Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, opened up about missing the royal wedding and when the couple might have kids.
Meghan Markle ’s father Thomas has revealed that he made his new son-in-law Prince Harry promise to “never raise a hand” to his daughter and that she cried when she found out he’d miss the royal wedding, according to a report.
The dad of the newly married Duchess of Sussex opened up in a Monday interview with ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” in which host Piers Morgan later divulged that Thomas was paid “a few thousand pounds” to do, according to local reports.
Thomas, 73, a resident of Mexico, who was unable to attend the highly anticipated royal nuptials on May 19 because of his recent heart surgery, said he gave his daughter the bad news that he wouldn’t make the ceremony in a phone call.
“They were disappointed,” Thomas said of the royal couple. “Meghan cried – I’m sure. She did cry. And they both said, ‘Take care of yourself. We’re really worried about you.’ They said the important thing was I get better.”
Days before the royal pair tied the knot at London’s St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, the Daily Mail revealed that Thomas secretly collaborated with a British paparazzi agency to set up photos that showed him reading stories about his daughter’s wedding and getting fitted for a suit.
“I didn’t do this for money,” Thomas said of the staged photos. “I did this to change my image. For one whole year I was presented as a hermit living in and hiding out in Mexico. I was looking to change my image. I made a mistake and it went wrong.”
Thomas noted that he spoke to both his daughter and Prince Harry and apologized for the stunt.
“I realized it was a serious mistake. Hard to take it back,” Thomas said. “I had been seen as negative for an entire year.”
During the interview, the dad of the former “Suits” actress expressed sadness for not being able to attend his daughter’s wedding and walk her down the aisle but did note he watched the wedding on TV.
“She was so beautiful walking down that aisle and so proud and so gorgeous,” Thomas said of Meghan, who was escorted down the aisle by Prince Charles.
He added: “I cried a little watching her… I was very proud. I was very upset that it wasn’t me, but the whole world was watching my daughter.”
“The unfortunate thing for me now is I’m a footnote in one of the greatest moments in history, rather than the dad walking her down the aisle, so that upsets me somewhat,” Thomas said, adding, “I regretted it because I really wanted to walk her down the aisle.”
He went on to say that he was “honored” that the Prince of Wales wound up taking on the role of escorting Meghan partly down the aisle.
During the interview, Thomas recalled how Meghan ultimately broke the news to her dad that she was dating Prince Harry in a series of phone calls.
“The first phone calls were, ‘Daddy, I have a new boyfriend and I said, ‘That’s really nice,’” Thomas remembered. “And then the next call was, ‘He’s British,’ and I said, ‘Oh, that’s really nice.’ And then eventually the third time around, she’s like, ‘He’s a prince.’ At that point, she said, ‘It’s Harry.’”
“I said, ‘Oh, OK, Harry, OK.’ And she said, ‘Of course we’ll have to call him H, so no one knows that we’re talking about Harry.’”
Thomas said he eventually spoke to Harry over the phone.
“Very nice man, gentleman. Very likable,” he said of the 33-year-old prince.
Thomas noted that Harry asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage over the phone and then had him make a promise.
“I said, ‘You’re a gentleman. Promise me you’ll never raise a hand against my daughter and of course, I’ll give my permission,’” said Thomas, who called his daughter a “princess since the day she was born.”
The father-of-the-bride admitted he has yet to meet Harry in person, but has had “interesting conversations on the phone” with him.
“He’s a smart guy,” Thomas said of Harry. “We talked a few times about Donald Trump and Brexit and things like that. He’s an interesting guy.”
“Our conversation was, I was complaining I didn’t like Donald Trump,” Thomas recalled. “He said, ‘Give Donald Trump a chance.’ I sort of disagreed with that, but I still like Harry. That was his politics. I have my politics.”
When asked by Morgan whether Harry is a Trump supporter, Thomas responded: “I would hope not, but at the time he might have been.”
On the topic of Brexit, Thomas said, “It was a loose conversation.”
“There was no real commitment to it. I think he was open to the experiment,” Thomas said of Harry.
Thomas predicted that Harry and Meghan will have a child sometime “soon.”
“She’s wanted children for a long time,” Thomas said of his 36-year-old daughter. “When she met Harry, she spoke about how much she loves him. There has got to be a child in the making somewhere soon.”
“I don’t think the stork has hit the air yet, but I think it will happen sooner or later,” said Thomas.
He added that he would “love to meet” Queen Elizabeth II.
“I’ve had respect for that woman since I was a child,” Thomas said. “I think she’s one of the most incredible women in the world and I would love to meet her.”
