Meghan Markle’s Half-Sister, Samantha, Placed On A Watch List By Scotland Yard
Meghan Markle’s half-sister, Samantha Markle, has been placed on a Scotland Yard watch list that monitors individuals who harass public figures, the Express is reporting.
Scotland Yard’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) maintains a “fixated persons list” — that is, a list of people who are known to harass public figures. And Samantha Markle is now on it after Meghan’s security detail and the U.K.’s national police sat down for a few meetings.
An unidentified Scotland Yard source told the paper that Samantha is on the list because of her potential to cause embarrassment for the Royal Family — something she’s already done, repeatedly.
“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. 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.”
What her placement on this list means for Samantha in a practical sense remains unclear, however. Samantha lives in Florida, well outside of Scotland Yard’s jurisdiction, and the U.K. government can’t exactly stop her from giving embarrassing interviews or making embarrassing tweets about her relative.
Samantha Markle put on ‘fixated persons list’ over risk of ‘MAJOR EMBARRASSMENT’ to royalshttps://t.co/m4MqJ6WOrL pic.twitter.com/Y2okq3XALk
— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) December 30, 2018
If Samantha were to try to visit England — again — however, she may find that her name on the “fixated persons list” has a lot more meaning. She could, for example, be denied entry into the country, or her movements monitored by a police presence. Back in October, Samantha and her father, Thomas Markle, turned up uninvited to Kensington Palace to try to talk to Meghan and were turned away.
Samantha, for her part, has blasted Scotland Yard’s actions. In a series of Sunday-morning tweets, she defended her actions as coming from a place of trying to protect her and Meghan’s father. She accused Meghan of buying an expensive car for a friend and reminded Scotland Yard that their jurisdiction doesn’t extend to the U.S.
“Yeah this is ridiculous you don’t silence somebody by making an example out of them and sensationalizing circumstances by disparaging them. Sorry you don’t infringe on freedom of speech especially when I talk about my life.”
Over the Christmas holiday, Samantha once again accused Meghan of deliberately hurting her and Samantha’s father by ignoring him, at one point saying she was worse than the Grinch — the children’s book character who stole Christmas.
