Tragic Details About Meghan Markle's Estranged Father Thomas

Thomas Markle could've been remembered as the proud father of the Duchess of Sussex. Instead, he's best known for staged paparazzi pics, I-hate-Meghan-Markle interviews, and roasting his own daughter so bad that critics wince. But was he always this messy? Or did life, divorce, and desperation turn a once-good man into the person who makes you realize your parents weren't all that bad?

Long before the murky headlines and awkward sit-downs with the press, Thomas was just a regular guy with a steady job in Hollywood. He worked as a lighting director for a handful of popular shows, even bagging a Daytime Emmy and a few other nominations. Thomas was, by all accounts, decent at what he did. But behind his Emmy and steady paychecks, his personal life was already a mess with a string of tragedies. And though his luck seemed to change when he hit the jackpot with the California State Lottery in 1990, it wasn't enough to rewrite his story. If anything, it just gave him more runway to crash and burn.

Before marrying Meghan Markle's mother, Doria Ragland, Thomas Markle was married to Roslyn Loveless, his first wife and the keeper of a very messy past. They tied the knot in 1964, had two kids, and built what looked like a perfectly average suburban life. But behind closed doors, it was the farthest possible life from a fairy tale. Back then, no one cared what kind of husband Thomas was, but when Meghan became royalty, the paparazzi dove in, and Loveless was only too happy to dish the dirt.

In an interview with The Mirror in 2019, she revealed that Thomas was a serial cheat who ruined her relationships with his lust. "To this day, I've not spoken to a close relative of mine in 25 years after I learnt she had slept with Tom while we were married," Loveless said. There was also alleged drug use, emotional neglect, and a general lack of interest in their kids. "I knew I had to get away," she added, "but I had no money and nowhere to go." Finally, after 11 years, they called it quits.

But just four years later, in 1979, Thomas tried again — this time with Meghan's mom. But that second marriage barely stood a chance. He later admitted that he wasn't present in this union either. "It went well for a while, but I wasn't home enough. [...] She wanted to move back into the city, and that is what happened" (via Express UK). By 1987, Thomas had two failed marriages, three children, and a growing trail of burned relationships. When the lottery win came around, Thomas already had more baggage than an airport.

Thomas Markle hit the American dream when he won $750,000 in the California State Lottery. For context, this was in 1990 when the average home cost just $79,000, so Thomas could've breezed through life stress-free if he'd spent and invested wisely. But that's not what happened. To his credit, he tried to play dad-of-the-year. He bought his first daughter, Meghan Markle's half-sister Samantha Markle, a car, covered Meghan's private school tuition, and helped his son set up a business. But then he handed a chunk of that money to a family friend with a jewelry scheme that flopped hard and swooped up his winnings.

By 2014, things were so bad that Meghan reportedly started supporting him financially. Two years later, in 2016, he filed for bankruptcy with just $250 in savings and over $30,000 in credit card debt. Daily Mail even revealed he'd been in legal trouble for unpaid taxes. And just like clockwork, his rock-bottom moment aligned perfectly with Meghan's relationship with Prince Harry going public. When Thomas realized his daughter's name was media gold, he did what many relatives of the rich and famous do: he sold the story.

Everyone who knows anything about Meghan Markle's relationship with her dad knows it wasn't always this messy. She called herself a "daddy's girl" in the "Harry & Meghan" Netflix show (via Newsweek), and even Thomas Markle's own stories paint him as a doting dad. But just weeks before the royal wedding, Thomas did the one thing you can't come back from: he sold his daughter out for a quick buck. It started when Jeff Rayner, a paparazzi photographer, pitched Thomas a makeover moment and a chance to earn $100,000.

The plan was to stage a few "wholesome" photos to rehab his image, which had suffered from how he was portrayed in tabloids. One of the faked photos showed him reading a book about British culture. Another was of Thomas pretending to browse Meghan-related headlines in a cyber café. There was even one of him fake-exercising for good measure. The problem was that the pictures were clearly staged, deeply cringeworthy, and instantly mocked. One headline from the Daily Mail even read "Royal Wedding Scammers." What was supposed to be a sympathy play made him a punchline, and Meghan, already the target of tabloid hate, took another hit by association.

The real betrayal came when Meghan called her father to ask if the photos were fake. "We called my dad, and I asked him [about staging the photos]. He said, 'No, absolutely not,'" Meghan recalled to Oprah on CBS (via People). Worse still, Thomas flip-flopped on whether or not he would attend the wedding, even though the palace revealed that he was scheduled to walk Meghan down the aisle. Ultimately, he didn't show, claiming he had surgery scheduled too close to the wedding day.

Shortly before Meghan Markle's wedding to Prince Harry, Thomas Markle suffered a terrible heart attack that most people do not survive. And though multiple people doubted that he actually had any health challenge due to his previous dishonesty, he allegedly showed the Daily Mail a bunch of hospital paperwork that proved his claims. "I had two heart attacks, the second of which the doctor called a widow-maker and nearly killed me," he said.

Unfortunately, by 2022, Thomas was back in the hospital after a stroke which left visible damage. Interestingly, there have been claims that Meghan privately reached out to her father after his stroke, but given that Thomas published even the private letter that she wrote him, it's questionable if she reached out to him since he never spoke of it publicly.