Why Has Meghan Markle’s Father Never Seen His Grandchildren? Inside the Conflict between Father & Daughter

Meghan Markle, now a part of the British royal family through her marriage to Prince Harry, shares two children with him. While she maintains a close bond with her mother, Doria Ragland, her relationship with her father, Thomas Markle, took a different turn, resulting in a well-publicized estrangement.

Meghan and her father used to have a warm relationship. In a 2021 interview, Thomas shared an emotional memory of his daughter’s birth in 1981, noting that he was the first to hold her. “I fell in love with her and I’d been that way for 40 years,” said the Pennsylvania native who has two older children from his first marriage.

Meghan also reflected on her childhood in an essay for Elle magazine and revealed her parents met in the late ’70s. Her father worked as a lighting director for a soap opera, while her mother was a temp at the studio.