Prince Harry shared why he “shouldered” the blame for Meghan Markle’s estranged relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, in the third episode of their new Netflix series, “Harry & Meghan,” which premiered on Thursday.
“It’s incredibly sad what happened; she had a father before this and now she doesn’t have a father,” the Duke of Sussex said. “And I shouldered that because if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad.”
Harry and Meghan discussed her rocky relationship with her father — and the drama leading up to her wedding day with Harry in 2018 — in the episode.
Days before the wedding, the Mail on Sunday broke the story that Thomas Markle had staged photos of himself appearing to prepare for the royal nuptials in collaboration with a photographer. He admitted in a Channel 5 documentary in 2020 that he was still making money off them.
Thomas Markle, who said he had a heart attack days before the wedding, did not actually attend the ceremony. He has since given several interviews about Harry and Meghan to the press.
During the episode, Meghan also said that she and Harry had called her father before their wedding to ask him if he was staging photos for the press and that he had denied it.
Meghan said that she told Harry after they got off the phone with her father that she didn’t believe him.
“And I’m finding out that you’re not coming to our wedding, through a tabloid!” she said later in the episode after sharing that she had repeatedly called her father, to no avail.
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.