The relationship between Duchess Meghan and a large part of her family has been virtually non-existent for years. Prince Harry’s wife doesn’t just have good memories of her childhood. Now a cousin speaks out and makes astonishing revelations.
Since her wedding to Prince Harry, 39, in 2018, the relationship between Duchess Meghan, 42, and her paternal family has been considered cold. Since then, her father Thomas Markle, 79, and her half-sister Samantha Markle, 59, have repeatedly spoken out publicly and made serious allegations against the former actress. The words of her cousin are all the more surprising, as he now reveals exciting details about his childhood with Meghan in an interview with “Daily Mail”.
Cousin unpacks about Duchess Meghan
The British newspaper lies numerous recordings which show the current Duchess of Sussex as a child: with a school friend on the beach, in her grandmother’s arms or on her father’s lap. “She was always very sweet. She was friendly and always had something star-like about her,” remembers Shawn Johnson, 43, of his cousin. Her personality was infectious and she was very mature for her age. “She always took great care of us and made sure we were all okay.”
Both the photos and the words the 43-year-old chooses hardly suggest a difficult childhood and make her estrangement from her family all the more puzzling. Shawn and his cousin haven’t seen each other since their early twenties, but he hopes to reconnect with her. After all, they are almost the same age and grew up together. His father Joseph Johnson is the brother of Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland, 67, who died of heart failure in August 2021 at the age of 72.
Did Meghan really have a tough childhood?
He paints a portrait of a happy family in which Meghan was the focus, was able to enjoy a private education and luxury vacations in Hawaii or trips to London and Disneyland. Meghan’s own description of her childhood could hardly sound more contradictory. In a letter she wrote to Congress in 2021, she claimed that she had had to work since she was 13 to “make ends meet.” Her parents could hardly have paid for a five-euro salad for her.
However, according to cousin Shawn, she “definitely had enough.” Unlike Meghan’s paternal family, he doesn’t seem to harbor any ill will towards his famous relative. “Doria loved her very much. We could see that, and we all loved her, and we’re glad her life turned out the way it did for her,” he explains. He remembers a happy childhood together. “We always went there on vacation and visited her in Los Angeles,” said the graphic designer. “We then went to my grandmother’s house and all met each other. We all had a pretty good childhood growing up.”
Shawn Johnson: “I don’t have any bad memories”
He also only has positive words for the Duchess of Sussex. She definitely contributed to “that childhood being great – she was a big part of it.” It was already clear back then that one day she would do something special. “I don’t have any bad memories, none of her having any strange behavior or anything like that,” he clarifies. Meghan was “always very mature” and “somehow ahead of her time”.
Shawn Johnson cannot fully understand the fact that Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan are repeatedly criticized – not least because of their revealing interviews, political actions or explosive memoirs. “Some of this stuff is just so harsh, and I know it’s fake. They just try to blame it on internet culture, and that’s just the way people treat celebrities,” he says. Even stories about him and Meghan have already circulated in the press in which they were said to be having an affair.
The 43-year-old is outraged by the way Meghan is treated in public. “There was another story where she was doing some kind of charity work or whatever, and then people were just like, oh, that’s fake or she’s just doing it to get attention,” he recalls. She just couldn’t do anything right. “I always remember her as the person who couldn’t do much wrong – it’s so strange to see it differently now,” adds Shawn.
Source used: dailymail.co.uk