Meghan Markle’s father has hit back at her claims that an emotive text she received from his phone wasn’t actually written by him, saying he typed “every word” of the message that was sent to her, days before she married Prince Harry.
The Duchess of Sussex claimed that her father didn’t write the heart-rendering text in the third episode of the new Netflix series, Harry & Meghan, saying that she believed her father’s phone had been “compromised”.
However, according to The Daily Mail, Thomas Markle, 78, denied his daughter’s claim, saying that he wrote the message from his hospital bed, after he suffered two heart attacks.
The text in question read: "I've done nothing to hurt you Meghan or anyone else I know nothing about 20 phone calls I'm sorry my heart attack is there [sic] any inconvenience for you.”
This was followed by another message that said: “If only I had died then you guys then you guys [sic] could pretend to be sad.”
It was sent in response to texts Meghan had written to her father, after discovering he wouldn’t be attending her wedding via news website TMZ. The outlet reported that Thomas Markle had confirmed to a reporter that he had suffered two heart attacks after posing for staged paparazzi pictures.
The Duchess of Sussex reportedly called her father multiple times, and sent messages to him reading: “I've been reaching out to you all weekend but you're not taking any of our calls or replying to any texts… Do you need help?… What hospital are you at?”
Another said: “Please can I ask that you stop talking to any press… You haven't returned any of our 20+ calls since we all spoke on Saturday morning; which only adds to the hurt you've been causing. We aren't angry but we do really need to speak to u. Love M and H.”
On his response, Meghan said that the style of text didn’t look like how her father would text, and that his extensive use of emojis and ellipses were missing.
She also said that being addressed by “Meghan” was not something her father would usually do.
But Mr Markle told The Mail on Sunday: “I wrote every word that I sent from that phone which is still in my possession. For her to claim my phone was compromised is simply not true. I wrote that text as I lay in a hospital bed after having had two heart attacks and having stents put in.”
