Thomas Markle programme

He’s made a lot of money out of the media. I think he’s brought the problems of being hounded on himself. I didn’t like the way he came across and felt he was using a lot of emotive language. Just my opinion obviously.

He hasn't made much money though, nothing in at all in comparison to his daughter's wedding and everything else she wrangled out of this country!
He mad a tiny amount,
I imagine he was emotional....how can another grandparent not see this? he is an estranged father. Poor bloke.

He’s made a lot of money out of the media.

Oh, how much money has he made, Bellanonna?

Any links?

I always felt rather sorry for him

The radio interview Harry gave, referring to the Christmas that Meghan had spent with the Royals. The family she never had. Very hurtful.

He clearly loves his daughter

It's just a shame

I hope that Meghan will make contact with him before it's too late

I liked Thomas Markle and felt very sorry that he wasn’t protected and advised by people at the palace. I just cannot understand that neither Meghan nor Harry apparently cared enough about Thomas to visit him before the wedding. He obviously did tell some untruths and exaggerated but he said so. Meghan and Harry are truly hateful, nasty, insensitive people and have a lot to live with for all they put the old man through. Shame on you both.

I have never liked the way he keeps talking to the press. He has also been interviewed at length twice on Good Morning Britain. However, I do have sympathy for the man having been shelved by his his own daughter, which must be very hard to bear. Meghan seems to have turned her back on her entire family which seems so callous, and I find it shocking that Harry and Archie haven't even met him. All I know is that I couldn't do that to my father. She comes out worse in this whole sorry saga because of the way she has treated her family, as if she has moved so far above them she wouldn't even drink out of the same teacups.

I would turn my back if my family kept going to the press about my personal business.
I'm sure Meghan has her reasons, none of us are privy to what happened between four walls, and lots of gransnetters have awful stories to tell about their upbringings. (Is upbringings a word?!)

I too found him a sad old man - maybe not the brightest and certainly not the wisest. Way out of his depth, he seems to me to have been left behind when his contribution was no longer needed. Perhaps Doria is a wiser woman, she certainly knows how to keep her counsel but perhaps also her ethnic origins are more acceptable to Meghan’s version of her upbringing - along with the “working her way through college” claims.
Thomas’s “trailer trash” image was never going to be part of the scenario was it? His misguided attempts to smarten up his image singled him out as an obvious victim for the unscrupulous media and his pathetic lies only compounded his “unacceptability” to some. I felt for him and wished somebody kinder had taken him in hand while there was still time so that he could at least have attended the wedding and met the RF .
He wouldn’t have been any worse than Kate’s black sheep Uncle Gary from the Maison de Bang Bang would he?

Meghan has spent time with her mother privately with no media attention so why could she not have met up with old Thomas and introduced him to Harry (and Archie). Whatever he looks like he is her father and she could have kept the meetings private.

I cant abide people who deny their roots when they get on a wee bit,Ms Markel is a classic example of what my mother would have called a silly lassie letting it all go to her head ...sadly she's no lassie but a grown woman who should have known better

It's interesting that Meghan's mother hasn't been hounded by the press like her father has been; I wonder why that is. He's just a sad old man mourning the loss of his daughter's company just like many on here claim has happened to them. The bit where she used him as inspiration in one of her speeches speaks volume about the relationship they used to have, and now he's been dumped because he isn't good enough for her image.

Yes, he's made some silly misjudgements but your average member of the public doesn't generally know how to respond to press harassment-some have taken her life because of it- and he seems especially vulnerable and should have been guided by the palace. I have never had a particularly positive opinion of Meghan and even less so after watching this interview. I bet her and Harry are seething tonight when they should be looking inwards at their own behaviour.

When was this programme on, I missed it?

Last night Wednesday on Ch5 I think. Must watch it on catch up.

Personally I think he has used her celebrity status to turn himself into a celeb. He has put himself into the spotlight and for what purpose? Simply to blacken her name?

People should have more dignity and keep private family matters to themselves instead of making money out of it.

I did not see the programme, however I feel sorry for Megan's father. He doesn't fit in with the image she wants to project and he is no longer useful. Her history of alienating people is long, Harry's turn will come. She projects empathy with strangers, but turns her back on the man who raised her, he is not good enough and doesn't serve her purpose. My heart goes out to him, he still loves her, he is not the brightest is men, has made mistakes, but who hasn't, she could have helped. Unforgivable to treat your aged parent,mwhom has been so ill this way. She is getting older, tottering on those heels will defy even her soon,I hope it brings her down to size.

It came across as an honest heartfelt interview. He is a very lonely sad old man who has made mistakes and they seemed to be genuine mistakes. I think that what we saw is the real deal. He has been dumped in old age by the child whom he loved and raised. Rather like someone dumping an old person who has become needy. M and H should hang their heads in shame

She uses people and she is using Harry.
I agree with MawB re her father.
Wonder why she went to live with her Dad when she was 11.

He has put himself into the spotlight and for what purpose? Simply to blacken her name

This. He could stop talking to the media - that might help if he genuinely wants to reconcile.

Estrangement is often complex but the people I know who have cut off parents have done so with good reason. Given his behaviour of constantly selling stories of how badly he’s been treated by her I would say she has good reason.

I suspect her dreadful sister adds another complication into any chance of reconciliation.

What I don't understand is why he has been wiped out of Megan's life, just because he made one mistake by colluding with a photographer and having photos taken looking at a computer with the screen showing Megan and Harry.
He was being hounded by the press, photos of him in the news, usually walking out of Supermarkets, being vilified in the news, described as a slob.
He told H & M he couldn't cope and the only advise Harry gave him, was to just not speak to them.
So he made a mistake, when a photographer offered to take some posed photos to try to improve his image.
Which he fell for!
Not realising that he and the photographer were being photographed.
Harry and Megan were very angry with him and I think he had a heart attack the next day.
He spoke to Harry and Megan from his hospital bed , while waiting for his operation and I think from that minute, they cut him off.
Whether they didn't believe he was so ill, I don't know!
My feelings are, he's been treated pretty badly.

What kind of father sells photographs to the paparazzi before a wedding, then continues to sell interviews, photographs, letters etc?
Self pitying individual. I'm not in the least surprised that his daughter is distancing herself from him. His behaviour hasn't been that of a loving father.

TM quoted (assume from the interview) in the daily mail today:

He said: 'At this point, they owe me. The royals owe me. Harry owes me, Meghan owes me. What I've been through I should be rewarded for. My daughter told me that when I reach my senior years she'll take care of me. I'm in my senior years now – it's time to look after Daddy

Can he really be so lacking in insight?

I see now why they wanted to get away before this was aired. I think MM comes out of it very badly. He gave her some very happy years as witnessed in the videos of the two of them in the home and out driving and fishing etc.

She wasn't with her mother for the vital teen years. Didn't catch the reason why, but she spoke so highly of him in her speech encouraging other girls to get an education as her father had encouraged her to. 'There should be more fathers like mine', she said at the time. Put that with the dreadful comment of Harry's about now having the family she never had. WHAT? The RF are one of the most dysfunctional families I know of.

I liked him and feel that he has been wronged. He simply wanted to put his side of the story and he's a sad man grieving for his DD as we all would. No compassion from the RF. He commented how sad that the RF placed Doria sitting alone at the wedding and how sad she looked. MM was responsible for her sitting alone. She was the only member of her family who measured up to her new life moving in aristocratic circles, a life she has now rejected.

I hope this man finds some peace.

I too think that Thomas Markle is a sad and lonely man. However I agree with Ladymuck such family matters should be kept private not aired for the whole world to gossip about.

No wonder the poor guy had a heart attack. Shame on Meghan for not visiting him after the wedding.

I thought TM came across as a sad old man who was missing his daughter, they did share happy times together when M lived with him, I wonder why she went to live with him , I think he should have had more help and guidance pre wedding, how to dress , what would be expected from him in hid duties, , maybe he did get that help but M didn't want him there at her wedding, for her own reasons , Sitting her Mother alone in the church didn't look good , shame on the RF to have allowed this , The part I didn't like inThe interview last night with TM was the last bit,, They owe me , time to look after Daddy , that came across as needy and money grabbing , I don't know of any parent that think They owe me of their children ,, I feel a bad omen about this whole Markle family ,