Thomas Markle shares emotional notes from estranged daughter Duchess Meghan
36140877
Duchess Meghan’s dad Thomas Markle isn’t through talking about the rift in his relationship with the young royal, who is expecting a baby with her husband, Prince Harry.
“Meghan and I were as close as a father and daughter could be right up until her wedding to Harry,” he told The Daily Mail on Sunday. “Then it all fell apart.”
Markle, 74, shared family photos and handwritten notes to document the close bond he shared with his 37-year-old daughter, including a photo of the two together at her first wedding to film producer Trevor Engelson, and a loving Valentine’s Day card, addressed to “Daddy” and affectionately signed “Bean,” the Duchess of Sussex’s childhood nickname.
“Daddy, everything you do for me has turned me into who I am and I am so grateful. All I want to do is make you proud - and I promise, no matter what, I’ll do it,” the note reads. “I love you with all my heart now and forever.”
In another, a 2015 Christmas card sent after her success on TV’s “Suits,” he says she sent him $2,000. “Because you have always been so generous with me and taken the best care of me it brings me so much joy to be able to give you this this Christmas. I love you to no end,” the card says, signed “Meg.”
“I have made dozens of attempts to reach my daughter via text and letters, but she and Harry have put up a wall of silence,” Markle told The Mail. “They have done what they once told me not to do – they are believing everything negative that has been written about me. So I am reaching out to them, once again, to try to correct the lies and get the truth out there.”
He says he’s reached out to Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, in an effort to re-establish contact (“I even hand-delivered a letter to Doria asking her why our daughter won’t speak to me”). He also shared medical documents in response to speculation that he faked his heart attacks because he was too embarrassed to attend her nuptials in May after a flap over staged photos of him being measured for a wedding tuxedo (“I had two heart attacks, the second of which the doctor called a widow-maker and nearly killed me”).
“I’ve been accused of every terrible thing you can think of,” he says. “In one magazine they had an awful story about Prince Charles right beside one about me. But no one is shunning Prince Charles.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Thomas Markle shares emotional notes from estranged daughter Duchess Meghan
