Thomas Markle takes aim at Oprah over Harry and Meghan interview, amid fears he won’t see his grandchildren
Meghan Markle’s alienated father has taken aim at Oprah and compared his treatment to worse than an ‘axe murderer’.
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Meghan Markle’s estranged father has taken aim at his daughter and her husband Prince Harry, claiming he is being treated worse than an “axe murderer” as he fears he may never meet his two grandchildren.
The Sussexes last week welcomed their second child, Lilibet Diana, following the birth of their first child, Archie, in 2019.
Thomas Markle, who claims to have received no phone call from Meghan to tell him of Lilibet’s arrival, said he’d be “very disappointed” if he didn’t get to hold his granddaughter.
Mr Markle, 76, told the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes that most of the men in his family did not make it past 80 years old, and he was worried that could mean he would not meet either of the youngsters.
“Yeah, there’s a good chance that I might never see my grandchildren. I’m not looking for pity. I’m just saying that’s a reality,” Mr Markle said.
The Duchess of Sussex apparently turned her back on her father after he was outed for staging paparazzi shots ahead of her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018.
Asked by the current affairs program’s reporter Tom Steinfort whether it “hurt” that his daughter was not speaking to him, Mr Markle said: “Of course it hurts.
“There are axe murderers in prison. Their family comes to see them. I’m not an axe murderer. I made one dumb mistake and I’m never getting forgiven for it.”
He also criticised Megan and Prince Harry for frequently preaching compassion, but not practising it.
“There’s no compassion for me. There’s no compassion for my family, and there’s no compassion for the royals,” he said.
Mr Markle also said he believed that Oprah Winfrey was “playing Harry and Meghan” to “build up her network and build new shows”.
“And I’d say she’s taking advantage of a very weakened man and getting him to say things that you just shouldn’t be saying,” he said.
When asked if he thought Oprah had seen the “frailties” of the pair and “decided to cash in on that”, he said: “I think so.
“Now she’ll, she’ll disagree. Of course. And she might sue me. I don’t care. But the bottom line is, it seems to me she’s working Harry.”
There has been a long-running rift between the Sussexes and the House of Windsor, which was on display back in March during a bombshell interview with Oprah.
Meghan claimed that when she was pregnant with Archie, members of the royal family had “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be”, while the Duke of Sussex said his brother Prince William and father Prince Charles are “trapped” within the monarchy.
In Prince Harry’s recent docu-series The Me You Can’t See, co-presented by Oprah, the Duke underwent therapy on camera to deal with the demons of his troubled childhood.
Mr Markle said he felt sorry for the him, but added: “He contradicts himself so much.
“It’s like with my daughter, he said my daughter was thinking of suicide. And he went through the royals and they wouldn’t help him.
“Well, you don’t go to the royals. You pick up the telephone when you call a doctor. That’s like saying, I want to leave the house, but nobody opened the door. That was stupid.
He said the biggest mistake the Sussexes had made was stepping down as senior royals and leaving the UK for their new life in California and added that Meghan knew what she was marrying into.
His home in Rosarito, Mexico is about a 3.5 hour drive from where his daughter and Prince Harry live, but he said he would never show up on their doorstep.
“I’d never do that. That makes me a stalker. I’m not a stalker,” he said.
He said that Harry should “stop giving away all the secrets about the royals”, and love his grandmother the Queen and his father as much as his wife and children.
Mr Markle had not given up hope of a reconciliation with the Sussexes, but he had “no idea” if his daughter still loved him.
“I haven’t spoken to her since I was laying in a hospital bed two days before they got married, that’s the last conversation we had and I haven’t spoken to her since.”
QUEEN CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY WITH ’MINI’ PARADE
For the second year in a row, the Queen’s official birthday celebration has been observed with a modified event due to coronavirus.
The monarch’s calendar birthday is on 21 April but her official birthday is marked publicly on the second Saturday of June each year with a grand military parade known as Trooping the Colour, in which the Household Division marches carrying a regimental flag known as a colour.
Trooping of the Colour has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for over 260 years and this year’s version of the event proceeded in line with government advice.
This year’s Trooping the Colour saw a scaled-down parade led by the Scots Guards in the grounds of Windsor Castle, rather than through central London near Buckingham Palace.
This year’s parade was formed by soldiers who have played an integral role in the UK Covid-19 response, as well as those who have been serving on military operations overseas.
The Guardsmen marched in precise formation while maintaining a social distance of just over two metres from each other as Her Majesty, dressed in pale lavender, watched from a small pavilion.
The Queen’s cousin, the Duke of Kent, also attended the event, but Her Majesty cut an isolated figure although she appeared to enjoy watching the proceedings.
According to the BBC, the military officer in charge of planning the parade said his aim was to improve upon last year’s effort and to create a “memorable and uplifting day” for the monarch.
“Last year we had 85 on parade, this year we’ve got 274, plus 70 horses, so we’re really excited about the event having grown and getting us back to normal for next year we hope,” said Lt Colonel Guy Stone.
“What we want to do more than anything is give the Queen a memorable and uplifting day.”
The event was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19 and a small ceremonial tribute took place at Windsor.
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