Meghan Markle: Daddy’s girl!
Meghan Markle heaps praise on her mum, but the bride-to-be has a touchingly close relationship with her father, too…
With Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s big day just weeks away, it’s all got very real – not least for the father of the bride, Thomas W Markle.
We’ve heard a lot about her ‘free-spirited’ social worker mum, Doria, 61 (she and Thomas divorced when Meghan was six). But a series of sweet family photos, which emerged recently – including one of Thomas, beaming with pride beside Meghan at her graduation – confirm that the 36-year-old is also the apple of her daddy’s eye.
Thomas, who Meghan has called ‘the hardest-working father ever’, has said he would be ‘over the moon to walk her down the aisle’ but, apparently, has joked that he’d ‘need to wear a wetsuit’ because he’d be ‘sweating bullets’.
If he were nervous, it would be understandable. Thomas, 73, is not one for being the centre of attention, and lives a semi-reclusive life alone in Mexico. He’s more used to hitting the corner store to buy some ice-cold beers than facing the world’s media.
Walking Meghan down the aisle would be a big step, but a source close to Thomas was quoted as saying that ‘ he will do it for her, because that’s his daughter’.
Before deleting all forms of social media last year as she prepared for life as a royal, former Suits actress Meghan dedicated an adorable Instagram post to Thomas on Father’s Day in 2016.
‘Thanks for my work ethic, my love of Busby Berkeley films and club sandwiches, for teaching me the importance of handwritten thank-you notes, and for giving me that signature Markle nose. I love you.’
And it was probably her dad that instilled in her a love of acting. A retired lighting director, he has won two Emmy Awards for his TV work, and Meghan grew up watching him at work on TV and film sets.
Of her engagement, Thomas said, ‘I think it’s wonderful. I’m very happy for Meghan and Harry. I love my daughter very much – Harry’s a gentleman.’
Recently, he was seen reading a book called Images Of Britain, presumably in preparation for his arrival in the UK.
Whether Thomas walks Meghan up the aisle or not, there’ll be proud tears shed on 19 May. After all, who doesn’t want to see their little girl become a princess in a real-life fairy tale?
Thomas said he will be ‘sweating bullets’ if he walks Meghan down the aisle!