Meghan Markle’s estranged father has found love again after striking up a romance with a nurse 35 years his junior following a serious health scare.
Thomas Markle, 81, says he is “overjoyed” to be in a relationship with Rio Canedo, 46, whom he met while recovering from life-saving surgery in the Philippines.
The retired Hollywood lighting director has faced years of turmoil, including a leg amputation that nearly killed him and a long-running rift with his daughter Meghan Markle following her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.
But he now insists he has found happiness again — brushing off criticism by declaring: “haters will hate”.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Markle said Rio has brought him “peace and happiness” after years of feeling “sad and neglected”.
The 81-year-old, who has never met Harry or his grandchildren, has endured a string of health problems. His most recent scare came when a blood clot cut off circulation to his foot, leaving him fighting for his life.
He spent four days in intensive care before undergoing a long recovery in hospital and a specialist rehabilitation unit, where he met his now partner Rio Canedo.
According to media reports, Rio works in Cebu in the Philippines where Thomas Markle moved in 2025 for a quieter life.
She is a mother of two grown children and reportedly had no idea who Markle was when they first met, but refers to Markle as “Sir Tom”.
It is understood Rio was a key part of Markle’s recovery, responsible for actively managing his health, ensuring a no-sugar diet and that he was staying hydrated while he recovered from pneumonia.
Speaking to the Daily Mail about the pair’s age-gap, Markle said: "I never expected to find joy and happiness again at my age. I felt neglected and sad for so many years, but now I am enjoying life again.
“After so many tough times, I feel truly blessed to have found someone very special who takes such good care of me. I know some people will say hurtful things, but I don't care."
Rio, who wants to be a teacher, has a 16-year-old son who is about to graduate secondary school and a 22-year-old daughter who is at college studying to be a pharmacist.
Meghan, 44 — just two years younger than Rio — has been estranged from her father since before her wedding, when he suffered two heart attacks and was unable to walk her down the aisle.
Charles, then Prince of Wales, stepped in instead, while Markle watched the ceremony from a £23-a-night Airbnb.
Despite his latest ordeal, reports claimed Meghan did not immediately contact her father after his leg amputation, although she later sent him a letter.
His son, Thomas Markle Jr., had earlier urged the Sussexes to get in touch, revealing his dad was “heavily medicated” and “hooked up to all kinds of machines”.
Markle has battled ongoing ill health in recent years, including a stroke in 2022 that left him needing speech therapy. He had lived in Mexico for a decade before relocating to the Philippines in January, where he now lives in a £500-a-month high-rise flat on Cebu.
Concerns were also raised last year when his daughter Samantha claimed he was trapped on the 19th floor during an earthquake — though Markle later insisted he was “fine”.
The father-daughter relationship was once close. Meghan lived with him from the age of 11 to 18 while her mother travelled, and in 2014 she described him as “thoughtful, inspiring, hardworking”.
Their bond fractured ahead of her wedding after it emerged Markle had staged paparazzi photos of himself preparing for the big day — something he later admitted.
“He told me ‘they are going to love it and they are going to love you’,” Markle said of a man who claimed to be a PR expert.
Speaking to GMB, he added: “They would take pictures of me grabbing a beer, taking the garbage out, buying a toilet and making a big deal of it.
“I thought this would be a nice way of improving my look. But that was a mistake.”
At the time, however, he told Harry and Meghan he was merely being “measured for a hoodie”.
Recalling the incident in their 2022 Netflix documentary, Meghan said she confronted her father — but did not believe his denial.
“It felt really cagey… and when we hung up, I looked at Harry. I was like, ‘I don’t know why, but I don’t believe him.’”
A furious phone call between Markle and Harry — while Markle was recovering in hospital — proved to be the breaking point, with Markle hanging up during the row.
He has since remained close to his other children, with Thomas Jr. now acting as his carer following the move to the Philippines.
Markle says the relocation was partly to find privacy — and to escape constant reminders of his fractured relationship with his famous daughter.
