Thomas Markle has yet to meet his estranged daughter Meghan Markle’s two children with Prince Harry — and he is ready to take legal action to spend time with Archie and Lilibet.
“I will be petitioning the California courts for the rights to see my grandchildren in the very near future,” the 77-year-old former lighting director recently told Fox News about Archie, 2, and Lili, 1 month.
Us Weekly has reached out to reps for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for comment regarding Thomas’ claims. He went on to weigh in on Meghan and Harry’s decision to distance themselves from the royal family, noting he hopes Queen Elizabeth II doesn’t “punish” the little ones for their parents’ “bad behavior.”
Thomas told the outlet, “Archie and Lili are small children. They’re not politics. They’re not pawns. They’re not part of the game. And they’re also royal and entitled to the same rights as any other royal.”
Meghan and Harry opted to step back from their royal duties in January 2020, making their exit permanent earlier this year. The twosome, who relocated to California, spoke out their issues with the royal family — and Thomas — during a tell-all interview with CBS in March.
“I grieve a lot. I mean, I’ve lost my father. I lost a baby,” Meghan said, referring to her past miscarriage. “I nearly lost my name. I mean, there’s the loss of identity. But I’m still standing, and my hope for people in the takeaway from this is to know that there’s another side.”
The Suits alum went on to address Thomas missing her and Harry’s 2018 nuptials after he was caught staging photos with the paparazzi.
“There was such an obsession about anything in my world, including tracking down my parents. And I did everything I could to protect both of them in that media frenzy,” Meghan, 39, said. “But for over a year, the U.K. tabloids were trying to find my dad, offering people so much money to try to find his address. Once they did, I remember being told, there was a huge headline, like, ‘We found him!’ or ‘We’ve got him!’”
When asked whether she felt a sense of “betrayal” over the situation with Thomas, Meghan noted that she was more upset that he lied when confronted by her and Harry, 36.
“We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said, ‘No, absolutely not.’ I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our kids one day. I said, ‘We won’t be able to protect our own kids one day.’ I said, ‘I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can help,’” she explained. “And he wasn’t able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.”
The former actress credited her own mother, Doria Ragland, for how she handled Meghan’s transition into the royal family.
“Everyone has accountability. They hunted my mom down. You never heard her say a word,” Meghan said. “She’s remained in silent dignity for four years watching me go through this.”
This isn’t the first time Thomas has spoken out about his grandchildren. Following Lili’s birth last month, he claimed he learned about her arrival in the media.
“I’m not a tearful type … but I’m certainly hurt by a lot of it. There’s a good chance I might never see my grandchildren,” he told 60 Minutes Australia on June 13. “No phone calls, I just heard it on the radio,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to [Meghan] since two days before they got married.”
