Meghan Markle’s father tore into her a day after she and husband Prince Harry finalized plans to break away from the royal family.
“When they got married, they took on an obligation, and the obligation is to be part of the royals and to represent the royals,” Thomas Markle said in an interview with Channel 5, parts of which were released Sunday. “This is one of the greatest long-living institutions ever. They are destroying it, they are cheapening it, making it shabby.
Markle, 75, has been estranged from his daughter, 38, for years, and he missed her wedding to Harry, 35, in 2018 because of health issues. He said his daughter and the prince were a couple of “lost souls” who had made the royal family “into a Walmart with a crown on it.”
“It is something that is ridiculous. They shouldn’t be doing this,” he said.
He added: “It’s disappointing because she actually got every girl’s dream. Every young girl wants to become a princess, and she got that, and now she’s tossing that away, for, it looks like she’s tossing that away for money.”
On Saturday, Buckingham Palace announced details of the couple’s arrangement to “step back” as senior members of the royal family, which will include ditching their royal titles and paying back millions of dollars they spent to refurbish their Frogmore Cottage residence.
The Duchess of Sussex has reportedly been the catalyst behind the couple’s exit, and one of her friends said her “soul was being crushed” by the “toxic” royal family.
Newspapers in the United Kingdom have reveled in the news of the couple’s departure, dubbing it “Megxit.” “Queen orders a hard Megxit,” a Sunday Mirror front-page headline read. “Harry and Meghan Out in the Cold,” the Sunday People wrote. The Sun called the stripping of their royal titles “Payback Time,” and the Sunday Express declared, “Freedom … at a price.”
Thomas Markle’s full interview is set to air “in the coming weeks.”
