Meghan Markle’s estranged father Thomas turns 81 today (Image: Channel 5)
As Meghan Markle’s dad, Thomas Markle, celebrates his 81st birthday, it will be a day full of mixed emotions, due to him making multiple public attempts to reach out to his estranged daughter over the years. Their relationship became strained when he posed for paparazzi photos before her wedding to Prince Harry.
Sadly, Thomas also suffered two heart attacks just before the ceremony, preventing him from walking his daughter down the aisle. Since then, Meghan and Harry have not communicated with Thomas, and he has never had the opportunity to meet his two grandchildren, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
Express.co.uk reveals five claims Thomas Markle has made about his daughter to date.
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1) “Meghan has never been authentic”
Thomas Markle criticised Meghan following the release of her Netflix cooking show, ‘With Love, Meghan’, branding his daughter “inauthentic”. He believes his daughter came across as inauthentic in the programme, which shows her cooking and mixing with friends and celebrity chefs.
He told the Daily Mail: “Unfortunately Meghan has never been authentic. She has to think about everything. She’s not spontaneous.
“Everything she says is pre-planned and rehearsed. It makes me laugh because I know all her looks and expressions.”
He claimed: “I know when she’s faking it for the cameras. She’s trying so hard to be perfect that she tenses up every time the camera is on her.”
Meghan Markle has allegedly not spoken to her father since her wedding (Image: Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images)
2) Thomas Markle will “always love” his daughter
Thomas Markle spoke to the Mail on Sunday amid the duchess’ return to Instagram and the release of a trailer for her new lifestyle show on Netflix, earlier this year.
Mr Markle said: “I wish her no ill-will. My dream is that one day I could bring my whole family together, like a normal family. There were good times. She was a good girl. I don’t like some of the things my daughter has done but I will always love her.
“My door is always open to her. I love her and that will never change. I love all my children.”
3) Meghan has “ghosted” her family
In March 2021, Meghan and Harry were interviewed by Oprah Winfrey about their life as working royals. During the sit-down, the Suits alum said, “I grieve a lot. I mean, I’ve lost my father. I lost a baby. I nearly lost my name. I mean, there’s the loss of identity.”
Mr Markle responded in an interview with Good Morning Britain, during which he said, “She’s 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’d kept us. We all make mistakes.”
Meghan has two half-siblings on her father’s side of the family – one of which is half-sister Samantha Grant, also known as Samantha Markle. Thomas Markle Jnr is the second half-sibling of Meghan and the son of Thomas Markle.
Thomas Markle has made a series of claims about his relationship with Meghan (Image: Getty / ITV)
4) Meghan Markle “got every girls’ dream”
Thomas, said in a clip for a Channel 5 documentary ‘Thomas Markle: My Story’: “With Meghan and Harry separating from the royals, it’s disappointing to me because she actually got every girl’s dream. Every young girl wanted to become a princess and she got that and now she’s tossing that away. … It looks like she’s tossing that away for money.”
Thomas heard about the birth of Lilibet ‘”on the radio'”
Thomas alleged that he heard about the birth of Meghan’s second child, Lili, from the press. He explained: “No phone calls, I just heard it on the radio,” he claimed to 60 Minutes Australia. He added: “I haven’t spoken to [Meghan] since two days before they got married.”
The former lighting designer added: “I’m not a tearful type … but I’m certainly hurt by a lot of it. There’s a good chance I might never see my grandchildren.”
Thomas Markle, the estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex, is now living in a £500-a-month high-rise apartment on the island of Cebu in the Philippines and moved from his long-time home in Mexico.