Thomas Markle was caught faking images of him getting ready for the royal wedding just days before his daughter tied the knot with Prince Harry at Windsor Castle.
In the aftermath, the father of the bride announced he would pull out of the ceremony to spare his daughter’s blushes and days later he suffered a heart attack.
Samantha Markle gives a behind the scenes account of the episode in the first installment of her two part memoir The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister, published by Central Park South Publishing.
She writes: “I got a call from someone offering to connect me with a photographer friend by the name of Jeff [Rayner], who promised to discreetly take photographs of my father, putting him in an honest light, because other photographers had been so disparaging, intentionally.
“I received no money for the deal per my request, and the goal for my father was not money, because he had been turning down $50,000 interviews. It was just allowing the Royals and the world to see him in his proper light, because he was so horribly labeled and photographed.
“It was like watching vultures feast. The photographer said, ‘Don’t worry, I will take good care of your dad, and nobody will even see.'”
Samantha Markle, who previously used the surname Grant, said she asked the photographer to stay 100 yards away and be “discreet” but her warning fell on deaf ears.
Photographer Jeff Rayner, of agency Coleman-Rayner, and Thomas Markle were filmed on CCTV as they set up a photo shoot at the Omega internet cafe near his home in Rosarito, Mexico.
The story broke in U.K. tabloid the Mail on Sunday shortly after Kensington Palace had issued a warning to journalists to respect his privacy.
Samantha Markle wrote: “When I saw some of the photographs, I was delighted, until I saw an article that said he ‘staged photographs.’
“I nearly choked, when I saw photographs of the photographer walking 3 feet behind my father, as seen on an Internet Cafe surveillance camera. I was guaranteed that he would not be visible, and I’m sure he knew that the camera was there on the ceiling, so I felt as though I had been baited, and so had my father.