Queen Elizabeth II tried to convince Meghan Markle to mend her troubled relationship with her father, Thomas Markle.
“The Queen could see how damaging the situation was between Meghan and her father and she spoke to Meghan about it and tried to encourage her to talk to Thomas,” royal expert Katie Nicholl wrote in her upcoming book “The New Royals”.
A royal source told Nicholl that the late monarch felt that “the whole thing had been handled rather badly with Thomas Markle and that if it had been done differently, it would have turned out better.”
The former TV soap and sitcom lighting director, 78, was supposed to walk down the aisle with his daughter at St. George’s Chapel, but then doubted he would even come after photos surfaced of him allegedly having a suit measured for the wedding and reading books about the UK
He later admitted to secretly teaming up with a paparazzo to stage the shots and bowed out of the ceremony and later had heart surgery.
“The service was wonderful and it’s history. I will always regret not being able to be there and hold my daughter’s hand,” Markle’s father said of the ceremony, which he watched from his bed.
Thomas also later confessed that Prince Harry had warned him not to collude with the press and that he had both lied and hung up on Harry during a heated telephone conversation prior to the royal wedding.
King Charles finally stepped in and walked down the aisle with his daughter-in-law.
The Duchess’s relationship with her father deteriorated further after she accused him of leaking a private letter she wrote after the wedding.
The “Suits” alum filed a lawsuit against The Mail on Sunday for publishing the emotional letter.
In it, she begged her father to “stop creating so much pain.”
“Please stop exploiting my relationship with my husband…I realize you are so far down this rabbit hole that you feel (or maybe feel) there is no way out, but if you take a moment to pause , I think you will see that to live with a clear conscience is more valuable than any payment in the world,” she said.
Nicholl further noted that the Queen thought it was a mistake that Harry never traveled to Mexico to meet his future father-in-law.
“I think she thought Harry should definitely have met Thomas Markle and it was a shame that had to happen,” Nicholl said.
The Queen, who died on September 8 at the age of 96, not only wanted Meghan to make amends with her father, but she also wished the same for Harry and the rest of the royal family.
“The Queen adored Harry to the end, and Harry adored her,” royal author Robert Hardman told People. “I think she was one of the channels between Windsor and California and it would have been one of her dearest wishes for them to patch things up.”
“The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown” is out October 4.