Thomas Markle just doesn’t get it.
After his daughter cut off communication with him because he gave a series of interviews to the press, he has now given yet another live TV interview in which he begged his daughter to speak to him.
And, to make matters worse, Markle appeared to endorse a story that emerged this weekend that Meghan is a control freak—Harry, 34, and Meghan, 37, have apparently been nicknamed Monica and Chandler by royal staff because of her micromanaging style in a reference to the hit sitcom Friends.
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Speaking to breakfast show Good Morning Britain, Markle said: “She has always been a very controlling person and that’s part of her nature. But she has never been rude… She has always been in charge, that’s her nature.”
Markle said that he has written “hundreds” of letters and texts to Meghan that have not been answered.
He said that he was giving up keeping quiet, because although he had not done an interview “for six months” she had still not called.
In fact, Markle gave an on the record interview to the Mail on Sunday which was published on 8 December in which he paraded all of her childhood letters and photographs, and revealed that guests at her wedding were given ‘party bags’ of marijuana.
Prior to that, he gave a nine-hour interview, also to the Mail on Sunday, which was published on the last weekend of July.
At the same time, he gave an interview to The Sun in which he threatened to come to England and confront Meghan on her birthday (Happy Birthday!) and said his daughter’s vivacious spirit was being crushed by royal life.
In the new interview, Markle criticized Meghan and Harry for “believing everything they read in the papers” about him, saying they were doing exactly what they had urged him not to do.
He said he was “hopeful that soon something will be resolved and we will be talking.”
Of his daughter’s pregnancy he said: “I’m certainly hoping that everything goes well and they produce a beautiful baby, and I’ll get to see a a little Meghan or a little Harry, that would be very nice.”
Asked if he were confident it would happen he replied, “I’m hopeful.”
Markle, who spoke haltingly at times, veered between hostility and self-pity in the interview.
At one stage, he appeared to issue a warning to the royals that he would give further interviews when he said: “I don’t plan to be silent for the rest of my life, she has to know that.”
While many are horrified by Meghan cutting off her dad, it might be worth recalling the actual sequence of events that has led to the current impasse.
Markle was forgiven by Meghan when he admitted he had been paid to pose for staged paparazzi pictures which sold for thousands of dollars ahead of the royal wedding. He was still asked to walk her down the aisle.
He chose not to attend the wedding, citing health reasons.
He has admitted that Meghan and Harry called him immediately after the ceremony.
“I spoke to Meghan and Harry briefly after the wedding. It was mostly me and Meghan. They were talking about coming to visit me. I spoke to them both and wished them a happy honeymoon. That was the last call.”
The facts of the matter are that Meghan stopped talking to him after he gave his first embarrassing interview to Good Morning Britain, just six weeks after the wedding, for which he admitted he was paid several thousand pounds.
Without Harry and Meghan’s consent he revealed details of private conversations with Harry and criticized the couple for not calling him.
In the new interview, apparently timed to create maximum pressure on Meghan just days before Christmas, he said: “I've been trying to reach out for several weeks, every day I try to text her, I just haven’t received any comment back.”
Markle added: “I’m confused by it.”
Really?
