Real Reason Why Meghan Markle Has Refused to Fly Down and See Her Father
As Meghan Markle’s troubled relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, comes under the spotlight again, a royal commentator has offered fresh insight into why an olive branch from the Duchess is unlikely to come. She argued that the breakdown stems from Thomas' actions before her 2018 royal wedding that have permanently damaged trust.
Royal expert Emily Andrews described the ongoing estrangement between Meghan and her father as a “deeply sad saga.” As per Women and Home, Andrews blamed Thomas's "collusion with the media" as the 'key' reason why Meghan won’t see him again despite his leg amputation. While Meghan is known to have tried to reach out with a letter, Thomas continued to argue otherwise to the media, continuing his previous patterns of involving the press.
The expert said, “Meghan and her dad used to be very close. But after he posed for some rather innocuous staged paparazzo shots at his home in Mexico, and then lied about it to Harry and Meghan, the relationship completely deteriorated.” The said photographs, sold and circulated at the time of Meghan and Harry’s wedding, had Thomas in staged scenarios, such as him reading books about the British royalty. Shortly before the wedding, he suffered two heart attacks and couldn’t travel. Andrews mentioned, “I remember breaking the news to Harry’s Communications Secretary that he wasn’t coming. He had no idea.”
Andrews shared that Meghan didn’t hear the news of her father’s hospitalization through him, but from media reports. “Meghan then apparently deleted Tom’s phone number and the two hadn’t spoken since... The Duchess let it be known that it was her dad’s alleged ‘collusion with the media’ that had been a major factor in the breakdown of their relationship.”
The expert suggests the outcome was far from inevitable. She cited a Palace insider who shared an alternative scenario: “A courtier told me if Meghan and Harry had brought over her Markle family a couple of weeks before the wedding, put them up in a nice hotel and had them looked after by Palace staff, none of this would ever have happened.” She believed that early intervention could have helped prevent the fracture of the bond.
She stressed, “Instead, poor Tom Markle (who paid to put her through private school and university) is learning how to walk with a prosthetic limb, knowing he will likely never see his daughter again. No one emerges as the victor here. Least of all Meghan.” Echoing the sentiment, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond had also told The Mirror, “As I have often said, families are complicated. None of us truly knows what has gone on between Meghan and her father, but it is a very sad situation when a daughter cannot simply pick up the phone to her dad.”