September 1 • 2019 The Mail on SundayTyler and TJ, the sons of Tom Jr,
and Noelle, Christopher and Ash
leigh, the children of his eldest
daughter Samantha.
‘Brits don’t realise the scale of
the distances between us,’ he says.
‘When American families move
apart from each other there are
thousands of miles between us.
‘We stay in touch but it’s not that
easy. You can’t just jump in the
car and go like you guys can. We
stay in touch the best we can.’
Most upsetting, says Mr Markle,is the fact that his daughter, in
her first major speech in Fiji
last year, claimed that she paid
her own way through university
and would not have been able to
afford the reported $200,000 tuition
fees at Northwestern University
without financial aid.
Speaking to a group of students
at the University of the South
Pacific, Meghan said: ‘The journey
of higher education is an incredi
ble, impactful and pivotal one.
‘I am also fully aware of the challenges of being able to afford this
level of schooling for many people
around the world, myself included.
‘It was with scholarships, finan
cial aid programmes, and work
study from my earnings from a
job on campus that went directly
towards my tuition that I was able
to attend university, and without
question it was worth every effort.’
Not true, says her father, who
remained silent at the time because
his daughter was pregnant.
‘I’m sorry but that is completelyuntrue. I paid every penny of her
tuition and I have the bank state
ments to prove it.
‘I paid for her trips to Spain and
England. I paid for her internship
in Argentina.’
For his part, Mr Markle admits
it was a ‘point of pride’ to pay off
his daughter’s fees even after she
became an independently wealthy
woman. ‘I told Meg I would pay
for her education and I did. It’s
what any father would do.’
He has revealed the contents ofa letter sent to Meghan’s mother
Doria five days after the Duchess’s
speech in Fiji. In it, he wrote: ‘Meg
han is saying she wants nothing
to do with me and she worked her
way through college all by herself.
I haven’t said anything about it,
but I’m sure reporters are check
ing at Northwestern to see who
paid her way through school. She
cannot change history.’
Mr Markle is tired of waiting for
his daughter and Prince Harry to
forgive him. ‘I’m sick of the lies.
I’m sick of being vilified and shut
out of their lives.
‘I always upheld my responsi
bilities as a father. Meghan’s
comments about paying her way
through college are offensive to
me. I don’t want anything from
Meghan or Harry but I’m not
going to shut up until the whole
truth is out there. I will continue to
contradict anything said about me
that isn’t true.
‘I have to stand up for myself. I’m
going to carry on speaking andI’m not going to shut up,’ he added.
‘No father deserves this kind of
abuse when he’s been that good to
his daughter. Ask anyone who
knows us both. I’ve been very kind
and generous to my daughter.’
On Meghan’s old website Tig, a
lifestyle blog which she took down
after her engagement, she repeat
edly credited her father for turning
her into the woman she is today.
There was one famous post
about how she was given a form
at school and asked to identify her
ethnicity. Meghan didn’t know
which box to chose because she
didn’t want to offend either her
mother or father.
She came home and asked her
father, who told her: ‘Draw your
own box and say who you are and
I will back you up.’
‘I told her I’d back her up because
she was going to hand the form
back to a teacher,’ he explained.
‘I wanted her to know I had her
back. Those moments she cites
which show her strength and inde
pendence, a lot of those came
from me. Everybody thinks I had
nothing to do with her after Doria
and I divorced. The truth is she
lived with me most of the time until
she went off to college.
‘I believe all family differences
can be resolved and I believe that
can still happen for me, Meghan
and Harry.’
He pauses and looks again at the
his favourite picture of his daugh
ter. ‘I always hoped that I would be
as close to Meghan’s child as I was
to her when she was a child.’lMr Markle neither asked for
nor received any payment for
this article.Why can’t I meet Archie?
I’m sick of the
lies. I’m sick
of being vilified
and shut out of
their lives
‘Private jets? That’s hypocritical’
THOMAS MArkle has accused
his daughter and Prince Harry of
displaying the same ‘hypocritical’
approach to the environment as
they have adopted with him.
Asked about recent stories
criticising the couple for taking
at least four private jets this
summer while lecturing people
on the need to save the planet,
he told The Mail on Sunday:
‘I feel sorry for them in a way
because they brought this on
themselves. You can’t say one
thing and do another.
‘everyone raves about howgracious and wonderful they
are, but they are not wonderful
to their own family. That’s
hypocritical. You can’t portray
yourself as being charitable
and bringing people together and
then ghost your own father and
your entire family. Their
treatment of me has left a lot
to be desired.
‘I’ve still never met my son-in-
law. Why couldn’t Prince Harry
have got on a plane and flown to
see me to ask for her hand? He
obviously has no problem getting
on private jets. If he wants tocome and see me on a private
jet, there’s an airport near here
in Tijuana, and San Diego is just
over the border. There are
dozens of commercial flights
from england to San Diego and
los Angeles every day.’
The couple’s private jet
flights include a trip to visit
Sir elton John at his home in the
South of France and to Ibiza to
celebrate Meghan’s birthday.
Sir elton and other celebrity
friends have defended Meghan
and Harry.
George Clooney called negativestories ‘unjust’ and Sir elton
condemned the ‘distorted and
malicious accounts’ of the
couple’s holiday at his villa in
Nice, saying he paid for their
private jet.
Meghan’s best friend, stylist
Jessica Mulroney, even called
criticism of Meghan’s private
jet jaunts ‘racist’.
But Mr Markle said: ‘I don’t
think it’s racist. I think it’s a
shame that Meghan and Harry
say one thing and act another
way. Whoever is advising them
isn’t doing a great job.’WARM MEMORY: Meghan and her dad at a football game in her college days. She claims she paid her way through university – something Mr Markle disputes2