Meghan’s dad lost his daughter’s trust along with privacy
In the two years since his daughter’s relationship with Prince Harry emerged, there were more reported sightings of Bigfoot than Meghan Markle’s father.
While the American actress was one of the most photographed women in the world, Thomas Markle became an elusive, almost mythical, gentle giant of a man.
Whereas the royal bride-to-be seemed totally at ease in front of the cameras, her 73-year-old father cast himself as a shy, intensely private man with an allergy to publicity.
For years he was non-existant until late last year Mr Markle finally emerged from his Mexican bolthole. In December, I travelled to the quiet seaside coastal village where he lives hoping to speak with him about his daughter’s wedding to Prince Harry. Respecting his home, I approached him in the nearby town’s high street, handed over a congratulatory bottle of champagne and asked him about Meghan’s big day.
In a soft voice, belying his size, he told me he’d “love” to walk Meghan down the aisle before adding: “Out of respect for the palace, I cannot speak further.” The encounter led to his daughter Samantha accusing me – in her words a “Prince Harry lookalike” – of “ambushing” her dad. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Our meeting was nothing but cordial, even jovial, but it also left me feeling distinctly sorry for him.
In the months when I saw him again, he gave the impression of a lonely ageing man, the kind you want to sit and chat with so they have the interaction we all crave.
Last week the question everyone had been asking about him was finally answered. Despite his awkwardness in front of crowds he was to give Meghan away on Saturday. But now, after it was discovered he conspired to fake cash-rich pictures, Mr Markle is no longer seeing his daughter to the altar. The pictures themselves were comical.
One set showed the pensioner running with weights, while another pictured him reading a book about Britain in a Starbucks. The most hysterical was him being fitted for a suit only for it to emerge the “tailor” was a teenager they armed with a tape measure.
The former lighting director will now not attend the wedding after having a heart operation and at one point saying he no longer wanted to embarrass the Royal Family or his daughter.
Of course, he has been ground down by the relentless pursuit of photographers but even before the faked pictures emerged he was faking videos with a close friend which she then sold.
On a human level, it is hard not to feel some sort of compassion for a man who had sought a life of reclusive solitude but now finds himself at the centre of the biggest celebrity news story in the world.
The reality is that Thomas Markle’s life, like that of many others close to Meghan, changed beyond recognition the day she decided to marry her prince.
The harsh truth, however, is that despite everything he revealed himself to be both woefully naïve and shockingly greedy.
The development will especially hurt Meghan because so many of her other family members have already behaved like the worst kind of shameful, flawed misfits in the run-up to her marriage.
Long after he had recovered from his surgery and spent the paparazzi shilling what Mr Markle will really be left with is a mistrusting daughter and son-in-law forever more.
He gave the impression of a lonely ageing man you want to chat with