Just when you thought Meghan Markle had enough family issues, another relative comes forward. The Duchess of Sussex’s 26-year-old nephew, Tyler Dooley, is in the news after getting into a massive brawl in Oregon — just hours before she gave birth to baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Tyler, the son of Meghan’s half brother, Thomas Markle Jr., has distanced himself from most of the Markle family, save for Meghan. Learn more about him, the altercation, and his life:
1. He injured his leg in a 20-person fight. Just 48 hours before Meghan gave birth to the royal baby on May 6, Tyler was involved in a gigantic brawl at Wonder Bur Lounge in Grants Pass, Oregon. Grants Pass PD confirmed the fight, and told The Sun that, “Mr. Dooley was shoved to the ground,” injuring his leg. The fight had broken up before officers arrived on the scene, and nobody was arrested. Tyler insists that though he injured his leg, he wasn’t involved in the fight.
2. He was on a short-lived MTV show called The Royal World. The British MTV show aired in late 2018, a “social experiment” set in the English countryside, starring young royals and aristocrats, like Baroness Jessica Heydel, Lady Camilla Juliet De La Poer Beresford, Marquess Maria Gabriella Diana… and Tyler(??). The show only lasted six episodes before getting cancelled.
3. He is a marijuana farmer in Oregon. Tyler grows and sells marijuana for medical use in Oregon, where it was legalized in 2015. When his Aunt Meghan got married to Prince Harry, Tyler announced that he created a new strain of weed called “Markle’s Sparkle” in her honor. The strain is sold at medical dispensaries throughout the state, and is a sativa-dominant hybrid, which helps with pain and anxiety.
4. He called out his father and aunt, Samantha Markle, for “embarrassing” Meghan. “It was never like we had a super tight-knit family before to be honest,” Tyler told The Sun in December 2018. “But the fact that now the whole world gets to see how my father or Aunt Samantha behaves, it is like an open wound for everyone to see. That’s the hardest part, the fact that there is no privacy. It is hard to deal with. It is embarrassing and sad all at the same time. My father and Aunt Samantha have sold my grandfather out, sold my family out, sold Meghan out. It has been hard to deal with.”
5. This wasn’t his only run-in with the law. Just hours after Meghan and Harry’s wedding, Tyler had his antique knife confiscated by police at Bacchus nightclub in Kingston, England. Tyler said he simply forgot that the knife was in his pocket when he went to the bar. “It was a complete accident. I’m a hunter and a fisherman, so I carry the knife around with me at home,” he told British media at the time. “I had no idea it was in my trousers when I was in London.”