Meghan’s new agony over dad’s appeal to the Queen
* That’s cutting off contact with no explanation – and Meghan’s father says it’s agonising. Now he wants the Queen to step in
The Duchess of Sussex’s father claimed yesterday that she is shunning him.
Thomas Markle revealed that he has not spoken to Meghan since her wedding to Prince harry in May.
The 74-year-old said he felt he had been ‘ghosted’ – where someone you care about cuts contact without explanation.
Mr Markle said he lives in hope that they can repair their relationship, and even pleaded for the Queen to help heal the rift.
In his first television interview since Meghan’s pregnancy was announced in October, Mr Markle said he had yet to receive a Christmas card from his 37-year-old daughter and her new husband, and had tried many times contact her.
‘I’m very disappointed by it – I’m not sure why it’s happening,’ he told ITV1’s Good Morning Britain from San Diego.
‘I’ve been trying to reach out for several weeks, every day I try to text her. I just keep asking her to respond back to me. I haven’t got any response back. I’ve sent a letter as well.
‘People are saying I should be quiet about this and not speak, if I don’t speak, they will speak to me. That hasn’t happened. I don’t plan to be silent for the rest of my life. I love my daughter very much and she has to know that. I would really appreciate if she would just call me, reach out to me somehow, send me a text, just say you’re there and you’re hearing me. Whatever differences we have, we should be able to work them out.’
he said he would be grateful if the Queen could step in to help heal the rift when harry and Meghan spend Christmas with her: ‘I would appreciate anything she could do. I would think she would want to resolve family problems. All families,
‘She will make a great mum’
royal or otherwise, are the same and they should all be together, certainly around the holidays.’
Mr Markle said he thought his daughter would be a good mother and is keen to be a grandfather to her child.
‘There has to be a place for me. I’m her father and I will be the grandfather to the children so all I can say is that I’m here, she knows it,’ he said.
‘I’ve reached out to her and I need her to reach back to me. I love her very much. I’m hopeful that soon something will be resolved and we’ll be talking. This can’t continue for ever.
‘I’m certainly hoping that everything goes well and they produce a beautiful baby. I think she’ll make a great mum and maybe things will soften a little bit and we’ll connect again.’
Mr Markle has long had a difficult relationship with Meghan and has never met harry.
Friends say Meghan has done her best to stand by her father over the years and is saddened.
She was deeply hurt when it emerged that he was being paid by paparazzi photographers to pose for staged pictures in the run-up to her wedding, but still insisted he should walk her down the aisle. however, he suffered a heart attack days before he was due to fly to Britain.
Mr Markle has since given several interviews complaining about their estrangement.
In recent weeks harry and Meghan have been beset by headlines about an apparent rift with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and alleged high-handedness with staff.
Asked about this by interviewer Piers Morgan, Mr Markle admitted his daughter was ‘controlling’ and liked to be ‘in charge’, but insisted she was never impolite.
‘She’s never been rude. The ghosting I don’t completely understand,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what’s really happening right now.’
he concluded his interview by wishing harry and Meghan a ‘merry Christmas’ and saying he would spend the festive period with friends in Mexico, where he lives, giving out presents to deprived children.