficult to feel that because of my mother, it was taken away from me.”

Here’s everything you need to know about Meghan’s beloved niece…

What is your relationship with the Duchess of Sussex?

Hale is the daughter of Meghan’s half-sister Samantha, who shares a father, Thomas Markle, with the Duchess. Samantha is the fruit of Thomas’s marriage to his wife Roslyn, which ended before he met Doria and welcomed their daughter Meghan.

As Hale recounts in the documentary, she wasn’t raised by her mother. She says: “My biological mother is Samantha Markle. And we all agreed, my brother and I, that we were raised by our grandparents. So they got our custody when I was about two. And finally they adopted us. So I was raised by my paternal grandparents: for me they were my parents».

Samantha made headlines with a series of negative interviews in which she made claims about the duchess, all of which were denied.

What is your relationship with Meghan?

Although she was raised by her paternal grandparents, Hale explains in the documentary that she later reconnected with her biological mother “around 2007”, recounting how the renewed relationship with Samantha Markle also allowed her to forge a close bond with the Aunt Meghan, referred to as “Meg”.

Meghan also talks about her relationship with her niece Ashleigh, explaining: «We got along immediately. And then me and her, you know I was in that time Suitsand so I said “let’s go on vacation”».

Showing a series of sweet snaps from their trip to New Orleans, which Hale describes as “pretty special,” throughout the episode it’s clear the pair share a close bond. “I think she takes on a lot of different roles for me,” says Ashleigh, “there’s an element of a sister, there’s something motherly, she’s a best friend, it’s a little bit of everything.”

Revealing how their relationship has been affected in recent years, Meghan says: “Ash has been put to the test by the media. I didn’t want her life to be plagued by all those dramas.’

What does it do now?

Hale reveals that he currently works as an immigration attorney. According to hisLinkedIn profileis associated with the Fragomen studio in San Francisco.

Why didn’t he attend the royal wedding?

Fans may have noticed that despite their close bond, Ashleigh didn’t attend the royal wedding, which took place in May 2018.

Meghan explains this by saying it was a tip from assistants at Kensington Palace, who were concerned about the optics of the decision to invite Ashleigh but not her mother, Samantha.

How to explain that this stepsister is not invited to the wedding, but the stepsister’s daughter is? “As for Ashleigh”, Meghan says that “her orientation at the time was not to let her come to our wedding”, and she recalls that it was painful.

Meghan and Harry called Ashleigh and explained the situation to her. Ashleigh says, “I said I was hurt, but I understood the meaning of the decision.”