DADDY ISSUES

The Thomas Markle Bombshell Meghan Can’t Escape: Royal Expert

Meghan Markle told Oprah in 2019 that she was experiencing suicidal thoughts, but failed to mention the disturbing news she received about her estranged father.

Disturbing allegations against Meghan Markle’s estranged father are raising new questions about one of the royal family’s most publicized feuds, says The Royalist host Tom Sykes.

British police forwarded a multi-page letter to the then-royals in 2019 that alleged Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, possessed hundreds of child sexual abuse images and videos in a storage box and on his computer at his former home in Cebu, Philippines. One of his ex-wives wrote the letter—but not Meghan’s mother.

Around the time Markle was informed of her father’s alleged crimes, she told Oprah that she was having suicidal thoughts over racist coverage in the media and the royal family’s refusal to address it.

“Look, I was really ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he has suffered, but I knew that if I didn’t say it, then I would do it,” Markle said at the time. “I just didn’t want to be alive anymore.”

Given what we know now, that appearance does not sit right with Sykes.

“I find it incredible that Megan lays the entire blame for her anguish and suicidal ideation at the feet of this kind of evil chimera, right?” he said Tuesday. “Whose head is the media and whose body is the uncaring institution of the royal family, when in fact she was harboring this horrific secret about her father.”

Markel’s silence about her father’s allegations, compared with her outward distaste for domestic disputes within the royal family, struck Sykes as a diversion.

“I completely understand that she could not say anything explicit about her father’s alleged crimes; I completely accept that she had been advised not to say anything by the police,” Sykes said. “But the fact that there was not one word to even suggest that any other personal issues had anything at all to do with her state of mind is misleading… It was all laid—every cause of her anguish was laid at the feet of the royal family and the hated media.”

Sykes said Markle’s misgivings about some of the royal family pale in comparison to the allegations about her father, who is 82 and reportedly living in a Florida rehabilitation facility.

The Sussexes did not respond to a request for comment.

“When you actually drill down into what these falsehoods are, in comparison to the abuse of children, they are laughably minimal,” he said.

Sykes believes that instead of admitting she had private, personal issues alongside troubles with the media, Markle chose to let the royal family bear most of the public burden.

“In another episode related in his book, Harry says that Catherine grimaced when Meghan asked to borrow her lip gloss,” Sykes said. “I mean, really? It was the lip gloss issue that was upsetting you and making you, you know, have suicidal thoughts? Not the fact that your father had been disclosed to you to be a pedophile?”

Want more royal gossip, scoops and scandal? Follow all Tom Sykes’ reporting at The Royalist on Substack or listen to The Royalist podcast on YouTube.

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Christopher Buchanan

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