Thomas Markle has broken his silence after his daughter Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, told talk show host Oprah Winfrey that she felt betrayed by her father in the lead up to her royal wedding with Prince Harry.
Markle appeared on ‘Good Morning Britain’ where he stated that his entire family had been ghosted by Meghan following her marriage into the royal family, but he continues to love her even today. The estranged father also addressed the statement made by Meghan during the interview where she revealed she had contemplated suicide while pregnant with her son Archie.
“I’ve been pushed around and knocked down for one thing I did. For one big mistake I made and I have apologised for it as many times as I possibly can. However, I love my daughter very much. Had I known that she’d been having psychological problems, I would have been there for her,” Markle said on ‘GMB’.
Addressing his daughter’s call for help during her pregnancy, Markle further added: “The biggest problem here is that she pretty much ghosted all of her family. On her mother’s side and my side. So, she really had no one to reach out to. She would’ve had us if she kept us.”
Markle claimed he was upset when he heard of his daughter all alone and harbouring such dark thoughts. “It really did upset me. Like I said, she could have reached out to anyone in her family who she claims she doesn’t know but the other thing is, I would think she could turn to her husband.”
Markle also stated he wished to end the rift with Meghan. “I have never stopped loving my daughter. I don’t always agree with the things my children do, but I never stop loving my children. She can be angry with me … but I’m still her dad and if you ever read Tig [Meghan’s former blog], there’s a thing on Tig where she talks about me. And she makes a statement where she says there should be more guys like my dad. So, there must be some good left here somewhere.”
During her sit down with Winfrey, the Duchess of Sussex spoke about her distance with her father in the lead up to the wedding in 2018. “There was such an obsession about anything in my world, including tracking down my parents… Once they did, I remember being told there was a huge headline like, ‘We found him’ or ‘We’ve got him.’ You’re talking about someone’s father. And from that point, the tabloids, they moved into the apartment next door and across from him. Descended on this small town, which is giving him gifts. The whole thing brings us to where we are today,” Meghan said.
When Winfrey prodded further, asking Meghan whether she felt betrayed by her father for eventually speaking to the UK tabloids, Meghan said she did not know if she was comfortable “even talking about that.”
She further added: “If we were going to use the word betrayal, it’s because when I asked him, when we were told by the comms team, this is a story that was going to be coming out, which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a really key point in all this. The tabloids do not report news, they create the news.”
The Duchess of Sussex said her father said he had “absolutely not” been speaking to the press when she called to ask him. “I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our own kids one day,” Meghan added.
She continued saying she offered to help her father if he told them the truth. “He wasn’t able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.”
Markle was set to walk Meghan down the aisle during the 2018 church ceremony, but dropped out after the British press reported he was paid to pose for photos that showed him getting measured for his wedding suit and making other preparations. Ultimately, Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle at the wedding, with Markle later stating he regretted pulling the stunt.
He has reportedly never met Prince Harry or his grandchild, Archie.
During their tell-all with Winfrey, Meghan and Prince Harry said the hounding by the British press and the racial bias that the Duchess was subjected to for months finally led up to her contemplating suicide.
