Meghan Markle's father, Thomas Markle, reacts to his daughter's interview with Oprah Winfrey. Picture: Screengrab
Love him or hate, journalist Piers Morgan has divided public opinion on his strong views about Meghan Markle and Prince Harry.
The British journalist secured an exclusive interview with Meghan’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, on his breakfast TV show, Good Morning Britain. Morgan has never shied away from openly divulging what some would say is his constant critiques or obsession with Meghan and Harry.
Meghan’s tumultuous relationship with her father has been widely publicised. It was reported he sold private letters from his daughter to a tabloid newspaper. He also has openly criticised Meghan in the media for painting him as a “bad” father.
A newsgroup that published a letter written by Meghan was ordered to pay R9.4 million to cover legal costs. Meghan wrote that Thomas had to stop talking to tabloids and making false claims about her.
While this message doesn’t seem to have gotten across, Thomas reacted to the Oprah Winfrey sit down and said the last time he communicated with his daughter was via text during his stay in hospital after suffering a heart attack days before her wedding.
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“I had to tell them I couldn’t come to the wedding, at that point we pretty much said goodbye. Actually, it wasn’t goodbye, Harry had said to me at that point, ‘if you had listened to me this wouldn’t have happened’.”
Mr Markle said he had learned from the one “big mistake” he made by talking to the press and has apologised “many times”, but Meghan has “ghosted all of her family on both sides”.
He admitted he talked to the press because Harry and Meghan refuse to communicate with him and he would keep talking to the media every month until they speak to him.
“I am talking to the press because basically, I haven’t heard from them. If I don’t hear from them in 30 days I will do another story.”
Meghan did mention her father during the Oprah interview by the part did not air on Monday a exclusive clip was revealed on Tuesday, where she said she has bee disappointed by her father’s actions in the past.
On the press treatment of Meghan, Mr Markle said: “I don’t think Britain’s racist. I don’t think the royal family is racist. I think Los Angeles is racist, California is racist.”
On the claim that one of the royals asked questions about Archie’s complexion, Thomas said he hoped the comment was a “stupid” question, adding that if he had known Meghan had suicidal thoughts he would have confined her.
Viewers in Britain were baffled by Mr Markle’s words.
Morgan was criticised on social media and by pundits who said his comments after the Oprah interview were racist and vile. At one stage Morgan walked off the stage when co-presenter Alex Beresford defended Harry and Meghan.
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