Meghan Markle’s brother-in-law is charged with domestic violence

Meghan Markle’s brother-in-law has been charged with domestic violence after allegedly hitting her sister Samantha in the face during a late-night bust-up, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Mark Phillips, 62, was booked into the Polk County Jail on December 14 before being released the same day pending trial.

An arrest affidavit obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com reveals that cops were sent to Samantha’s home in Lakeland, Florida, at 1am on December 14 after the pair rowed over her needing help to use the toilet.

Wheelchair-bound Samantha, 56, told police that Phillips, who works in storage unit clearance, had hit her in the face during a fight.

According to the report, Phillips had become angry after being asked to help her off the toilet late at night and then slapped her ‘on the right side of her face in the ear area’ during the ensuing row.

Phillips fled the scene but was arrested later after police decided he was the ‘primary aggressor’ – charging him with one count of domestic violence.

He now faces a court date in the new year, with the case listed as being in the pretrial stage.

Samantha has been estranged from the Duchess of Sussex since 2008 and has never met Prince Harry or baby Archie.

She has repeatedly hit out at her sister over her refusal to contact their father, Thomas Markle Sr, 76, and has derided her as ‘Princess Pushy’ and a ‘social climber’.

Samantha also has a strained relationship with her brother Thomas Jr, 53, who is currently living with their mother Roslyn in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Thomas Jr is also no stranger to the law and was arrested several times by cops in Grants Pass, Oregon, over his drunken fights with ex-fiancee Darlene Blount.

Samantha, who has been living in Florida with Phillips since 2016, has also had regular contact with the law – some due to her volatile relationship with Phillips.

Police in their former home Albuquerque were repeatedly called to their house – with one incident listed as a domestic abuse call.

Both were also involved in a series of bust-ups with Samantha’s ex-husband Scott Rasmussen, 60, with the warring exes repeatedly taking out restraining orders against each other.

One report, dated June 29 2015, says Rasmussen and their daughter Noel had to be accompanied by police officers when they went to Samantha’s home to collect Noel’s things.

During the custody battle, which ended with Noel’s 18th birthday in October 2016, Phillips was accused of harassing Noel with abusive text messages, which have been seen by DailyMail.com.

In them, he calls her a liar and adds: ‘Perjury is a serious charge and you will not lie or you will be charged and granny as well.’

Another incident involving Phillips took place on July 29 2015 when he was accused of being abusive to Noel inside court, according to an affidavit filed by Rasmussen.

According to documents seen by DailyMail.com, Phillips shouted: ‘Stupid f***ing b***h’ at the 18-year-old as she passed him in the corridor.

More recently, Samantha and Phillips faced ridicule after calling the cops over a car crash allegedly caused by paparazzi in May 2018 – which was later found not to have happened.

Samantha had told TMZ she had been forced to go to ER with a broken ankle after the alleged incident and shared a photo of herself looking miserable in hospital.

But Lt. Kim Montes of the Florida Highway Patrol told DailyMail.com that there was no evidence it had ever happened.

She said: ‘We looked for three hours last night. She lives in Ocala but there’s no toll roads in Ocala.

‘The nearest toll road would be the turnpike so we checked the turnpike, we checked I4, we checked all these other roads.

‘We checked by her name, we checked by his name and we didn’t find any reports. So we don’t know if this actually happened.

‘We can’t find any reports basically from all of central Florida. We can’t find a report by name or a scenario that was similar to this.’