Thomas Markle admits lying to Prince Harry, hanging up on the prince

Meghan Markle’s dad has a new interview that he has vowed to be his last. Thomas Markle has revealed that he lied to Prince Harry about collaborating with the paparazzi and why he hung up on the British prince during a “rude” phone call.

Last week, veteran royal photographer Arthur Edwards has claimed that before Harry married Meghan, he called Markle at his home in Mexico to ask his future father-in-law about the reports that he had conspired with paparazzi to stage photos of him apparently preparing for his daughter’s wedding. The Emmy Award-winning lighting director denied it.

His denial allegedly caused the prince “embarrassment,” Edwards told Radio Kent. It had emerged later that he had indeed colluded with the paparazzi. The photographer said that even before Markle admitted to it, they all knew the truth.

“Everyone in the business knows that. When he was in the library looking at the TV screen and they happen to be there. You don’t get measured up for aa suit in a shop window,” he said.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Markle confessed that he had lied to Harry when the Duke of Sussex asked if the photos were staged. He said that even though they had never met personally, he and Harry enjoyed a series of “warm and chatty” phone conversations before the wedding. Harry had also advised him to avoid the paparazzi at all costs for his own sake.

“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,” Markle said.

But he did not take Harry’s advice. Instead, he made an arrangement to pose for pictures for the paparazzi, a move that he now regrets.

After the Daily Mail published a story revealing Markle and a paparazzo staging the photos, Markle was admitted to a hospital recovering from a heart attack. He said Prince Harry called him to lecture him.

“If you had listened to me, this would never have happened,” Harry, according to Markle, told him.

Markle wasn’t in the mood to be lectured, saying it was “rude” of Harry to call him while he was recuperating from a heart attack.

“Maybe it would be better for you, guys, if I was dead… then you could pretend to be sad,” he told the prince before hanging up the phone.

Markle told the publication that he has since realised that Harry was “absolutely right” to criticise him. However, he was hurt the most by Meghan when his daughter told him that he would not be allowed to deliver a speech at her wedding.

“I’m not mad at Harry. I’m not mad at Meghan. I love them. I wish them well. But for the rest of it, f--- it. I’m done,” he said.

Markle said it would be the last interview he would give. He has previously and continuously criticised the British Royal family for a number of things, saying Harry’s late mum, Diana, would have loathed how he was being treated. He had also sided with his elder daughter, Samantha Grant, when she unceasingly attacked Meghan in the press, saying if only Meghan tried to win her half-sister over, then Grant wouldn’t have attacked her anymore.