Meghan Markle’s estranged father Tom is planning a “new beginning” abroad in 2025 in the hope he can live out his final years “in peace.”
In a particularly poignant announcement this week, as her daughter launched her brilliant new Netflix lifestyle show, With Love, Meghan, Markle told The Mail on Sunday that she had decided to up and leave the cliffside house in Mexico. which he has called home for ten years. years.
Markle, 80, has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke in recent years, and says her decision to seek a new life abroad is because she is seeking “peace” and “kinder people.”
I was with Mr. Markle this week as he packed up a lifetime of memories. We drank PG Tips and ate endless meat pies while he sorted his belongings into packing boxes and burned the things he didn’t want to keep.
Here were Meghan’s school reports that described her as a child who “demonstrates consistent effort and actively participates in classroom discussions”: manipulated documents she first received when she was nine and which she has treasured all these years.
And there were endless photographs of Meghan: feeding the ducks with her father, playing crazy golf, laughing during fishing trips to a neighboring lake.
The images could have come from any happy family album, something I found particularly sad to see Mr. Markle carefully packaging the only mementos he now has of his youngest daughter: the “baby” he affectionately called “Megsy,” whom he cradled . in his arm and rocks him to sleep with the noise of the refrigerator.
Each photograph was carefully placed in a plastic bag for protection and then boxed for the long journey to wherever life takes you next.
Meghan Markle’s estranged father Tom is planning a “new beginning” abroad in 2025 in the hope he can live out his final years “in peace.”
Meghan launched her brilliant new Netflix lifestyle show: With Love, Meghan earlier this week.
When I tell him he’s “brave” for starting over at 80, he shrugs, smiles and says, “I don’t know if brave is the word.”
‘I’m ready for a change. I’ve been feeling stuck for some time and I’m ready to meet new people and experience kindness.’
On a table were videos of Meghan’s first wedding to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson, whom she married on a beach in Jamaica in 2011 and divorced in 2014, two years before she met Prince Harry on a blind date.
“I really liked Trevor,” Markle said quietly. “I also don’t think he ever understood why she left him.”
Being with him at that time, particularly during Christmas, was especially emotional.
While there is no indication that he is “on the run” because of Meghan and Harry, he says he hopes to find a quieter place to live and is considering options in Southeast Asia.
‘I traveled through that part of the world when I was younger. “People are very kind and welcoming, and respectful of older people,” he said. It is a place of culture and beauty.”
Incredibly, she has yet to meet her son-in-law Prince Harry, or her grandchildren Archie, five, and three-year-old Lilibet, who is named after the late queen.
He has come to accept that he most likely never will, although, for him, the door remains constantly open.
The Emmy Award-winning Hollywood lighting director has not renewed the lease on his rented home in Mexico. Instead, he plans to travel and explore his options with his son Tom Jr, 58, Meghan’s half-brother.
“I don’t know where I’ll end up, but it’s time to move on and find a place where I can live among friendly people and enjoy the time I have left,” he said.
While Markle declined to discuss politics, she said it was unlikely she would return to her native United States (she was born in Pennsylvania but spent most of her life working at ABC Studios in Hollywood on shows like General Hospital and Married With Children).
“I am moving away from US politics that disappoint me,” he said.
Caroline Graham with Thomas, 80, in Mexico as she packed up her beachside forever home
Thomas has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke in recent years, and says his decision to seek a new life abroad is because he is looking for “peace” and “kinder people.”
‘At 80 it’s time to go somewhere where the people are lovely and you can enjoy a calmer, friendlier existence.
‘In Southeast Asia healthcare is good, you can live reasonably cheaply, people are friendly and respect older people and the food is healthy.
‘Above all I want is peace. At 80, none of us know how much time we have left.
“I want whatever time I have to be at peace and without any of the terrible drama of the last few years.”
Despite living in the coastal community of Rosarito, Mexico (a 250-mile drive from the Sussexes’ £11 million, 16-bathroom mansion in Montecito, California), he has never been invited to visit the sprawling home of his daughter. child. since 11 years old.
While the trailer for Meghan’s Netflix show this week boasted of her home’s beehive-filled, fruit orchards and stunning sea views, her father remains firmly in the cold.
Neither Meghan nor Harry have ever traveled to Rosarito to visit Tom. Harry asked Tom for permission to marry Meghan during a phone call. Although Tom divorced Meghan’s mother Doria, a secretary, when Meghan was a baby, the couple remained together and Meghan enjoyed a happy upbringing with both parents.
Her father, a three-time Emmy winner, earned a six-figure living in the 1990s, often working all night to give his daughter ballet and dance lessons, as well as private acting classes.
He sent her to private schools from kindergarten onward and then to Immaculate Heart School in Los Angeles, followed by the prestigious Northwestern University in Illinois.
Harry and Meghan’s luxurious £11m, 16-bathroom estate in California. Thomas has never been invited to visit the sprawling home of the daughter he raised since she was 11.
The humble beachside bungalow in Mexico that Thomas has vacated and called home for ten years
As he sorted through a lifetime of possessions this week as he prepared for his move, he seemed wistful for happier times.
Markle looked at images of him and his beautiful, ever-smiling daughter, often photographed cuddling at proud school events like graduations, concerts and school musicals where he helped light up the stage.
He laughed: ‘They were always very well-lit shows. Well, they made me turn them on! I used to work really hard on those school productions.
There were old posters next to one of Meghan’s first photographs as an actress, a black-and-white image he took himself that helped land her her first speaking roles on Married With Children and the game show Deal Or No Deal. These appearances launched her as an actress on Suits, the show that brought her to the world’s attention.
She showed me birthday cards, Christmas cards, all in Meghan’s signature handwriting, a distinctive form of cursive writing on display this week in the opening credits of her new TV show. She also used this skill to help herself raise money by writing wedding invitations during difficult times when acting work dried up.
He said: ‘There were good times. She was a good girl. ‘I don’t like some of the things my daughter has done, but I will always love her. My door is always open for her. I love her and that will never change. I love all my children.
‘Meghan once told me she wanted me to stop talking to Tom Jr and Samantha, my children from my first marriage. But what parent could agree to that?’
Markle is still “baffled” by the fact that he believes his daughter blames him for not attending their wedding in May 2018 because he suffered two heart attacks on the eve of the ceremony.
He opened a drawer containing medical records showing that, when Meghan and Harry claimed a car was waiting for him at their home to take him to Los Angeles to board a flight to London, he was in Rosarito hospital receiving treatment for heart problems and He was later transferred across the U.S. border to have two heart stents inserted.
Instead of walking his daughter down the aisle at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, he watched the wedding at a rented Airbnb after being discharged from hospital. He shows me a medical certificate that prohibits him from traveling.
Markle remains “incredibly grateful” to King Charles for walking his daughter down the aisle. “I’m a grandfather and he’s king of England, but he’s also a grandfather who would like to see his grandchildren.”
He shakes his head. ‘I’m not running away. I’m looking for a more positive life. Every day I see something about Meghan. This week was the new television program.
I wish him no ill will. My dream is that one day I can reunite my entire family, like a “normal” family.
‘The British people have been very kind to me. I would like to thank you for your support and kindness.
“I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the kind people of the UK.” And with that, he closed the door to his house for the last time, we got into my Cadillac and headed to Los Angeles International Airport.
As I said goodbye to him and Tom Jr, I felt sad but also hopeful that Thomas Markle would finally find the peace he deserves.
As he told me: “It’s a new year and it’s time to start over.”
Safe travels, Tom and good luck.