A little over a week ago, Meghan Markle's sister, Samantha, announced via her PR Manager that she was coming to the UK in order to confront her sister about ongoing issues with their father. The 53-year-old has had a particularly messy (and very public) relationship with the duchess over the past couple of years, and, for some reason, has decided that now is the time to do something about it.
"Samantha Markle is coming to the UK," tweeted Rob Cooper, Samantha's PR Manager, back in September.
He continued:
"After making numerous attempts in private to arrange a one on one meeting with The Duchess of Sussex to discuss their 74-year-old father’s health, Kensington Palace have refused to respond. I fear Meghan may not be made aware of these discrete attempts and therefore making this public is the only option we have left.
"I currently have Samantha in Europe with just one short flight away. This DOESN’T need to be public, we would prefer to keep this private.
"Samantha is coming to the UK this week, like it or not."
Unfortunately, Samantha's attempts to actually make contact with Meghan did not go well.
This weekend, pictures emerged of Samantha speaking to a guard at the palace gates. In one of the shots, she was spotted passing a handwritten note to the man - presumably a letter for her sister.
As most of us probably could have predicted, however, Samantha was not welcomed in. Instead, she was told to continue on her way - which she did, but not before buying some novelty Harry and Meghan masks from a nearby gift shop.
All this comes just weeks after Samantha's most recent rant about her sister on Twitter, during which she mocked the duchess, compared her to Donald Trump, and accused her of turning her back on her father and one of her best friends.
"I am not candy coating anything anymore! The DUCHASS should be humane to our father who has given her everything and this media crap can stop!" she wrote.
"He was the one who was always there for her. Fake waves and smiles can stop. The duchass can bow to the daddy.
"Trump thinks he can shoot someone and still get votes. She can dump an entire family both sides and a best friend of 30 years and ignore it and be popular. Sad."
In a strange turn of events, however, Samantha did actually offer her sister and brother-in-law an apology while on UK TV last week.
"I would just say that there is so much water under the bridge and so much has spun out of control that was never intended to," she said.
"And you know, I think everybody was hurt not being included or invited to the wedding, but I felt as though it could have all been nipped in the bud had everyone been included, and we all just agreed to move forward with positive resolve. The hurt feelings wouldn't have snowballed, but believe it or not, it doesn't mean that we love you any less, I just think that families can be this way when there's confusion and people are hurt. So moving forward, I apologize and wish things could be different."
For now, then, it appears that Meghan still has no interest in rekindling a relationship with her sister - but can you blame her, really? After everything she's had to put up with over the past few years, it's surprising that Samantha was even allowed to approach Kensington Palace, let alone request to speak to the duchess.
Maybe there is hope for the two in the future, but Samantha needs to show a lot more remorse before that point.
