How the Palace’s failure to look after an overwhelmed Thomas Markle has left poor Meghan devastated just days before she marries Harry
THE timing was anything but impeccable.
As Prince Harry took to the airwaves with a pre-recorded talk about mental health, his future father-in-law was in the grip of a very public anxiety attack.
Now Thomas Markle, 73, who lives a reclusive life in Mexico, has ruled himself out of the royal wedding once and for all, saying he is having heart surgery.
Meghan’s father had earlier vowed to walk his daughter up the aisle after she begged him to be there – but he’s been forced to pull out for a second time.
And he says son Tom Jr triggered his heart scare by writing an open letter warning Harry not to marry his daughter this Saturday.
Now one of the bride’s pals has revealed Meghan’s turmoil over the saga.
The friend said: “Meghan has had her ups and downs with her dad.
What we know so far…
- Meghan Markle’s dad Thomas will reportedly undergo major heart surgery on Wednesday afternoon and WON’T attend the Royal Wedding on Saturday
- He’d earlier said he wouldn’t be attending for fear of embarrassing Meghan and the royal family over staged paparazzi photos
- The 73-year-old suffered a heart scare last week which he has reportedly blamed on an open letter by his son Tom Jr
- Mr Markle backed Meghan’s mum Doria Ragland to give her away instead after he pulled out
- Prince Harry was said to blame himself for the upset just days before the wedding
- But despite the chaos Kensington Palace sources said the wedding would still go ahead
- Piers Morgan slammed Meghan’s half-sister Samantha, saying she had been a media “vulture”, after she appeared on GMB to defend her dad
“But she thought the past year or so, she and her dad were in a good place. She’s been devastated by what’s happened.
“After the revelation he had staged those paparazzi pictures, she has felt so let down and majorly questioned his loyalties.
“He collaborated with the Press yet never condemned the actions of his other children Samantha and Junior, who were forever publicly disparaging Meghan.”
While history has taught us is that the royals are adept at looking after themselves, this latest episode has left many wondering: just who is looking out for Thomas Markle?
Clearly, the retired Hollywood lighting director has been left to fend for himself.
Palace sources indicate that he was offered significant help and advice — but he turned it down.
They also suggested that Meghan, 36, and Harry, 33, had tried to contact him before she finally got through yesterday.
Thomas said he had not heard from his younger daughter after it made global news that he was not going to the wedding.
But he said he had changed his mind after Meghan had called him.
As for the advice — maybe it was never offered or perhaps he refused it as a proud man who believed he could handle the pressure.
Either way, the Palace suits should have stayed in close contact because they must know the pressure is worse than he expected.
Now he’s so anxious he’s been “popping Valium for the pain, especially when I hear about my oldest daughter”.
That is Samantha Markle — Meghan’s estranged half-sister who hasn’t seen her for ten years and is not invited.
She has been shading Meghan as a “pushy princess” at every opportunity.
And why no intervention from the Palace?
Why has no one flown over to collect him, protect him behind castle gates and show some concern for a vulnerable man with heart problems?
Where did it all go wrong and who to believe in this sorry saga?
Thomas Markle Snr was a successful lighting director, but obviously bad with money.
After his retirement he declared himself bankrupt in 2016 with credit card debts of £24,181 and savings of just £160.
He moved to tiny Rosarito just across the US border with Mexico, hiding from the world in a ramshackle cliff-top house and not socialising with any of the expats.
Thomas was so upset after he was pictured earlier this year looking dishevelled, he wanted to control the narrative.
He colluded with a photo agency to get shots of him being measured for a suit, working out, reading a book on English history and looking at internet pictures of Harry and Meghan.
Then came the bombshell revelation that he was so embarrassed to have been rumbled taking cash for the snaps, that he was pulling out of the wedding.
Princess Diana’s best friend Rosa Monckton helped her pal dodge the paparazzi — but also knew how she used them for her own ends.
Rosa told The Sun: “He strikes me as a man who is out of his depth at every level on this and I don’t judge him at all.
“They should have advised him to hide up somewhere until after the wedding. He’s obviously very vulnerable and I don’t know what could have been done or should have been done to offer him more advice and protection.”
So should that advice have come from Meghan — the actress with a grasp of the pitfalls of global fame
To answer that you need to understand their up-and-down relationship. Thomas was overjoyed at the birth of his baby girl with second wife Doria Ragland and appears to have been a positive role model for Suits star Meghan.
Meghan has credited her dad — who won two Emmys — with being a huge influence on her career.
Describing him as “hardworking” and “caring”, she has said that he “invested in my future so that I could grow up to have so much”.
For a man from a poor family who grew up on simple dinners of “potatoes and spam”, this was helped by a £500,000 lottery win when Meghan was nine. Her half-brother Tom Jnr said: “That money allowed Meg to go to the best schools and get the best training”.
Thomas Snr overcame the racial prejudice of others to marry an African-American and helped develop his daughter’s social conscience.
He and Doria got hitched in 1979 but separated when Meghan was six.
However, Thomas stayed in close contact with his daughter.
Meghan recalled him buying a white Barbie family set and a black Barbie family — splitting them up to make “her” family. But as a teenager she didn’t want to see her father.
Driving through her home city of Los Angeles aged 18 with then-best friend Ninaki Priddy, she said she would not visit her dad as they “weren’t on the best of terms”.
But a post Meghan sent to her dad on Instagram on Father’s Day 2016 showed the extent of his influence on her and her love for him.
She declared: “To this day your hugs are still the very best in the whole wide world. Thanks for my work ethic, my love of Busby Berkeley films and club sandwiches, for teaching me the importance of handwritten thank-you notes, and for giving me that signature Markle nose. I love you xo — Bean.” It was accompanied by a photo showing Meghan as an infant laying on her father’s chest.
But a friend said of Thomas: “He’s always been a bit of a slob, selfish with no emotional intelligence.
“They didn’t really connect when she was growing up as a girl and didn’t bond when she was a woman.
“There were periods when they were closer — he helped her move to Toronto when she started Suits (in 2012). But as he’s become older he’s become much more reclusive.
“The man he is today is not the man he was even ten, 15 years ago. He just eats junk food, sleeps in, drinks and reads.
“She has helped him many times financially. But there just comes a point when you have to let go.
“Not exactly wash her hands of him but there is only so much she can do.
“Hence why she didn’t feel Harry had to meet him or that she needed her dad’s approval to get married.”
Thomas is now saying he will make the wedding — as long as doctors allow him to fly. Let’s hope for Meghan’s sake he does.