‘How much have you made?’: Meghan Markle’s sister grilled on ’cashing in’ claims

SINCE Meghan and Harry first started dating, Samantha Grant has been selling stories and photos of her to the media. Today that came back to bite her in an awkward moment.

MEGHAN Markle’s romance with Prince Harry has certainly earned her extended family a buck or two.

Front and centre in the cash grab is her estranged half-sister Samantha Grant, who’s spent the past 18 months giving countless interviews in which she both publicly slammed Meghan and also (unsuccessfully) begged for an invitation to the royal wedding.

She’s working on a tell-all book, controversially titled The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister — which she claims has attracted the interest of TV and film producers — and sold childhood photos of herself and Meghan to various outlets.

Samantha also cashed in on the actual wedding by having a TV crew inside her Florida home with her as they watched the big event - for a big fee.

MORE: Samantha Grant slams Meghan’s mum for ‘cashing in’

Samantha and Meghan have the same father, but Samantha only recently began using the surname Markle and was previously known as Ms Grant.

Speaking to 2DayFM’s Em, Grant and Ed in her first interview since the wedding, Samantha — who is wheelchair-bound due to multiple sclerosis — was grilled on exactly how much she’s pocketed from this ongoing media blitz.

And it was clearly not something she wanted to answer.

“Well, uh, you know, I think it was obvious from the beginning … I still don’t have a wheelchair-accessible house so it’s not that much,” Samantha responded awkwardly, before offering up a hint at her fee.

“Just to give people a snapshot of how it really was — if I do one interview and they pay me $1500, 10,000 publications will copy that and write their own story, that’s how it works.”

During the interview, Samantha also defended herself against claims she’s been cashing in on the royal romance.

“It’s not cashing in, to share fond feelings and memories,” she began, before host Em Rusciano interrupted: “But it is to accept money for those fond memories and photos — you are exactly cashing in.”

“Here’s what’s fundamentally wrong — if family and friends don’t make any money, the journalist and tabloids are going to make tonnes money and they have less right to make any money than the family,” Samantha retorted.

“But why do you have the right to make money off your sister?” pressed Em.

“It’s not off her … it’s off my personal photos that I was in, so if their my memories, my life experiences, my photos, I certainly have more right to make money off them than any journalists or tabloid photographer,” Samantha replied.

Two of the childhood photos shared by Samantha.

Samantha also defended advising her father to stage paparazzi photos ahead of the royal wedding — which ultimately contributed to him not going.

“The only photos of him that were, quote, staged, were the ones of him engaging in a normal lifestyle because he had been purposely depicted in an unfavourable light,” she insisted.

“He did not accept any reasonable sum of money for them, the only ones who made money were the photographers, and he had turned down interviews twice during the year which were upwards of $50,000, so clearly he wasn’t money-motivated.”

Despite all the negative headlines generated by her fractured relationship with Meghan, Samantha claimed she’s still optimistic they’ll be able to move past it.

“I’m hoping that after [Harry and Meghan] have their honeymoon and have settled in, we will have time to communicate by phone … I will probably arrange her number from my father.”