Additional Coverage:
- Inside Meghan Markle’s Relationship With Father Thomas Markle Sr. Amid His Health Trouble (usmagazine.com)
The Markle Family Drama: A Deep Dive into Meghan’s Rocky Relationships
The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has long faced a challenging dynamic with her father, Thomas Markle Sr., a situation that intensified significantly with her courtship and marriage to Prince Harry. This familial rift has been a recurring headline, painting a complex picture of a family under the intense glare of the royal spotlight.
Meghan, 44, is the sole child from Thomas Sr.’s eight-year marriage to Doria Ragland. However, Thomas Sr. also shares two older children, Thomas Markle Jr. and Samantha Markle, with his first wife, Roslyn Loveless, to whom he was married from 1964 to 1975.
The pre-wedding period for Meghan and Prince Harry’s May 19, 2018, ceremony at St. George’s Chapel brought the family’s troubles to a head. Thomas Sr. was accused of collaborating with a paparazzo to stage photographs of himself trying on a suit near his Rosarito, Mexico home, allegedly in exchange for financial compensation.
Meghan’s half-sister, Samantha Markle, publicly admitted in May 2018 on the British talk show Loose Women that she orchestrated the photo opportunity. While she acknowledged her role, Samantha vehemently denied that the motivation was monetary.
“I have to say I am entirely the culprit,” Samantha stated, explaining her intention was to present her father in a more favorable light, dispelling unflattering media portrayals. “I said, really you need to show the world that you’re getting in shape and doing great healthy things.
So I suggested [the photo].”
Thomas Sr. himself confessed in a May 2018 interview with the Mail on Sunday that he had misled Prince Harry during a phone call, claiming he was merely “being measured for a hoodie” when the staged photos were taken. He recalled Harry’s warning: “Harry told me that I should never go to the press.
That it would end in tears. He said, ‘They will eat you alive.’
He was right.” Thomas Sr. admitted Harry was “absolutely right” about the negative impact of staged photographs on the royal family, even acknowledging a heated phone call with the Prince that ended with him hanging up.
Despite the tension, he maintained, “I’m not mad at Harry. I’m not mad at Meghan.
I love them. I wish them well.
But as for the rest of it, … I’m done.”
Ultimately, Thomas Sr. did not attend his daughter’s royal wedding, citing heart surgery he underwent just days before the ceremony.
The Duchess of Sussex later offered her own perspective on the controversy in her 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan. She recounted a phone call with her father: “H[arry] and I called my dad.
I said, ‘They’re saying you’re taking money from the tabloids to stage photos. Is this true?’
He says, ‘No.’” Meghan described offering to send someone to his house to help him avoid media swarm, an offer he declined.
“He said, ‘No. I have things I need to do.’
And it felt really cagey. I was like, ‘It doesn’t make sense.’
And when we hung up, I looked at H[arry]. I was like, ‘I don’t know why but I don’t believe him.’”
Prince Harry, in the same Netflix special, expressed a sense of responsibility for the breakdown of Meghan’s relationship with her father. “She had a father before this,” he stated, referring to Meghan’s life before the royal spotlight.
“Now she doesn’t have a father. I shouldered that.
Because if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad. It’s amazing what people would do when offered a huge amount of money.
Fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, to hand over photographs, to create a story. And thank God most of them said no.”
In the years following their estrangement, Thomas Sr. has voiced a desire to reconcile with his daughter, hoping that his grandchildren, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, could meet their cousins. This desire extends to the paternal cousins as well, as Meghan and Harry’s strained relationship with Prince William and Kate Middleton has also kept Archie and Lilibet from being close with Princes George, Louis, and Princess Charlotte. While Prince Harry reportedly mended fences with his father, King Charles III, during a U.K. visit in September 2025, reports suggest “tension” persists between Harry and William.
Thomas Jr. echoed this sentiment in a June 2024 interview with the Daily Mail, stating, “The relationships between cousins is a special one. There’s a unique bond. I feel sad that Lilibet and Archie don’t have the chance to get to know their cousins and take part in things like Trooping the Colour, which is their birthright.”
Recent reports indicate ongoing health struggles for Thomas Sr. In December 2025, Thomas Jr. confirmed to the Daily Mail that his father was hospitalized in the Philippines in intensive care due to a serious health issue.
“I took dad to a hospital close to our home and they did various scans and the doctors said his life was in imminent danger,” Thomas Jr. explained. “They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the center of the city.”
He added, “My dad has undergone emergency surgery. I would ask everyone around the world to keep him in their thoughts.”
This latest health crisis follows a stroke Thomas Sr. suffered in 2022 and earlier reports this year that he had to deny being trapped in his home after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck the Philippines in late September. The ongoing saga of the Markle family continues to unfold, leaving many to wonder if a reconciliation will ever be possible.