Meghan Markle’s estranged father Thomas Markle appeared on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s sit down with Oprah, which aired in the UK on Monday night.
Speaking to hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid, he claimed Meghan had “ghosted” most of her family on both sides.
Meghan’s father claimed that his daughter no longer speaks to him, but said he does want a relationship with her, explaining that he now lives around “70 miles” away from the couple, but has never met Harry or his grandson Archie.
“The biggest problem is she has pretty much ghosted all of her family, on my side and her mother’s side,” said Mr Markle who did not attend the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding in 2018.
Asked by Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan why he keeps talking to the press, Mr Markle replied. “Because they [Harry and Meghan] are not talking to me”.
He continued: “If I don’t hear from [Megan and Harry] in 30 days, I’ll do a story for the press. When they start talking to me, I’ll stop talking to the press.”
Mr Markle also said he’d never felt protected after Meghan married Harry, and has been “attacked by the press every day”.
“Nobody was there to care for us, no one looked after us,” he said. “I was left out to dry.”
Learning of Meghan’s mental health issue during the Oprah interview – Meghan said she had contemplated suicide at her lowest moment – Mr Markle said: “Had I known she was having psychological problems I would have been there for her.”
Archie’s grandfather believes that he can repair the relationship with his daughter in the future. “She’s previously said ‘there should be more guys like my dad’. There must be something good here somewhere.”
Meghan’s relationship with her father became more complicated after a private letter between them became the focus of a privacy case between the duchess and Associated Newspapers.
Meghan won the case and the High Court ruled that the Mail On Sunday has to publish a front-page apology.
“Did it feel like betrayal when you found out your father was working with the tabloids?" asked Oprah Winfrey in her interview.
Meghan recalled asking her dad for the truth. "I said, 'I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can help.' And he wasn't able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother."
In the past, Meghan has commended her dad.
In an almost 1000 word emotional Father’s Day message in 2014 on Meghan’s blog The Tig, she wrote: “This is the same man who took apart two Barbie boxed sets (because you could only buy a white Barbie family or a black one), and made a custom one to bring home to me – his speciality set included a black Barbie mom, a white Ken doll dad, and two kids – one black and one white ...
“In celebrating Father’s Day, I think of so many moments with my dad. Our club sandwich and fruit smoothie tradition post my tap and ballet class – classes, which by the way, he religiously took me to on Saturday mornings after working 75+ hours a week as a lighting director."
