Meghan Markle’s estranged father on Tuesday suggested that his daughter exaggerated racism in the British royal family during her interview with U.S. chat show host Oprah Winfrey.
Thomas Markle told ITV the couple’s two-hour chat with Ms. Winfrey was “way over the top” and suggested a royal family member could have asked a “dumb question” about her future baby’s skin colour.
The 76-year-old Emmy-winning former lighting director was interviewed from his home in Mexico by one of Ms. Meghan’s most vehement critics, the former tabloid newspaper editor Piers Morgan.
“They (Harry and Meghan) went way over the top with these stories with Oprah and should have waited, considering the Queen’s age and Philip’s age,” he said of the CBS show broadcast on Sunday.
Prince Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, is 94 and her husband, Prince Philip, is 99 and currently in hospital recovering from a heart operation.
He played down Ms. Meghan’s comments that an unnamed royal family member had asked how dark her baby’s skin would be.
“This whole thing about colour and how dark the baby is, is bullshit,” said Mr. Markle, who is white, while Ms. Meghan’s mother is black.
“I’m guessing and hoping that it’s just a dumb question from somebody. I don’t think the British royal family are racist.”
Mental health
At the same time, he said he was upset by his daughter’s account of feeling suicidal after joining the royal family in 2018. “Had I known she had psychological problems, I would have been there for her,” he said.
But he claimed that Ms. Meghan had “pretty much ghosted” her family in the U.S. and “she really had no one to reach out to”.
Thomas Markle separated from Ms. Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland when the duchess was young.
