Who Is Meghan Markle's Niece Ashleigh Hale?
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In Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's new Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan, most of the talking heads are familiar faces—friends of theirs who attended the wedding, and who have been in their orbit for years.
Yet, there was one woman who hasn't been seen before: Meghan Markle's niece, Ashleigh Hale. Here, a bit more about here.
How is Meghan Markle related to Ashleigh Hale?
Ashleigh is Thomas Markle's granddaughter, the daughter of Meghan's half-sister Samantha. As Ashleigh shares in the documentary, she was not raised by her mother.
She says, "My biological mother's Samantha Markle. And it was agreed by everyone, by myself and my brother, to be raised by our grandparents. So they got custody of us when I was probably around two years old. And ultimately, they did adopt us. So I was raised by my paternal grandparents—for me, they were my parents."
What is Meghan and Ashleigh's relationship?
Ashleigh reconnected with Samantha in 2007, and after, Meghan got her email and they started speaking. The two grew close, and they were traveling together, including to New Orleans.
"She takes on a lot of roles for me. There's a sister element, there's something maternal," Ashleigh shares. "She's a best friend. She's kind of all the things."
Meghan says, "She was like a little sister." Yet, because of Ashleigh's association to her biological mother, Meghan shares, "She was put through quite a bit by the media. I didn't want her life to be plagued by all that drama."Ashleigh and Samantha stopped talking after the news broke of Meghan and Harry's relationship.
Why didn't Ashleigh attend the royal wedding?
As Meghan recounts, the small Kensington Palace comms team had a dilemma. "How do we explain that this half-sister isn't invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister's daughter is?" With Ashleigh, Meghan shares, "the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding." It was painful, she remembers.
Meghan and Harry called Ashleigh, and explained to her the situation. Ashleigh says, "I said I was hurt on some level, but I understood where it was coming from. To know that it was because of my biological mother that this relationship that's so important to me was impacted in that way... To feel like because of her, it was taken away, has been hard."
Per Netflix's Harry & Meghan, Ashleigh and Meghan reconnected at the end of 2021, and now spend time together again.
What does Ashleigh do now?
As she shares in Harry & Meghan, she's an immigration lawyer. According to her LinkedIn, she's an associated at Fragomen in San Francisco. She previously worked at Sumner Immigration Law and Capital One. She graduated from Charleston School of Law with her J.D. in 2010, and the George Washington University Law School with a Master of Laws (LL.M) in 2011.
She attended Hollins University for undergrad from 2003 to 2007, and Walsingham Academy for high school.
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