Thomas Markle

Thomas Wayne Markle Sr. (born July 18, 1944) is an American retired television lighting director and director of photography. He is the father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, the father-in-law of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and the maternal grandfather of Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, seventh in line to the British throne.

He received a Chicago / Midwest Emmy Award for work on the television program Made in Chicago in 1975 and was a co-recipient of two Daytime Emmy Awards for work on the television soap opera General Hospital, in 1982 and 2011.

Thomas Wayne Markle Sr. was raised in Newport, Pennsylvania, the son of Doris May Rita (née Sanders; 1920–2011) and Gordon Arnold Markle (1918–1982). His mother's family was from New Hampshire. The Markle (formerly spelled Merckel) family on his father's side is of Germanic stock from Alsace on the modern French–German border. He has two brothers, Frederick and Michael Markle. He was raised in an Anglican Christian denomination.

Among Markle's distant ancestors are his paternal great-great-grandmother New Hampshire landowner Mary Hussey Smith (died 1908) who was a descendant of Christopher Hussey.

Markle worked as a lighting director at WTTW-TV Channel 11 in the 1970s. In 1975, he received a Chicago / Midwest Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement for Individual Excellence: Non Performers for his lighting design work on the channel's Made in Chicago program. He worked on the television series General Hospital and Married... with Children.

Awards

In 1982, Markle was one of the 14 named co-recipients of a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Design Excellence for a Daytime Drama Series for work on General Hospital, and in 2011, he shared a Daytime Emmy Award with Vincent Steib for Outstanding Achievement in Lighting Direction for a Drama Series for work on General Hospital. He was also nominated (with various co-nominees) for Daytime Emmy Awards for work on General Hospital on seven other occasions.

He was nominated, along with two other co-nominees, for a Primetime Emmy Award in 1986 for Outstanding Lighting Direction (Electronic) for a Miniseries or a Special for the lighting design for the 58th Academy Awards.

Markle married student and secretary Roslyn Loveless in 1964; they had met the year before at an on-campus party at the University of Chicago. They have two children, Samantha (born 1964) and Thomas Markle Jr. (born 1966). Markle and Loveless divorced in 1975.

He married Doria Ragland at the Self-Realization Fellowship Temple of Paramahansa Yogananda in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on December 23, 1979 by Brother Bhaktananda. The Markles had a daughter together in 1981, Rachel Meghan Markle (known by her middle name), who later became the Duchess of Sussex. Thomas and Doria Markle's marriage ended in divorce in 1987 or 1988.

Markle won $750,000 in the California State Lottery in 1990 and spent all the money. In 2016, he filed for bankruptcy over a debt of $30,000. He lives in Rosarito, Mexico.

In the media spotlight

In 2018, he was the subject of considerable media speculation as to whether he would attend his daughter Meghan's wedding to Prince Harry, at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. He did not attend as he was recovering from heart surgery.

In May 2018, and a few days prior to the wedding, Markle became a subject of controversy after it was revealed that he had staged photographs for a paparazzi photographer in return for money. His elder daughter, Samantha, later claimed that it was her idea, and that her father's motivation was not financial but "to show the world that [he's] getting in shape and doing great healthy things." Markle admitted that he initially had lied to Harry about the staged photos and later regretted his decision. In June 2018, he appeared on Good Morning Britain in which he discussed his personal relationship with Meghan and his son-in-law. In another interview with The Mail on Sunday in July 2018, Markle said that his daughter "[would] be nothing without me. I made her the Duchess she is today." His continual paid interviews with the press reportedly damaged his relationship with his daughter, with whom he indicated he had not been in contact since the royal wedding.

In February2019, he published a letter sent to him by his daughter shortly after her wedding in which she stated that he had broken her heart "into a million pieces" with his actions. Markle described the letter as a "a dagger to the heart" rather than an "olive branch".

In January 2020, it was revealed that The Mail on Sunday could possibly use evidence provided by Markle against his own daughter in an ongoing legal battle between the paper and the Duchess. The Daily Mail also named him as a potential witness who could testify against Meghan in court.

In a January 19, 2020 interview, he said that Meghan is "tossing away every young girl's dream of becoming a princess, for money", and that she and Harry are "destroying and cheapening" the royal institution, and that they are "lost souls". He also stated that he does not expect to see Meghan ever again but still hopes for reconciliation one day.

Papers submitted to the London's High Court in April 2020, showed that Harry had reached out to Markle before the wedding, asking him to not talk to the press and tabloids.