It appears Meghan Markle’s new life is having a serious effect on her brother’s relationship.

Take New Year’s Eve for example.

Markle, recently engaged to Prince Harry and slowly edging her way into the British Royal family one singing toy hamster at a time, spent the evening in the billionaire’s playground of Monaco.

Her brother, on the other hand, was beaten up by his fiancée.

We have met him before, back when we gave you a brief introduction to her embarrassing family members. His name is Tom Markle, 51, and he shares a father with Meghan.

Tom made the list after being arrested last year for “brandishing a gun at his girlfriend in a drunken rage”.

This time, however, it was his fiancée’s turn behind bars.

On New Year’s Eve, Tom was “pummelled” by Darlene Blount, 37, “in a row at a roadside bar,” in Grants Pass, Oregon, reports IOL.

So classy.

Now, the couple [above] has “vowed to attend alcohol and relationship counselling” after Blount was put in jail for two nights.

Tom blamed the relationship’s woes on “the incessant pressure of being in the public eye during her relationship with Prince Harry”:

“It hasn’t been easy. Meghan’s relationship with Prince Harry has shone a spotlight on our family. It doesn’t help when you have issues and your sister is engaged to royalty.

“It adds a whole new level of scrutiny. We’ve been under a lot of stress because of all the attention. At some point you find yourself drinking too much to escape the pressure.”

Speaking of the night, Tom admitted he “said some swear words”:

At first he said Miss Blount began ‘pummelling me in the face with her fists,’ but later claimed his injuries were self-inflicted. She was arrested for fourth-degree assault in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

All the while, Meghan and Harry were somewhere “very private and very expensive”:

The couple are rumoured to have begun their New Year’s Eve jaunt in a low-key fashion by sitting in economy class during a scheduled British Airways flight to Nice.

According to reports, they sat at the back of the plane, taking up three rows with three bodyguards. They are then said to have taken a £710 helicopter trip to Monaco, where they spent two days celebrating before returning to London.

Details of the party are being kept secret and Kensington Palace has declined to comment on the Monaco trip and the Oregon arrest.

Perhaps Harry’s words during Christmas, suggesting the Royals are the family Meghan “never had”, had a little more meaning behind them.

[source:iol]