Thomas Markle programme

Focus on improving your own lives You’ll get a lot more back that way

How very 'mother superior' of you, jHardy Feel better now you've polished your halo?

Personally, I'm finding all this a welcome distraction from my own life's trials and tribulations.

I bet I'm not the only one.

The empty seats beside Doria at the wedding were occupied later by parents of the bridesmaids and pages, who were with their children outside the chapel when that “Doria alone” shot was filmed.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

I didn't bother to watch it but 'the Royals owe me' is ridiculous, why should they owe him anything?
There must be a well-concealed reason why his daughter went to live with him from 11-18. Where was the mother?
There must be some reason who she cut him out long before she hit the jackpot with Harry. He didn't attend ay of her weddings.
There must be good reasons why he has little to do with any of his children.

Thank you for that advice about improving our own lives, much needed.
I need a new kitchen, that will improve my life.

Why do any of you care? Families everywhere are dysfunctional. Stop giving them the undue attention they all so clearly crave. It makes you all as bad as them. Focus on improving your own lives You’ll get a lot more back that way

I didn't see the programme other than a minute when I was channel hopping, but I gained an impression of an old, somewhat bewildered man, which may have been a clever performance.
I heard from a friend of a friend of someone with contacts within the Palace, therefore non-verifiable, that they were all concerned at how miserable Harry was on his brief return from Canada.
I don't know the rights or wrongs of the Markle family relationship, but it seems increasingly that Meghan isolates and damages the people she is initially close to.

She has a record of discarding people.

I think keeping him (a bit) closer would have been a better option than completely 'ghosting' him. Where on earth did that term come from?

Drawing him into their family life in a small way while emphasising that discretion is paramount could have gone a long way to avoiding further embarrassment.

I hate the thought that family members should just be discarded if they don't come up to scratch no matter how loving and supportive they've been in the past.

won the lottery, lost the lot
In his defence, he did pay for Meghan's very expensive education at a top girls' school.

quizqueen perhaps her mother has not been hounded because she has been quiet and dignified throughout.

TM has behaved in an embarrassing way and perhaps both Meghan and Harry believe that he would continue to be an embarrassment if they have a close relationship with him. They are attempting to keep Archie out of the limelight, possibly they think that Thomas would sell stories of his grandson to the highest bidder.

He has brought this on himself and continues to prove that he has not learnt a single thing.

I think her father has behaved rather badly but this is all since the engagement was announced. Why hadn't she introduced Harry to him before the engagement? In my opinion it is because he didn't fit into the scenario she had set herself.

Previously, on her lifestyle blog, she was always going on about how close they were and how much she loved him. He had complete custody of her from age 11 to 18. He paid for everything and brought her up as a single father. Her mother, I understand, went off to 'find herself' in some sort of hippy commune.

I think it is all very sad and the father should have been given a lot more help before the wedding - if they ever intended to have him there in the first place.

Haven’t yet seen the programme but will watch it. Yes, he certainly worked, wasn’t he a cameraman in films or some such, always got the impression that was how Meghan became interested in the film industry, watching him at work as a youngster.
I recently re-watched the engagement interview. H&M were asked what their families thought to it all. Much gushing about how welcoming the Royals had been, how she and Diana would be ‘thick as thieves’. Then Harry said how great Doria was. When her father was mentioned, Harry had ‘spoken on the phone to him’ I think, and it sounded like meeting him was on the horizon.
Thereby hangs a tale.

He was a lighting director for a television company and won
several - day time Emmys , his last award was in 2011.

I am rapidly losing my good opinion of Meghan. And of Harry too for that matter.

Very sad.

I think it was awful that Harry said she had never had a family before, when from the photos, it is obvious she has had, and been very happy with them.

I've never been able to see what was wrong for photos to appear of him being measured for a suit for the wedding, even though we now know that was all staged by an unscrupulous press photographer. Why was that so awful? Was he supposed to have journeyed to Saville Row for a fitting?

He worked in movie lighting, won the lottery, lost the lot.

I’m sure he made mistakes but if he is genuine in his desire to reconcile he needs to stop talking to the media. He is making that choice now in full knowledge of how they work, however naive he was at the beginning.

You need to watch it Ellan

You are way off beam with your understanding of what makes TM tick.

I didn't watch the programme but I fear and feel that it's about the " poor me " syndrome, self pity and all that.

Just watch it, Ellan

You can't possibly comment on a programme you haven't seen

Or do some research

And he had a very good 'job of work' actually

I didn't watch the programme but I fear and feel that it's about the " poor me " syndrome, self pity and all that.

Did he ever have a job of work ? As it's usually those type who had nothing to occupy themselves or their minds that think others should be running around after them when older !

I haven't seen the programme, but I think you need a heart of stone not to sympathise with TM, maybe he hasn't always acted wisely. I can imagine he could have been overwhelmed by everything going on around him, it's not as if he was eased into the upper echelons of British society gradually and as an American he may have felt even more disconnected from than if he were an average Brit. He was propelled out of nowhere, an ordinary guy, put under intense scrutiny. What I do know, my husband had the angioplasty procedure that TM underwent around the time of the wedding, you do have to take it easy afterwards and I think air travel in the immediate aftermath would be out of the question. It does seem to me there was scant concern for his health after the procedure.

how many times does the poor man have to apologise to his daughter before he is forgiven?

I agree with that comment. Meghan was a typical self-absorbed teenager having a nice life with her Dad. He doted on her and she was clearly a confident child.

Parents are not perfect. Meghan chose her father over her mother during the most difficult years of any child's life. He had the trying times whereas Doria got of lightly it seems.

Meghan uses people. She has discarded her father who does not cope well with challenging situations. Where was the help he so badly needed?

I don't entirely blame the RF. They've never had to deal with any Thomas Markles in the past. It was up to Meghan to explain where the problems might lie and ask for some support for both him and her. She must have known it would all come back to haunt her one day. It's not human nature to just shut up and crawl back under a stone.

I felt sorry for the poor man but not sure whether he's done himself any favours.

Just another episode in the long running saga .

Well, the whole debacle started when Harry said that he could give Meghan the family she never had (or words to that effect.) Either H had been spun a pack of lies by M and truly believed that, or he was being very unkind .... whatever it was, I can totally understand how incensed her family felt.

I didn’t watch it and won’t be catching up but I do have to wonder why any father would tell lies about his daughter? He admits to doing so. Wrong on so many levels.

He should have been given care by his daughter and son in law not the palace.