Thomas Markle Says He’ll Be ‘Disappointed’ If He Never Gets to ‘Hold My Granddaughter’ Amid Rift
Thomas Markle said he’ll be “very disappointed” if he doesn’t get to “hold” granddaughter Lilibet Diana nearly one week after daughter Meghan Markle gave birth.
“I’d love to talk to her,” he told 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfort in a sneak peek, set to air on Sunday, June 13. “I’ve made mistakes. I apologized a hundred times for it.”
He added, “I’m confused. If I had done something terribly wrong, that would be fine, but I haven’t. I just want an answer.”
Meghan and her husband, Prince Harry, who are also parents to son Archie, welcomed their second child on June 4. The pair famously rejected royal life last year and moved to Santa Barbara, California. They now live just 70 miles from Thomas’ home in Mexico.
The father-daughter duo’s relationship has been strained ever since he pulled out of Meghan and Harry’s wedding days beforehand after undergoing heart surgery. He also admitted to staging paparazzi photos ahead of their nuptials.
“I wish I hadn’t done the whole thing, but here’s the other side of the coin. No one took any time to protect any member of our family,” the retired lighting director told Good Morning Britain in March 2021. “And in spite of all that, I still apologized, I’m apologizing today again.”
In the same interview, Thomas called his son-in-law “snotty” after he was accused of “betrayal” in the couple’s bombshell CBS interview.
“Harry had said to me, ‘If you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened to you,'” the Pennsylvania native recalled after surgery. “Me, laying in a hospital bed after having a procedure, I had a stent put here and put here and that was kind of snotty, so I hung up on him.”
The former Suits actress “will always be devastated” by Thomas’ actions, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote in Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Royal. “As much as she was hurt and humiliated, she wanted him to be there and was willing to move on,” they shared, referring to the royal wedding. “Plus, she was worried about him; she honestly wasn’t sure if he was actually okay. His behavior was bizarre.”
Time will tell if Thomas and Meghan will ever repair their relationship or if it’s too far gone.
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