Meghan Markle's estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr., has claimed his daughter "destroyed" him in a candid interview featuring the Duchess's estranged family members.
In the "7News Spotlight" special, which aired on Sunday, the 78-year-old patriarch addressed Prince Harry's comments from his memoir "Spare," in which he wrote that Meghan mourned "the loss of her father" after his paparazzi scandal and subsequent absence from the couple's 2018 royal wedding. "It sounds as though you're dead," the interviewer observed, to which Thomas Sr. replied, "Exactly. She destroyed me and then mourned me."
Meghan and her father have been estranged since it was revealed that Thomas Sr. had staged paparazzi photos for money prior to her wedding to Prince Harry. He was initially slated to walk Meghan down the aisle, but the revelation led to Buckingham Palace announcing his withdrawal from the ceremony.
In the interview, Thomas Sr., who suffered a stroke last year, expressed his desire to reconcile with his daughter. "I wish that we can sit down and talk. I wish we could work out our differences," he said. "She loved me. I'm her hero. And suddenly, I was thrown out."
Meghan previously discussed her father's photo scandal during her and Prince Harry's 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey. She described her disbelief at her father's actions, saying, "I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. I can't imagine it. So it's hard for me to reconcile that."
In response to Meghan's statements about forgiveness in a 2021 interview with The Cut, Thomas Sr. questioned why she couldn't forgive him. "I have apologized to her multiple times for any hurt and pain I might have caused her. I love my daughter. She talks about forgiveness, so why not start with her own family? What about forgiving me?" he told Mail on Sunday.
The former Hollywood lighting director also challenged Meghan's claim that she had "lost" her father. "I am not lost. She knows where to find me. My number hasn't changed. I would love to hear from my daughter and meet my son-in-law and my grandkids for the first time," he said.
