Markle's Dad: 'She Is Terrified'

Thomas Markle criticizes the royal family in unvarnished interview

By Neal Colgrass, Newser Staff

Posted Jul 15, 2018 11:00 AM CDT

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Markle's Dad: 'She Is Terrified' — Meghan Markle is seen in this undated file photo. (YouTube)

"My thing about my daughter right now is that I think she is terrified. I see it in her eyes, I see it in her face and I see it in her smile." So says Meghan Markle's father, Thomas, in a sit-down with the Sun that includes a few other doozies—like him calling the royal family "outdated" and their dress code "ridiculous." Thomas has already spoken up about his daughter's marriage to Prince Harry, the Independent notes, but now the US-born dad, 73, is sounding the alarm. To wit:

"I've seen her smile for years. I know her smile. I don’t like the one I’m seeing now," says Thomas. "This one isn't even a stage smile—this is a pained smile. That might be just having a couple of bad days. I don’t know. It really worries me. I think she’s under too much pressure. There’s a high price to pay to be married to that family."
"Meghan seems like something out of an old movie," Thomas says of her "ridiculous" royal dress code. "Why in 2018 are we dressing like the 1930s? Why do they have to cover their knees?"

"I think Meghan is in deeper than I am," says Thomas, who has rented a $30-a-night apartment to avoid snoops. "I'm not blaming Harry or anyone but they are following rules that don’t make sense to me. They are no less human than anybody else. God knows, I feel sorry for them, for not being able to show emotion."
"The reason I am being shunned is because I made a profit on the staged pictures. Anyone who makes a profit off the Royal Family becomes shunned. But I could have made well over $100,000 by just doing a talk show. So if I moved to London and started selling cups with my daughter’s face on, would they shun me? The Royal Family is living by rules that are outdated. Half of Great Britain seems to make a fortune selling pictures of my daughter and her husband. Are they shunned?"
"Does this make any sense to you or anyone else? I don’t get it. I have already apologised to the Royal Family. I honestly think that if the Queen took the time to think that she would not see me because I did some stupid photographs, that is ridiculous."
"I wasn’t shocked because Harry and Meghan have friends who are high rollers," says Thomas of celebrities at their wedding, but he disliked the exclusion of Meghan's "old friends and wider family" and said Meghan's mother Doria Ragland, 61, shouldn't have sat alone. "I thought it was wrong to have Doria seated by herself. There was no reason why she couldn’t have been with the royals."
Thomas, who suffered a heart attack six years ago, was ready to walk Meghan down the aisle until he felt another attack building. "I got a real heart problem and felt dizzy. I kept losing my balance and getting bad heart palpitations. I called my friend and said you’ve got to take me to hospital. I was supposed to leave for the wedding that night."

Click to read the whole interview or read about the gift Meghan and Harry got from the queen.

(More royal family stories.)

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