Harry told me off as I lay in hospital after heart attack, says Meghan’s dad
Latest gems from Mr Markle
‘They gave me no help at all’
Maybe it would be better for you guys if I was dead... then you could pretend to be sad
Harry told me that I should never go to the Press. That it would end in tears. He said: “They will eat you alive.” He was right
I’ve lost 40lb since my heart attack. I eat fish and vegetables and stay on a 2,000 calorie-a-day diet. I’m not the weirdo schlubby dad living in a shack in Mexico drinking beer and eating McDonald’s
RELATIONS between the Duchess of Sussex’s father and the royals sank to a new low yesterday after he made a string of claims about how the couple and the Palace have treated him.
In another explosive interview, Thomas Markle claimed he hung up on Prince Harry in a heated exchange after he was exposed for staging paparazzi photos for cash days before the wedding in May.
The 74-year-old claimed that the prince had ‘rudely’ called him as he recovered from a heart attack in hospital and berated him before Mr Markle cut off the call, saying: ‘Maybe it would be better for you guys if I was dead...’
Mr Markle also claimed he was told there was ‘no room’ for him to give a speech as father of the bride at the wedding and that he did not even receive an invitation – while his ex-wife Doria Ragland was hand delivered a scroll bearing the Queen’s formal announcement by two representatives at her Los Angeles home.
‘No one came to my door in Mexico. I would have liked the engagement announcement too,’ he said, adding that the was never even sent one of the 600 formal wedding invitations issued under Prince Charles’s name.
Mr Markle also criticised the Palace for ‘hanging him out to dry’ and leaving him ‘totally isolated’ by not giving him any advice on how to deal with the Press attention after the engagement.
The latest claims, published in the Mail on Sunday yesterday, will no doubt further damage his already strained relationship with 37-year-old Meghan.
Despite recent rumours of a rapprochement between the two, the Daily Mail understands the duchess has no immediate plans to contact her father and will deal with the issue ‘in her own time’.
It is understood that this is not the first time father and daughter have been estranged and have in the past gone for long periods without speaking.
Their current estrangement has already lasted three months and came after Mr Markle was exposed for staging paparazzi photographs of himself being measured for a suit before the wedding.
Yesterday he admitted that he had lied to Prince Harry when the couple rang him to ask if he had co-operated with photographers, telling him: ‘No, I was being fitted for a new hoodie.’
But days after footage emerged of Mr Markle posing for the shots, Harry called again.
By now Mr Markle was in hospital after a heart attack which had forced him to pull out of walking his daughter down the aisle days before the wedding.
The retired Hollywood lighting director claims the furious prince told him: ‘If you had listened to me this would never have happened.’
Mr Markle said he was upset at the call and replied: ‘Maybe it would be better for you guys if I was dead... then you could pretend to be sad’ before hanging up.
In hindsight, he admits Harry was ‘absolutely right’ to criticise him for dealing with the paparazzi for money but described the timing of the phone call as ‘rude’.
In the past the pair, who have never met, enjoyed ‘warm and chatty’ conversations on the phone in which Harry had warned him to avoid the paparazzi.
Mr Markle, who has a home in a hilltop community in Rosarito Beach in Mexico, recalled: ‘Harry told me that I should never go to the Press. That it would end in tears. He said, “They will eat you alive”. He was right.’
He also said that he has been left exasperated by the ‘constant lies’ being printed about him and with his life being ‘ruined’.
Mr Markle blames the Palace for not helping him deal with the media circus following news of his daughter’s engagement.
He says he ‘was given no advice whatsoever except not to talk to the Press. I was hung out to dry. I was being chased and harassed on a daily basis. I didn’t know who to turn to... They gave me no help at all. I felt utterly isolated.’
Mr Markle added: ‘I’m not mad at Harry. I’m not mad at Meghan. I love them. I wish them well. But as for the rest of it, f*** it. I’m done.’
He has already caused the Palace severe embarrassment several times by speaking about his daughter and son-in-law.
In interviews he has claimed that Harry was ‘open to Brexit’, said that his daughter looked ‘terrified’ in her new role and that she wore a ‘pained smile’, and alleged that
Harry’s late mother Princess Diana would have ‘loathed’ the way he is being frozen out by the Royal Family.
Royal officials are said to have held several crisis meetings on how to handle the PR crisis caused by the dysfunctional Markle family.
Kensington Palace declined to comment last night.