The Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, has said he will not allow her to “bury” him while he is still alive after Prince Harry claimed she was “mourning” his loss.
Mr Markle, 78, and his two other children, Meghan’s half siblings Samantha Markle and Thomas Markle Jnr, joined forces to take part in a television documentary in which they revealed the extent of the rift between the two sides of the family.
Mr Markle, who suffered a debilitating stroke last May, said his daughter had not called him in four years.
“If she doesn’t turn up for a stroke, if that doesn’t move her, what would?” he said.
In his memoir, Spare, the Duke of Sussex said that Meghan was “mourning the loss of her father”.
But Mr Markle told Australia’s Channel 7 Spotlight programme: “She killed me and then mourned me.”
He added: “I refuse to be buried by her.”
‘I was her hero’
The family released several videos of Meghan, 41, from her childhood, showing her variously swinging a baseball bat, jumping in the snow, and fishing by a lake.
Mr Markle admitted that he occasionally watched the videos.
“She loved me, I was her hero, and suddenly I was thrown out,” he added.
“She’s got to ask herself this every day ‘why am I doing this to my father?’
“Is it worth dumping me for the rest of my life? Is it worth denying me my grandchildren? Is it worth all of that! Is it worth getting rid of her father?”
The former lighting director said he might have hoped that the Duke, who had known loss following the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, understood the importance of staying connected.
He said he regretted posing for paparazzi pictures before the Duke and Duchess’s wedding and also for leaking part of a letter Meghan had sent him to a newspaper.
He did so after five of Meghan’s friends spoke to People magazine, providing the first public reference to the letter.
Meghan sued Associated Newspapers over the publication of five articles that reproduced extracts of the handwritten missive.
Mr Markle said in an attempt to explain his actions: “People magazine were coming out with it and Meghan had shared it with six other people.”
He added of his estrangement from his daughter: “It’s just very sad from a father’s perspective. It’s a huge disappointment and it’s sad every day.”
He said he would “love” to meet his grandchildren, Prince Archie, three, and Princess Lilibet, one, adding: “They’re gonna have my nose, they’re gonna have my eyes.”
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