Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in a trailer for their upcoming documentary. Photo / Netflix
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in a trailer for their upcoming documentary. Photo / Netflix
Meghan Markle’s father has come forward denying claims about him aired in the Sussexes bombshell Netflix documentary.
The Duchess of Sussex, 41, said in the first instalment of the tell-all series that she attempted to contact Thomas Markle multiple times in the lead-up to her 2018 royal wedding with Prince Harry, after it emerged he had staged paparazzi photos for money.
Thomas, 78, was supposed to walk his daughter down the aisle at Windsor Castle but after the media storm surrounding his paparazzi set-up, he suffered a reported heart attack and ended up in a New Mexico hospital.
During the documentary, messages between Thomas and Meghan sent at the time flashed onscreen:
Private texts between Meghan and her father Thomas Markle shown in the Netflix documentary. Photo / Supplied
Thomas’s response, pictured above, led Meghan to conclude his phone had been “compromised”.
The giveaway, she said, was that he has always called her “Meg”.
“It was really weird. You know how people text, right? My dad used a lot of emojis and a lot of ellipses and dot, dot, dot, and this was just the opposite. And it called me Meghan. I was like, ‘He’s never called me Meghan any day that I’ve lived on this planet.’ And I was like, ‘That’s not my dad.’
“So then we knew that his phone had been compromised.”
Meghan and Harry's wedding photos shown in the trailer for part two of their Netflix series. Photo / Netflix
However, Thomas, who is recovering from a stroke he suffered in May, has since told the Daily Mail he was in fact behind the text in question.
“I wrote every word that I sent from that phone which is still in my possession,” he told the publication Sunday.
“For her to claim my phone was compromised is simply not true. I wrote that text as I lay in a hospital bed after having had two heart attacks and having stents put in.
“I wasn’t angry. I was in hospital. They never once asked how I was doing. When I got their messages I was upset. I thought I didn’t deserve those messages.”
Meghan and Thomas haven’t spoken since the incident, with Charles ultimately stepping in to walk his daughter-in-law down the aisle.
Harry, 38, who has never formally met Thomas, admitted he felt partially responsible for Meghan’s estrangement to her dad.
“It’s incredibly sad, what happened. She (Meghan) had a father before this and now she doesn’t have a father,” Harry said in the documentary.
“And I shouldered that, because if Meg wasn’t with me then her dad would still be her dad.”
The final three episodes of Harry & Meghan will be streaming on Netflix on Thursday, December 15.
