"It's sad’’ - MEGHAN MARKLE's dad criticises her Netflix show; says she's trying too hard to stay in the limelight

Monday, March 10, 2025 - Thomas Markle Snr, the estranged father of Meghan Markle, has criticised his daughter's Netflix show and her decision to put aside her maiden name of Markle. 

In the second episode of her new Netflix show, With Love, Meghan, the 43-year-old could be seen chatting away about fast food with actress Mindy Kaling, who remarked: "People wouldn't believe that Meghan Markle ate at Jack in the Box." 

Meghan responded: "It's so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle. You know I'm Sussex now. You have kids, and you go, 'no I share my name with my children'…I didn't know how meaningful it would be to me, but it just means so much to go 'this is our family name, our little family name'." 

Many fans struggled to get their heads around the idea of "Meghan Sussex", and this includes dad Thomas, whose relationship with his famous daughter has been strained since around the time of her May 2018 wedding. 

In the show, Meghan fondly recalls memories of her grandmother making apple butter and her wish to continue this sweet preserve-making tradition for her own children. Meghan shared: "I think my kids will now connect this to coming home from school and smelling sweetness that wafts through the house when you are slow-cooking fruit." 

However, 80-year-old Thomas believes that Meghan's grandmother Doris, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 91, would be "disappointed" to learn of Meghan's name change. 

Thomas told the Mail Online: "My mum loved Meghan very much but she would be so disappointed to hear that Meghan no longer wants to use the name 'Markle'. My mother was proud to be a Markle. So am I. Meghan never had a problem with the Markle name until she met Prince Harry." 

He then sarcastically quipped: "Now I have to say, 'I am Meghan Sussex's dad.''' 

Thomas Markle Sr. also claimed that his daughter is "faking" her expressions to appear pleasant and perfect on screen. 

Thomas said, "Unfortunately Meghan has never been authentic. She has to think about everything. She's not spontaneous." 

He added: "Everything she says is pre-planned and rehearsed. It makes me laugh because I know all her looks and expressions." 

He added: "I know when she's faking it for the cameras. She's trying so hard to be perfect that she tenses up every time the camera is on her." 

"You have to be authentic to hold people's attention. When you are stuffing the turkey's a*** it has to look like you're having fun doing it. 

"The best cooks are funny, they mess up, they are human. She just wants to be perfect. It's sad because she's trying so hard to stay in the limelight." 

Retired lighting director Thomas also took issue with Meghan's claim that she was a "latchkey kid" who "grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV tray dinners". 

He said: "Like any single father who did a long day's work, I'd occasionally put a TV dinner in the microwave. But most of the time we'd go out. 

"After school, I would either pick her up myself and we'd go out to eat, or I'd send a car to bring her to the set. She grew up on the sets I worked on. She was never a latchkey kid. 

"We lived in a great area, which was packed with restaurants. We ate out all the time. At weekends when I wasn't working, I'd take her to a dance class and then invite her and all her friends out for a meal." 

Meghan’s fondness for lavish fruit platters and extravagant meals also drew criticisms from her father, who expressed concern over how out of touch her portrayal is with the realities many people face. 

He added, "She’s out of touch with normal people. She puts edible flowers on everything. No one has edible flowers handy. Sending kids off to school with edible flowers on their food is silly. Kids don't like them and if you put edible flowers in a kid's lunchbox they would probably get teased at school." 

Thomas Markle Sr. also criticized his daughter's unconventional method of cooking spaghetti, where she adds raw pasta to a pan with vegetables and water instead of boiling it separately. 

"Who makes spaghetti that way? You always boil the water, then add the spaghetti. It's the most basic thing," he said. 

He further stated that his former wife, Meghan’s mother, is a great cook while Meghan never showed much interest in cooking as a child.