Sorry tale that will leave bitter taste for Harry and Meghan
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 how he would “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 look-alike” – of “ambushing” her dad.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Our meeting was nothing but cordial, even jovial at times 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 that 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 had conspired with the paparazzo to fake cash-rich pictures, Markle is no longer accompanying 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 former lighting director is now undecided over whether to attend the wedding, at one point saying he no longer wanted to embarrass the Royal Family or his daughter after his scam was uncovered.
Of course, he has been ground down, no doubt with the lure of money, by the relentless pursuit of photographers but even before these pictures emerged he was faking videos with a close friend which she then sold. Surely he must have thought the scam would one day be exposed. 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 has 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. Thomas Markle, I was told by his family, would hate nothing more than to have the eyes of the world upon him when he walks Meghan down the aisle. Now he could well have his wish if he does not attend, and reports that he is having heart surgery this week seem to confirm he won’t. But long after he’s spent the paparazzi’s shilling what Markle will really be left with is a daughter and son-in-law who will mistrust him for ever more.
Of course, he has been ground down, no doubt with the lure of money