Meghan Markle’s Father Thomas Sounds off on New Royal Couple Lifetime Film

Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr., is slamming the new Lifetime film Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal as nothing more than “dumb fiction.”

Airing over Memorial Day weekend, the special, a sequel to Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance, was described as “pulling back the curtain to reveal the untold joys and challenges of life inside the royal family during their pivotal first year of marriage,” including the Markle family drama.

In the film, Thomas’ invitation to the May 19th royal wedding is revoked due to the tension that arose between him and his daughter in the days leading up to the big day, though Thomas told TMZ that he is “incredibly disappointed” in how the film portrayed his relationship with his daughter. He added that the narrative is “dumb fiction” that “personally attacks” him.

Royal fans will recall that in real life, Thomas was forced to back out of walking his daughter down the aisle at St. George’s Chapel after he suffered a heart attack. His health crisis came just days after news had broken that he had been involved in a complex paparazzi scandal in which he staged photos in order to receive good press.

In the weeks and months that followed, Thomas’ name frequently appeared in headlines thanks to a series of scathing interviews in which he slammed the British Royal Family and even accused them of “changing” his daughter and turning her against him.

As a result, the Duchess of Sussex penned an emotional letter to her father in August of 2018, in which she pleaded with her father to end the family feud, which she claimed had “broken her heart into a million pieces.”

“It is with a heavy heart that I write this, not understanding why you have chosen to take this path, turning a blind eye to the pain you’re causing,” it read in part. “Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces — not simply because you have manufactured such unnecessary and unwarranted pain, but by making the choice to not tell the truth as you are puppeteered in this. Something I will never understand.”

Markle and her father have reportedly had no contact since the royal wedding, and Thomas was not present at the birth of Markle’s first child with husband Prince Harry, son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

Although he was reportedly “devastated” to be absent from the special moment, Thomas said in a statement that he was “delighted” for his daughter.