Thomas Markle Jr., the actress’ half-brother, spoke to theDaily Mail in a video interview about the prince’s comments and saying that while his words weren’t “upsetting” they did seem to come out of the blue.
“It was just a little shocking because Meghan had an amazing, amazing childhood growing up and she had a lot of family,” Markle Jr. said. “Especially at Christmas and the holidays, she had Christmas at my house, Christmas at her mom’s house, my dad’s house.”
He continued, “So, as far as ‘the family that she never had,’ I don’t really get that.”
Markle Jr. added that his father, Thomas Markle Sr., and Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, “would be confused” about Harry’s comments considering the importance of family holidays while his sister was growing up.
“My dad was the biggest anchor in everybody’s lives and the holidays were really important to him,” Markle Jr. said.
She has a large family. She always did. Our dad is amazing and completely self-sacrificing. We made it so that she had two houses. How fun it was! — Samantha Markle (@SamanthaMGrant) December 27, 2017
Meghan’s half-sister, Samantha, has also spoken out about her fiancé’s comments, tweeting, “She has a large family. She always did. Our dad is amazing and completely self-sacrificing. We made it so that she had two houses. How fun it was!”
The backlash from Meghan’s family comes after Harry’s comments during a special edition of Radio 4’s Today program where the 33-year-old royal discussed Meghan’s “fantastic” first Christmas spent with his royal relatives.
“There’s always that family part of Christmas [where] there’s always that work element there as well, and I think together we had an amazing time,” Harry said. “We had great fun staying with my brother and sister-in-law and running around with the kids. Christmas was fantastic.”
He added of Meghan adapting to family traditions, “She’s done an absolutely amazing job, she’s getting in there and it’s the family that I suppose she’s never had.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.