On May 19, 2018, Meghan Markle walked down the aisle of the St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle to join Prince Harry at the altar. But it was not her father who was walking beside her down the aisle. It was her father-in-law, Prince Charles, who took on the role because her own father, Thomas Markle, could not attend the wedding.
A few years have passed since that gorgeous wedding ceremony took place, and a lot has happened within the royal family as well. However, Thomas Markle still hasn’t met his son-in-law, Prince Harry, in person. He has also not once met either of his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, according to the Daily Mail.
The estranged father is now making threats about taking Meghan Markle to court so he can meet his grandchildren.
“We shouldn’t be punishing [Lili] for Meghan and Harry’s bad behavior,” Thomas Markle said in a video obtained by Fox News. “Archie and Lili are small children. They’re not politics. They’re not pawns. They’re not part of the game. And they’re also royal and entitled to the same rights as any other royal.”
“…I will be petitioning the California courts for the rights to see my grandchildren in the very near future,” added the father who once worked as a Hollywood lighting director.
In the video, Thomas Markle also made remarks about Prince Harry’s new tell-all memoir that is set to release next year.
“Harry doesn’t have too much more to tell,” Thomas Markle said as he slammed the idea of his son-in-law’s book. “After three sessions with the psychiatrists and Oprah Winfrey, I don’t know what more is there to tell.”
As 77-year-old Thomas Markle spoke from his house in Rosarito, Mexico, he also claimed that he would wholeheartedly welcome Prince Harry’s side of the family to his home.
“Of course, they would be invited to my home at any time,” he said.
Right before Meghan’s wedding to Harry, Thomas said he would not be able to attend his daughter’s wedding because he had a heart attack. Following the wedding, the father and daughter’s relationship grew tenser after Meghan found out that he had been going behind her back to speak to the press.
“There was such an obsession about anything in my world, including tracking down my parents,” Meghan said in her interview with Oprah Winfrey, as quoted by CBS News. “And I did everything I could to protect both of them in that media frenzy.”
Meghan revealed that the media hunted down both her father and mother, but only one of them revealed personal information about her without giving her any warning.
“If we were going to use the word betrayal, it’s because when I asked him, when we were told by the comms team, this is a story that was going to be coming out, which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a really key point in all this.”
When Meghan called her father to ask him if he had spoken to the press, he said: “absolutely not.”
“So he basically lied to you,” Oprah said.
Apart from speaking about her personal life to the press behind her back, Meghan found it even more hurtful to see him blatantly lie about it.
“…That for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother,” she said. “…I mean, I look at Archie. I think about this child and… I can’t, I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child.”
