Meghan Markle Reveals The 1 Reason She Felt ‘Betrayed’ By Her Father Talking To Tabloids

In new footage from her March 7 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle reflected on how 'hard' it has been for her to 'reconcile' with her father, Thomas Markle's, willingness to work with tabloids.

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March 8, 2021 9:15AM EST
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Meghan Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry Dusseldorf Invictus Games One Year to Go event, Germany - 06 Sep 2022
Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex (R) and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive at the United Nations for the 2020 UN Nelson Mandela Prize at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 18 July 2022. Nelson Mandela International Day is observed on 18 July every year. Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit United Nations to mark Nelson Mandela Day, New York, USA - 18 Jul 2022
Image Credit: Tim Rooke/Shutterstock

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were incredibly vulnerable in their March 7 CBS interview with Oprah Winfrey. But now, fans are learning even more from un-seen footage from the couple’s conversation with the media mogul. Meghan opened up to Oprah about how difficult it was for her to understand her father, Thomas Markle‘s, willingness to collaborate with tabloids in the days leading up to her wedding in 2018. “There was such an obsession about anything in my world, including tracking down my parents,” Meghan told Oprah.

Although Meghan insisted that she did “everything [she] could to protect both of them in that media frenzy,” tabloid stories still surfaced. “For over a year, the UK tabloids were trying to find my dad, offering people so much money to try and find his address,” Meghan alleged. “As soon as they did, there was a huge headline that was like, ‘We Found Him! We Got Him.'” It was at this moment that circumstances really started to change for Meghan and Harry.

Thomas Markle, Meghan Markle’s father, photographed running errands [SplashNews.com].
“At that point, the tabloids moved into the apartments across from him and descended on this small town and were giving him gifts. The whole thing brings us to where we are today,” she claimed. When asked if Meghan felt a sense of “betrayal” over her father’s actions, she became noticeably emotional, as she parsed through her complicated feelings. “If we’re going to use the word betrayal, it’s because when we were told by the comms team that this was going to be a story coming out – the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding to create drama, which is also really key in all of this,” Meghan explained.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle opened up to Oprah Winfrey in a tell-all interview on CBS on March 7 [Joe Pugliese/Harpo/AP/Shutterstock].
“We called my dad and I asked him and he said ‘No, absolutely not [I didn’t talk to the tabloids].’ I said, ‘You know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us but they can try to go in and kill this story, but if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use this leverage to protect our own kids one day.’ I said, ‘I just need you to tell me the truth and we can help. And he wasn’t able to do that,” Meghan alleged of her conversation with her estranged father. “That, for me, has really resonated, especially now as a mother.”

Meghan Markle discussed the ‘betrayal’ she felt from her father in her interview with Oprah Winfrey on March 7 [Tim Rooke/Shutterstock].
Meghan further elaborated on the deep hurt and pain she felt once she realized that her father had seemingly lied to her. “I look at Archie [Harry and Meghan’s one-year-old son] and think about this child and I go, ‘I genuinely can’t imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child; I can’t imagine it.’ So, it’s hard for me to reconcile that.”

Since her marriage to Prince Harry, Meghan’s relationship with her father has been incredibly strained. He notably did not attend his daughter’s wedding, after suffering a heart attack. Thomas, a TV industry veteran, continued to make headlines for his appearances and interviews where he talked about his daughter, although she reportedly asked him not to on multiple occasions. Meghan’s conversation about her father is just one in a series of explosive claims that she and Prince Harry made during their March 7 interview on CBS.