Meghan Markle has had a difficult relationship with her father, Thomas Markle Sr., ever since her courtship with Prince Harry began. The Suits actress, 44, is the only child from the former General Hospital lighting director's eight-year marriage to Doria Ragland - though he also shares a son, Thomas Markle Jr., and a daughter, Samantha Markle, with his first wife, Roslyn Loveless. (Markle and Loveless were married from 1964 to 1975.) Trouble arose when Thomas Sr. was due to attend his daughter Meghan and Prince Harry's wedding at St. George's Chapel on May 19, 2018. Markle was accused of staging a photo of himself trying on a suit near his home in Rosarito, Mexico, in exchange for money from a paparazzo. Meghan's half-sister Samantha admitted during a May 2018 appearance on British talk show Loose Women that she was responsible for setting up the photo opp, though she insisted her intentions were not monetary. Meghan Markle's Family Guide: Meet the Duchess' Parents and Siblings "I have to say I am entirely the culprit," Samantha told the Loose Women hosts in 2018. "As we know, the media can take very unflattering photographs of people on their casual days and blow it way out of proportion. I said, you know, the world has no idea you're getting in shape, doing healthy things. They don't photograph you buying vegetables and PH water. They photograph you as unflattering ways as they can." She went on, "So I said, really you need to show the world that you're getting in shape and doing great healthy things. So I suggested [the photo]. There's a lot of scrutiny that it was money motivated, it was not. It was my suggestion that to benefit him and to benefit the royal family that everyone looked good and they depict you as you are - in shape and doing healthy things." Thomas Sr. admitted in a Mail on Sunday interview in May 2018 that he'd deceived Prince Harry during a phone call by claiming he was simply "being measured for a hoodie" when the paparazzi photo was taken. "Harry told me that I should never go to the press. That it would end in tears. He said, 'They will eat you alive.' He was right," Thomas Sr. confessed. Thomas admitted that his future son-in-law was "absolutely right" in opposing staged photographs because of the way they would reflect on the royal family. According to Thomas Sr., his conversation with Prince Harry got so heated that he hung up on the royal. "I'm not mad at Harry. I'm not mad at Meghan. I love them. I wish them well," Thomas added. "But as for the rest of it, ... I'm done." Thomas did not attend his daughter's royal wedding because he underwent heart surgery days before the ceremony. Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Fortune Media The Duchess of Sussex offered her own recollections of the controversy on her 2022 Netflix docuseries Harry and Meghan. "H[arry] and I called my dad. I said, 'They're saying you're taking money from the tabloids to stage photos. Is this true?' He says, 'No,'" Meghan relayed. "And on that call, I'd said to him, 'Look. If they can't stop this story, then it's going to come out tomorrow, so why don't we send someone right now to your house to get you out of there now because if that's the case, your house will be swarmed by media. We'll get you out.'" She went on, "He said, 'No. I have things I need to do.' And it felt really cagey. I was like, 'It doesn't make sense.' And when we hung up, I looked at H[arry]. I was like, 'I don't know why but I don't believe him.'" In that same Netflix special, Prince Harry said he felt somewhat responsible for the disintegration of Meghan's relationship with her father. "She had a father before this," the Duke of Sussex told Harry & Meghan viewers, referring to his wife's life prior to living in the royal spotlight. "Now she doesn't have a father. I shouldered that. Because if Meg wasn't with me, then her dad would still be her dad. It's amazing what people would do when offered a huge amount of money. Fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, to hand over photographs, to create a story. And thank God most of them said no." In the years since their estrangement, Thomas Sr. has expressed hope of reconciling with his daughter so that her and Harry's children - Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet - can meet their cousins. Thomas shared his disappointment that Archie and Lilibet are not close with their paternal cousins - Princes George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte- either since Meghan and Harry are also on the outs with Prince William and Kate Middleton. (Prince Harry reportedly mended fences with his father, King Charles III, during a U.K. visit in September 2025, but Us reported that same month that William still had "tension" with his brother.) "The relationships between cousins is a special one. There's a unique bond," Thomas Jr. told the Daily Mail in June 2024. "I feel sad that Lilibet and Archie don't have the chance to get to know their cousins and take part in things like Trooping the Colour, which is their birthright."