Thomas Markle Claims Daughter Meghan Markle and the Royal Family ‘Owes’ Him

Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, feels that he is owed by the British royal family. Getting candid about his fallout with his daughter in a Channel 5 documentary titled Thomas Markle: My Story, the retired lighting director, who has had a notably contentious relationship with the royals, opened up about his decision to continue his controversial interviews despite the negative press that they bring.

“I’m going to defend myself,” he said, according to ET Canada. “And I’m going to be paid for it. I’m not going to refuse to get paid for it. I’ll do future things and be paid for it, I think. I don’t care. At this point, they owe me. The royals owe me. Harry owes me. Meghan owes me. What I have been through, I should be rewarded for.”

“My daughter told me that when I reach my senior years, she would take care of me,” he continued. “I’m in my senior years now. I’m 75 years old, so it’s time to look after Daddy.”

In that same documentary, Thomas, who has given dozens of scathing interviews in the years since his daughter and Prince Harry became engaged, also admitted that he hasn’t been completely truthful with his words, admitting that he lied during a June 2018 appearance on Good Morning Britain just after the royal wedding. As royal watchers recall, it was around that time that his and the royals’ relationship began to sour after he was swept up in a paparazzi scandal.

“Actually on the Piers [Morgan] show, I lied,” he said, admitting that his daughter and Harry never called him following his health crisis just days before the wedding. “I made their image appear better.”

According to the documentary, “other accounts of this exchange suggest the conversation took place by text message, not over the phone.”

Thomas also admitted to initially lying to Markle and Harry about staging the photos that sparked the drama. He also owned up to receiving 30 percent of the sales of the photos.

Explaining his decision to sit down for the exclusive interview at the beginning of the documentary, Thomas said that he wants “everyone to know that I am not all the trashy things that are being said about me. I want Harry and Meghan to see that this is not fair. To them, I don’t exist.”

Thomas and his daughter have reportedly had no contact since around the time of the May 2018 royal nuptials. Thomas has not met his grandson, 8-month-old Archie, Harry and Markle’s first child together.