Charles Allegedly ‘Never Understood’ Meghan’s Beef With Her Dad — Even ‘Berated’ Harry Over It
Despite an early bond with Meghan, insiders say Charles became 'bewildered' by her estrangement from her father.
King Charles and Meghan Markle once shared a warm rapport, so much so that he stepped in to walk her down the aisle when Thomas Markle pulled out of the Sussexes' wedding. But that early affection didn’t last. As time went on, their relationship began to strain, initially because, by several accounts, Charles could never understand her fractured relationship with her father. Long before their fallout with the Palace, this was the first fault line.
The issue began in 2018, in the chaotic lead-up to Harry and Meghan’s wedding. At the time, Thomas’s decision to pose for staged paparazzi photos triggered a falling out with his daughter, ultimately resulting in him missing the ceremony. Royal author Tom Bower writes in Revenge that Charles and Queen Camilla appeared to be forging a genuine bond with the newlyweds, particularly during a trip to the Castle of Mey in Caithness. Harry even recalled in Spare that the “bond between Meg and Pa” was “always strong” and had grown "even stronger during that weekend.”
As the Markle family drama continued to spill into the tabloids, Charles’ patience reportedly thinned. According to Bower, the King’s “bewilderment with the American” grew as Meghan made it clear she would not mend fences with her father, especially as Thomas continued giving interviews criticizing her. The author said that Charles struggled to grasp her position, “never really understood her or what she wanted.”
The tension reached a point where Charles 'berated' Harry about it. As Bower recounts, Charles asked, “‘Can't she just go and see him and make this stop?’” pressing his son for an explanation. Meghan, for her part, reportedly felt that her in-laws “fundamentally don't understand” the depth and complexity of her estrangement. According to Bower, Harry “endlessly explaining the situation” did little to persuade them.
As the situation spiralled and Thomas kept turning up on new channels, adding to the embarrassment, the pressure inside the Palace intensified. According to Bower, both Charles and the late Queen grew increasingly exasperated by the steady drip of headlines and the relentless commentary directed at the royal family. At one point, the late Queen is also said to have floated what she believed was a practical solution — Meghan should go to Mexico, face her father directly, and attempt to calm the storm herself.
During Meghan’s week-long stay at the Castle of Mey that July, Bower claimed that Charles urged Harry for the same. But Meghan saw it very differently. Her response, Bower notes, left both Charles and Camilla shocked. The Duchess rejected the plan outright, arguing that it bore no resemblance to reality. Bower wrote that Meghan had argued it was “completely unrealistic to think she could fly discreetly to Mexico, arrive unannounced at his doorstep as she had no means of secure communication with her father, to a location and residence she had never visited or known, in a small border town... and somehow hope to speak privately... without causing a frenzy of media attention and intrusion that could bring more embarrassment to the royal family.”
