On July 18, 2024, Thomas Markle, Meghan’s father, will celebrate his 80th birthday. In an interview with Daily Mailhe expresses his disillusionment with his daughter… and compares her fate to that of Charles III.
After several heart attacks and a major stroke two years ago, Thomas Markle is feeling the weight of the years. He sometimes struggles to find his words, loses the thread and stumbles over sentences, not to mention the stabbing pain in his knees and back, as he explained in a recent interview with Daily Mail. In his home in the Mexican resort town of Rosarito, Baja California, many photos recall the happy times when he lived in harmony with his youngest daughter, Meghan, from his second marriage to Doria Raglan. The couple quickly divorced, but remained friendly. And by the age of 11, Meghan had come to live full-time with her father, a lighting director on Hollywood sets.
“I never imagined that Meghan would turn against me”
“I didn’t expect to reach 80, because the men in the Markle family never do,” Thomas says serenely. “My father died at 61. I had a good life and I’m proud of what I accomplished, but everything has been overshadowed by what’s happened in the last six years.” A deep affection linked him to Meghan until she married Prince Harry on May 19, 2018. Their bond then seems to have been broken. Thomas had just suffered two heart attacks, and he had imprudently let himself be approached by celebrity journalists: “Meghan was angry with me because I had posed for paparazzi photos before the wedding,” he recalls. “I was already over 70 years old and, even if I didn’t realize it at the time, I was vulnerable. I was totally alone and hunted. It was a mistake and I apologized for it several times.”
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The future princess will not only refuse to invite her father to her wedding, celebrated in St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, she will now cut all ties with him. “The one thing I never imagined is that Meghan would turn against me at this stage of my life. I thought she would always be there for me.” And the old man keeps repeating the same questions, without answers: “Why didn’t Harry ever come to meet me? He has the resources to travel the world – and he does – but why didn’t he come to see me? It never made sense to me. What man gets married without meeting his wife’s father?” Montecito, the Sussexes’ luxurious home, is only 400 km from Rosarito…
But what Thomas regrets the most is never having met his grandchildren, Archie, 5 years old, and Lilibet, 3 years old. After seeing George, Charlotte and Louis on the Buckingham balcony, during the last Trooping the Color, the grandfather protested: “It seemed very sad to me that Meghan and Harry’s children were denied the right to know their cousins, who seem like fantastic kids. They’re getting to the age where they’ll start asking questions. At some point, it’s inevitable that they’ll ask their parents why they cut them off. two sides of their family.”
Deep empathy for Charles III
In this regard, Thomas Markle assures that he feels “deep empathy” for Charles III: “Never, in my 80 years, did I think I would be in the same boat as the king. I would love to speak to him because I am sure he has as many unanswered questions as I do. None of us deserve the treatment we have received. He is undergoing treatment for cancer and I am not in any better health.”
He also worries about being accused by the Windsors of being indirectly responsible for Meghan’s bad choices: “The person she has become is not the daughter I raised, but I wonder if They blame the Markle family for everything that goes wrong. It upsets me that Markle’s name is now associated with negativity.markled) when they are dumped for no reason. It saddens me. When you look at what Harry and Meghan have done since then, like accusing the royal family of racism, it is far worse than anything I have ever done. I don’t want pity and I don’t want this episode to define my life. I don’t want to be a footnote in history.”
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Of course, Thomas is no longer hoping for a reconciliation, or even a frank explanation. “I wish we could have sorted this out. I’ve always been ready and willing to do that. I have so many questions I’d like to ask Meghan and Harry. The main one is why they treated not only me, but the royal family and the king so badly.” Without illusions, the Duke of Sussex’s father-in-law is not expecting any news on his birthday: “I know that the person I want to hear from most, Meghan, is not going to contact me. I would love to meet my grandchildren, but at this point I’ll settle for a photo.”
