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Published 14:21 09 Mar 2021 GMT
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Published 14:34 14 Jun 2021 GMT
Thomas Markle has dealt a fresh blow to Prince Harry over his treatment toward his dad, Prince Charles.
Meghan's estranged father is maintaining his disapproving stance on his daughter and husband Harry after the pair made the decision to step down as senior members of the royal family last year.
But things have become even more intense as Thomas didn't hold back in slamming his son-in-law Harry during an explosive chat with 60 Minutes Australia.
In the interview - which took place three months after Harry and Meghan's own bombshell chat with Oprah Winfrey - Thomas called Harry "cold" for his actions towards his own father, Prince Charles.
Thomas' comments come after Harry accused his father Charles of "making him and William suffer".
His comments came after Harry criticized his dad in the third episode of his new Oprah documentary about mental health.
Entitled 'Finding What Works', the episode saw the Duke of Sussex open up about his relationship with Charles, saying: "My father used to say to me when I was younger and he used to say to both William and I 'Well, it was like that for me so it's going to be like that for you.' That doesn't make sense."
Thomas went on to slam Harry and Meghan's decision to repeatedly "abandon" the royal family, further criticizing the Duke of Sussex for the way he treated Charles.
Per Daily Mail, Thomas told 60 Minutes Australia: "I don’t like to say it but I’ve got to say it. I don’t know of anybody that is that cold to do this."
He then opened up about his own estranged relationship with daughter Meghan, calling her cold too, before adding: "And now like I said Meghan did it to me and now Harry’s doing it to his father.
"That’s a cold thing to do and even more cold to do it to the Queen who’s in her nineties. None of this makes sense."
Thomas added that he was largely confused over Harry's decision to turn his back on the royal family with Meghan.
"I’m not bitter, I’m confused I just don’t have the answer. I want the answer," he said. "If I had done something terribly wrong that would be fine but I haven’t. So I just want an answer."
When asked about whether he is to be blamed for the couple's estranged relationships with their families, Thomas said: “If I am [to blame] tell me why and how and I’ll try to fix it but I don’t know why or how."
Published 11:47 17 Jun 2021 GMT
Meghan Markle's father Thomas claims that Oprah Winfrey has taken advantage of Prince Harry.
Per Daily Mirror, the 76-year-old father of the Duchess of Sussex touched on the subject of the iconic talk show host while appearing on 60 Minutes Australia.
In a segment broadcast on Sunday, June 13, the retired lighting director alleged that Winfrey manipulated the couple into disclosing details of their lives for the sake of publicity.
Markle previously alleged that he'd slammed the phone on Prince Harry in a heated conversation with him:Per the above publication, Markle stated:
Take a look at Thomas Markle's full interview here:"Oprah Winfrey, for one, I think is playing Harry and Meghan.
"I think she is using them to build her network and build her new shows and I think she’s taken advantage of a very weakened man and has got him to say things that you just shouldn’t be saying on television.
"She will disagree of course, and she may even sue me, I don’t care. But the bottom line is she is working Harry."
Markle also claimed that he first heard the news of the birth of his granddaughter, Lilibet, on the radio, stating that he was not notified personally by Meghan, any of her representatives, or a by a representative of the British Royal Family.
Per Cosmopolitan, he went on to state that he has not met the newborn baby girl or his two-year-old grandson, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.
However, after stating that he felt that Meghan had "ghosted" him, he expressed his hopes that he would be permitted to see his two grandchildren in person one day in the future.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed their second child into the world in an announcement made on Friday, June 4.
Their baby girl was named Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor in honor of the childhood nickname of Harry's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, and his late mother Diana, Princess of Wales.
Per People, the press secretary for the Duke and Duchess said in an official statement: "It is with great joy that Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, welcome their daughter, Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, to the world."
The statement continued: "Lili was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 AM in the trusted care of the doctors and staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA.
"She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Both mother and child are healthy and well and settling in at home.
"This is the second child for the couple, who also have a two-year-old son named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. The Duke and Duchess thank you for your warm wishes and prayers as they enjoy this special time as a family. [sic]"
Published 12:03 19 Oct 2021 GMT
The Duchess of Sussex's estranged father Thomas Markle criticized Prince Harry's upcoming memoir.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Thomas claimed Harry wrote the book for money despite the duke's publisher previously saying he will donate proceeds to charity.
"Harry's coming out with a book, and that can't be anything but cruel and to insult his grandmother, the Queen. It's a ridiculous idea, and it's just something for money," Thomas said.
"That's all they're doing. Everything they're doing is for money."
The Duke of Sussex's memoir will be published by Penguin Random House in late 2022, Insider reports. The publisher did not say how much of the proceeds would be donated or which charity they would be donated to.
Harry said in a statement at the time that the book is being written "not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become."
"I've worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story - the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned - I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think," he said.
In another clip from the interview, Thomas said that his daughter Meghan has "pretty much disowned both sides of her family" and appeared to blame Harry.
He went on: "I've made it quite clear that until I hear from her, until she does speak to me, that I will continue to do this. She'd never been that way before, and once she hooked up with Harry, she changed.
"I will do a show at least a month, if I can get it through, and eventually sooner or later she'll start talking to me. This is way too childish, this is kind of silly, it's time to talk with each other, we're family.
"The kids are going to grow up without knowing that they have two families. This is more than just me and my daughter now, this is me and my daughter, her husband and two babies involved now, so it's time to do something. It's time to talk."
Asked if he has any communication with his ex-wife Doria Ragland, Thomas said: "I've tried a few times, I don't even know where her mother is at this point, I don't think she's in Los Angeles, or with Meghan and Harry. I don't know where she's at. I have tried to contact her."
In the wake of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's deeply personal interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, her father Thomas Markle has spoken out on the UK's Good Morning Britain.
It's been well-documented that Meghan is estranged from her father, who she hasn't spoken to throughout her time in the Royal Family.
Now, as the world comes to terms with the information revealed by the Duke and Duchess, Thomas Markle has shared his side of the story with GMB presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
Here are 11 important points to take away from Thomas's interview on Tuesday (March 9).
1. Thomas hasn't been in communication with Meghan since 2018Thomas said that the interview on Sunday was the first time he has heard his daughter speak in years. The last time they communicated on the phone was back in 2018 when he was in the hospital after having a heart attack.
The 76-year-old informed the former Suits actress that he wouldn't be able to attend her wedding.
During the phone call in which Thomas informed the pair that he would not be able to attend their wedding at Windsor Castle, he claims Harry jumped in to tell his stricken father-in-law-to-be, "If you had listened to me, this wouldn't have happened to you."
Given that he was lying in a hospital bed after having undergone a procedure, Thomas felt the remark was "kind of snotty" so he hung up. That was the last communication he had with either Meghan or Harry.
Thomas said that he continues to speak to the press because he never hears from Meghan or Harry despite attempting to reach out to them. "If I don't hear from them in 30 days, then I'll do another story for the press," he said. "And I have yet to hear from them."
Thomas went on to say that when they start talking to him, "I'll stop talking to the press."
Back in 2018, a deeper rift emerged between Thomas and the Duchess of Sussex when he took part in staged paparazzi photos.
In the faux photos, he was pictured researching royal palaces and being measured for a suit. Thomas admitted to the Good Morning Britain hosts, that he lied to Meghan about the staged photos.
The idea behind the photos came about from his eldest daughter. She was contacted by a photographer named Jeff Raynor, who told her he could make her father "look good".
Thomas said he was tempted to take up the offer as he had been the center of a number of negative headlines and wanted to rectify his image.
After the staged photos fiasco, Thomas says he told Meghan, "We all make mistakes," before harking back to Prince Harry's wild days as a younger man. Harry was famously pictured playing strip billiards and dressed in a Nazi uniform at a fancy dress party.
"We all make mistakes, but I've never played naked pool and I've never dressed up like Hitler," he recalled telling Meghan.
Attention was then turned to the letter that Meghan wrote to her father, which was published in the Mail On Sunday. Meghan recently won a case after she sued the paper for its publication of the private letter.
"I'm the one who released the letter -- part of the letter," Thomas reveals. He then explained why he decided to share the letter, explaining, "Meghan's friends were telling a story about me - mostly lies. And after reading these lies, I said I have to retaliate and release part of the letter."
Had Thomas shared the entire letter with the press, "you would have seen something that was, well, horrible," he insists. "It was so bad," he adds, before clarifying that he was referring to things Meghan had said to him in the letter.
Thomas said it "upset" him to hear during Sunday's interview that Meghan had experienced one of her lowest points during her in the institution of the Royal Family. She even admitted to Oprah that she'd had suicidal ideations and had told Harry she "didn't want to be alive anymore".
"Had I known she was having psychological problems, I would have been there for her," her father explained on Tuesday. "The biggest problem is she's pretty much ghosted all of her family - on her mother's side and my side. So she really has no one to reach out to."
Thomas said he was very "disappointed" about how the whole situation turned out - including the fact that he's never ever met his son-in-law or his grandson.
In response to Meghan's allegations of racism within the institution, Thomas said: "I don't think the British Royal Family are racist. I don't think the British are racist. I think Los Angeles is racist, California is racist, but I don't think the Brits are.
"This thing about what color will the baby be or how dark will the baby be - I'm guessing and hoping it's just a dumb question from somebody. It could be that simple. It could be that someone asked a stupid question rather than being a total racist."
"I love my daughter very much," Thomas tells the hosts. He also said he would love to hear from Meghan and Harry."
"[Meghan] didn't lose me," he says. "I'm there for her now if she wants me."
Published 08:24 13 Aug 2018 GMT
If you think your family has drama, then you should try life as a royal. Seriously; there's no group of people whose personal lives are more closely scrutinised than those of the royals, and their relationships are endlessly picked apart by the public and the media. It's extra difficult for them because the royals have to constantly appear unflappable and perfect at all times, and can't be seen to hold political opinions of their own. For many people, the idea of getting the chance to marry Prince Harry would seem like a dream come true. But I can't help but wonder how Meghan Markle is actually coping with the reality of being a member of the House of Windsor, especially when her relationship with her father and half sister is so ... strained.
For those who missed out on the drama, allow me to provide a recap. Meghan Markle's father Thomas Markle provoked a lot of controversy when it emerged that he had staged a number of photographs for the paparazzi. Meghan's half-sister Samantha defended him and claimed that it was her idea, stating that her father wanted "to show the world that [he's] getting in shape and doing great healthy things." Not only this, but Markle's ailing health meant that he was not available to walk Meghan down the aisle during her wedding ceremony, and since then Thomas Markle has been vocal in his condemnation of the Windsors.
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Now Samantha has come forward to criticise Meghan even more, and has called her a "greedy, arrogant, fake humanitarian," who has treated their father "inhumanely." In a recent interview, Samantha didn't care to mince words, and stated: "There would be no just reason for her not to want him in her life, as he was good enough to use to make her everything she is."
Meghan's brother Thomas Jr was also quick to criticise her, stating: "It's heartbreaki... (truncated for brevity)"
Published 10:43 25 Jun 2018 GMT
The royal wedding of former Suits actress Meghan Markle and the dashing Prince Harry was the social event of the year, and it feels like we're still gushing over all the picturesque glamour of the fairytale ceremony. But there was one cloud that hung over the gorgeous summer day, seeming to darken the whole event and cast a gloom over proceedings: the blushing bride's father, former TV lighting director Thomas Markle.
First of all, there was considerable media speculation prior to the wedding as to whether or not Thomas Markle would be fit to walk his daughter down the aisle. As it transpired, Markle was recovering from heart surgery, and thus was too unwell to perform his paternal duty, leaving Prince Charles to fill his shoes.
Things then took a turn for the worse when it was revealed that Markle had also staged photographs for the paparazzi, and been paid a hefty fee for doing so. In the wake of the controversy, his elder daughter Samantha (Meghan's half-sister) defended him, claiming that it was her idea and that her father wanted "to show the world that [he's] getting in shape and doing great healthy things."
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Now, Markle has given his first public interview since the scandal, after making an appearance on the talk show Good Morning Britain. Thomas stated that Meghan had cried when she learned that he was too sick to walk her down the aisle during the ceremony and that he now feels jealous of Prince Charles. Markle stated: "The unfortunate thing now is that I’m a footnote in one of the greatest moments in history – instead of a dad walking his daughter down the aisle."
He went on to discuss the moment when Prince Harry asked his permission to marry Meghan, to which he allegedly replied: "Promise me you’ll never raise your hand against my daughter. And of course I give you my permission." He also added that Meghan is keen to have children of her own, stating: "She’s wanted children for a long time and when she met Harry and she spoke about how much she loves him – there’s got to be a child in the making somewhere soon."
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But now a source close to Markle has told British newspaper The Sun that the 73-year-old apparently fears he's being "frozen out", stating: "There has been nothing from the palaces, which he is surprised about. He just hopes the interview hasn’t affected things... He wanted to discuss travelling to the UK, or the couple visiting him. He still hasn’t met Harry, and is desperate for it to happen." Markle is is also said to be upset he didn’t get a Father’s Day card from his daughter.
Although Thomas was paid for the TV interview, he stated that he hoped it would go some way towards repairing his tarnished reputation. Perhaps he hasn't been the best father of all time, but maybe the media should lay off him for a while. After all, no family is perfect: not even the House of Windsor.
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