“The Tension Between Meghan Markle and Her Father: What’s Keeping Him from Meeting His Grandchildren?”

Meghan Markle’s strained relationship with her father has attracted widespread media attention. The two have been out of contact, with reports suggesting that Meghan has restricted her father’s access to his grandchildren due to their ongoing feud.

Meghan Markle, who became part of the British royal family through her marriage to Prince Harry, has two children with him. While she enjoys a close relationship with her mother, Doria Ragland, her relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, deteriorated, leading to a highly publicized estrangement.

Meghan Markle and her father, Thomas, once shared a warm relationship. In a 2021 interview, Thomas emotionally recalled the moment of Meghan’s birth in 1981, saying he was the first to hold her and had been in love with her ever since. Thomas, who has two older children from his first marriage, expressed deep affection for his daughter.

Meghan also reflected on her childhood in an essay for Elle magazine, where she shared that her parents met in the late ’70s. Her father worked as a lighting director for a soap opera, while her mother was a temp at the studio.

After marrying in 1979, Meghan Markle’s parents settled in a charming, affordable neighborhood in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. While Meghan had a close bond with both of her parents during her early years, her family life changed when her parents divorced in 1987.

As Meghan Markle’s acting career progressed, she eventually met Prince Harry in 2016. However, during her rise to fame and high-profile relationship, her father made a mistake that would later strain their relationship.

In 2017, as Meghan and Prince Harry became engaged, Thomas Markle faced health issues, including a heart attack just days before their May 2018 wedding. He revealed that stress, partly caused by his eldest daughter’s public comments about Meghan, contributed to worsening his condition.

Thomas Markle revealed that he hadn’t heard from Meghan since it was announced he wouldn’t be attending her wedding. However, he expressed that he felt her mother was a good choice to walk her down the aisle. After a brief hospital stay in Mexico, Thomas voiced concerns about his health, fearing he might experience another heart attack.

Just before the wedding, Meghan Markle issued a statement through Kensington Palace, announcing, “Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding.”

In her father’s absence, Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle. Thomas Markle later expressed his appreciation, saying, “I certainly couldn’t have asked for a better replacement. Although, I would love to have done that.”

Thomas Markle missed Meghan’s wedding after facing backlash for selling staged photos to a photo agency. He explained that he never intended to harm Meghan or the Royal Family but was frustrated by the paparazzi, who frequently captured him in unflattering situations and often misrepresented him.

Thomas Markle revealed that he had turned down high-paying interview offers since Meghan began dating Prince Harry. Instead, he accepted a smaller fee from a photo agency, hoping the staged images would improve his public image. However, he later admitted that the photos appeared “stupid and hammy” and expressed regret over his decision.

Thomas Markle’s secret collaboration with a British paparazzo to stage photos caused significant embarrassment for the Royal Family ahead of Meghan’s wedding. This situation was especially problematic given Prince Harry’s earlier pleas for media restraint.

The situation was particularly upsetting for Prince Harry, who had previously spoken out against paparazzi behavior, recalling how similar actions had contributed to his mother, Princess Diana’s tragic death in 1997.

During Thomas’s recovery in the hospital, Harry reached out to him, saying, “If you’d listened to me, none of this would have happened.”

Thomas Markle reportedly ended the call with Prince Harry abruptly, a decision he later regretted, recognizing that it marked the beginning of their rift.

After the fallout, in July 2018, Thomas confided in friends that he hadn’t spoken to Meghan or Prince Harry for a long time. He expressed fears that he might never see his daughter again.

Heartbroken over the growing estrangement, Thomas Markle expressed a sense of finality, saying, “I think they’re shot of me now,” as he struggled to understand why he had been excluded from Meghan’s life. He later claimed he had been set up to disrupt the wedding, portraying himself as a victim in the situation.

The strain between Meghan and her father deepened when a personal letter she had written to him was leaked by a media outlet. This breach of privacy prompted Meghan to take legal action against the outlet for sharing the contents of her private message.

Due to their ongoing rift, Thomas Markle has never met Meghan’s two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, who were born in 2019 and 2021, respectively. In a 2023 interview, Thomas expressed his wish to see his grandchildren and revealed that he first learned of Lilibet’s birth through media reports.

The distance between Meghan and her father deepened after Thomas suffered a stroke in May 2022, which temporarily left him unable to speak. He shared that neither Meghan nor Prince Harry had reached out to check on him.

Reflecting on this, Thomas admitted, “I’m heartbroken. I’m very upset,” describing the situation as painful and “cruel,” especially being kept from seeing his grandchildren. The animosity between father and daughter continues, with Thomas reportedly no longer considering Meghan his daughter.

In a candid interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan discussed her strained relationship with Thomas, recounting how the intense media pursuit led tabloids to track down her father, even setting up near his home.

Meghan shared that she had tried to protect him from the press, but Thomas ultimately went behind her back to speak with them. Feeling betrayed, she explained that he had essentially lied about his involvement, which played a significant role in their estrangement.

Despite the ongoing conflict, Thomas Markle believes he was a good father and feels he does not deserve the treatment he’s received from Meghan. His ultimate hope is for his daughter to reach out, bridging the distance that has kept their family apart.