Meghan’s unseen family album
(And her mum’s wacky wedding)
HE IS the elusive father who has yet to meet the prince his daughter is set to marry.
When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement, it came as a surprise to many that, while Harry has met her yoga-teacher mother Doria several times, he has yet to meet his future father-in-law, Tom Markle.
‘He’s talked to my dad a few times but he hasn’t been able to meet him just yet,’ Meghan says.
Indeed, so reclusive is Tom, 73, that the only pictures of him made public so far date back years, sometimes decades.
But the Mail on Sunday can now show Prince Harry – and the world – how Tom Markle looks in an exclusive photograph taken two years ago when he returned to his tiny Pennsylvanian home town to see friends.
A 6ft 3in ‘bear’ of a man, he has grown noticeably in stature since retiring from his job as an awardwinning TV lighting director in Los Angeles and becoming a ‘total recluse’, living in a ramshackle rented clifftop home in sleepy Rosarito Beach, Mexico.
‘Dad never liked the limelight, but since the news came out about Meghan and Harry he’s become a total recluse,’ his estranged son Tom Jr, 51, told the MoS this week.
‘I haven’t seen him in years. He hates the attention Meghan’s romance has brought on to him. He loves her but hates the idea of being in the spotlight.’
Our exclusive picture was taken in October 2015 when Tom returned to Newport, a town of just 2,000 people, where his lifelong friend Loretta Strawser, 76, attended a gathering at the home of her sister Linda.
Dressed casually in a checked shirt and stained jeans and clutching a mug of coffee, Tom proudly talked about his actress daughter.
‘Tom’s a great guy and we all had a lot of fun catching up,’ Loretta said last night. ‘He’s always been very proud of Meghan.
‘He talked about her career and the things she was doing. Tom is very laid-back and likes his life of seclusion. He doesn’t like to be in the spotlight.’
Harry’s future father-in-law also displayed a sense of humour about his portly figure. According to one friend, he jokingly referred to his ample stomach as his ‘money belt’.
On another visit to Newport five years ago for his high school class’s 50th reunion, Tom turned up unexpectedly at the door of childhood friend Ron McGowan.
‘I opened the door and there was Tom and he joked, “Do you have any room for an old, fat, bald man?’’’ recalls Ron.
‘My wife Pat and I wanted him to stay overnight with us but he said no. He said his daughter told him he snores too much and would keep us awake, so he was to check into a hotel, and that’s what he did.’
Tom Markle was raised in a modest clapboard house in Newport by mum Doris, who worked at the local ‘five-and-dime’ store, and dad Gordon, who worked on a nearby US Air Force base as a clerk.
He, Ron and schoolmate John Seiders were known as The Three Musketeers as teenagers at Newport High School in the 1960s.
The trio were the stage crew for the school’s amateur theatrical society and worked on lighting and scenery design – which led to Tom’s career as an Emmy award-winning director of TV shows such as Married… With Children. ‘Tom was very popular and outgoing and had a great sense of humour,’ says Ron.
‘He was tall and skinny and had dark hair and he walked around with his shirt collar turned up, which the teachers didn’t like. He had a lot of girlfriends.’
The three friends drove around in their cars or hung around the town square.
‘We’d find someone who was older who would buy cigarettes or beer for us. We thought we were bigshots,’ recalls Ron, laughing.
Tom enjoyed talking about Meghan, according to his old friend.
‘He produced a photograph of her in a blue dress and was showing it to everyone. He just beamed when he talked about her.’
Tom, who declared bankruptcy last year, lives a modest life in Mexico. Sources say he rarely ventures from his home, where he spends his day sending emails to friends, watching old movies and eating junk food.
But Tom Jr says he is certain his father will make it to St George’s Chapel for Meghan’s wedding in May. ‘Dad loves Meghan more than anything,’ he said. ‘Meghan has always been her daddy’s princess and he will be there when she marries her real-life prince.’