Prince Harry says he has “shouldered” responsibility for his wife Meghan Markle’s fractured relationship with her father, Thomas Markle.
Meghan, 41, and Harry, 38, speak out in their own words about their relationship, family, royal life and more in their Harry & Meghan docuseries on Netflix, in which the Duke of Sussex says “it’s incredibly sad” how his wife and father-in-law disconnected.
The Duchess of Sussex and her dad became estranged in 2018 days before her wedding to Prince Harry when Thomas staged paparazzi photos with a British tabloid and, according to Meghan, lied to her about talking to the press. (Thomas, 78, later expressed regret over the incident.)
Thomas decided not to attend the wedding after the arrangement with paparazzi to stage several photoshoots ahead of the big day was revealed.
Said Prince Harry in the third episode of Harry & Meghan, “Of course, it’s incredibly sad what happened. She had a father before this and now she doesn’t have a father.”
“And I shouldered that because if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad,” the prince added.
Meghan said in the series that she was urged to call Thomas to find out if he was colluding with paparazzi for a story.
“H and I called my dad. I said, ‘Look, they’re saying you’re taking money from the tabloids to stage photos. Is this true?’ He says no,” she recalled, adding that they offered to have someone come and get him from Mexico before media could swarm his home as a result of the story that would come out.
“And he said, ‘No, no, I have things I need to do.’ And it felt really cagey,” Meghan said. “I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense.’ And when we hung up, I looked at H. I was like, ‘I don’t know why, but I don’t believe him.’ ”
Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland said she was “absolutely stunned” that her ex-husband “would become part of this circus.”
“And sad that the media would run with this. That he would capitalize,” she added. “Certainly as a parent, that’s not what you do. That’s not parenting.”
Meghan alleged that her father “wouldn’t pick up [her] call” in the week leading up to her nuptials, saying, “Instead, you’re talking to TMZ. And I’m finding out that you’re not coming to our wedding, through a tabloid.”
“And then suddenly they were saying he was in the hospital,” she went on. “What’s going on? Please just pick up the phone. Like, what’s going on? We’re not mad. Just please pick up the phone.”
“Even once it was said in the media, [we] just kept calling, [saying] you know, ‘What’s going on? Don’t understand what’s going on. Are you okay? What hospital are you at?’ I mean, all of us, we’re just trying to understand what was going on,” the Duchess of Sussex continued.
Harry & Meghan. A Netflix Global Event.
Volume I: December 8
Volume II: December 15 pic.twitter.com/WpFzVEC7Yx— Netflix (@netflix) December 5, 2022
Meghan and her father have not spoken since the images were printed in the U.K. and last communicated via text while he was recovering from heart surgery in the lead-up to her May 2018 wedding at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
“At that point we pretty much said goodbye,” Thomas said on Good Morning Britain in March 2021, alleging that he ultimately hung up a call because Harry had texted him, “If you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened to you.”
“Me laying in a hospital bed after I’d had a procedure and getting a stent put here and a stent put here (points to his chest), felt that that was kind of snotty, so I hung up on him,” Thomas added. “And that’s the last conversation we ever had.”
The first three episodes of Harry & Meghan are now streaming on Netflix.
[via]
