Getty Images Chris Allerton
After countless months of her more than rocky relationship with her father and half-sister playing out through the media, it was hardly a surprise that Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, wasn’t invited to his grandson’s christening on Saturday.
He would’ve no doubt seen the official portraits released by the Royal Family, with his former wife Doria Ragland standing next to Prince Charles, and if you’re wondering how it would’ve made Thomas Markle feel to have not received an invite, wonder no more.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday from his home in Mexico, Meghan’s father says he would’ve enjoyed being there.
“I have been asked if I would have liked to have gone to Britain to see my new grandson being christened,” the 74-year-old says.
“I was an altar boy at age 12, a confirmed member of the Queen’s church at age 14, and Archie is my new grandson, so of course I would have enjoyed being there for the blessing, wishing Archie and his parents health and happiness.”
Meghan had endured months of personal attacks through the media from both her father and her half-sister Samantha.
Family tensions between Meghan and her father and half-sister Samantha Markle reached boiling point during the lead up to her wedding to Harry last year in May, a wedding he did not attend after undergoing heart surgery. However before the surgery he was exposed for staging paparazzi shots of himself, which Samantha had helped set up.
Following the wedding came months of media interviews by the Markles, which ranged from full-blown attacks and public outburst to back-peddling and pleading from Thomas through the media for his daughter to take his calls.
While Meghan has kept a dignified silence throughout it all, five close friends strongly refuted Thomas Markle’s claims that Meghan had ‘ghosted’ him, revealing Meghan wrote her father an emotional letter following her wedding last year, telling him she loved him and begging him to stop talking about her to the media so they could repair their relationship.
According to a close friend who talked to PEOPLE, Meghan wrote “I’m so heartbroken. I love you… Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.
“Because every time her team has to come to her and fact-check something [he has said], it’s an arrow to her heart,” the friend revealed.
WATCH: Samantha Markle Is Called Out By British Reporter. Story continues below…
Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland split from Thomas Markle when Meghan was two. Meghan also has two older half-siblings, Samantha and Thomas Jr.
Throughout the family drama with her father’s side of the family, Meghan has had unwavering support from her mother, who travelled from her home in Los Angeles to the UK to be present for the birth of her first grandchild and support Meghan and Harry during their first few weeks as new parents.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex held their son’s christening on Saturday July 6th in a small and private ceremony at the Queen’s Private Chapel at Windsor Castle, with just 25 close friends and family in attendance.
The week of the special occasion, which happened to be held on the same day the youngest royal turned two months old, Buckingham Palace announced the royal couple had opted not to disclose who had been named as Archie’s godparents, however there had been speculation Meghan’s close college friends Lyndsay Roth and Genevieve Hillis were two of them, after being spotted at Wimbledon with Meghan just days before the baptism.
On Saturday afternoon the royal couple shared two gorgeous portraits from the occasion, photographed by royal photographer Chris Allerton, with one of them being a more formal group family photo, which included the late Princess Diana’s sisters Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, followed by a beautiful black and white image of the family of three, shot in the Rose Garden at Windsor Castle.
While Meghan will reportedly remain on maternity leave until October, it hasn’t stopped her from making a handful of surprise appearances over the past couple of months, from Trooping the Colour in June, to a surprise appearance at Olympic Park earlier this month to support Harry’s charity the Invictus Games Foundation, to attending Wimbledon last week to cheer on her good friend Serena Williams.
There’s also speculation she may make an appearance at the world premiere of The Lion King in London this weekend with Harry – which would make for an incredibly special date night seeing as one of their earliest dates was to see the stage show of The Lion King on the West End back in 2016.
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