Meghan’s father: I’m leaving America for a new life abroad and this is why… In this exclusive interview, Thomas Markle reveals why he’s moving to other side of the world – and what it means for his hopes of ever seeing his grandchildren

Meghan Markle’s estranged father Tom is planning a ‘fresh start’ abroad in 2025, hoping he can spend his final years ‘in peace’.

In a particularly poignant announcement this week – as his daughter launched her shiny new Netflix lifestyle show: With Love, Meghan – Mr Markle told The Mail on Sunday that he has decided to buy the clifftop house in Mexico that he has owned for a decade. calls home, to leave. year.

Mr Markle, 80, has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke in recent years, and says his decision to seek a new life abroad is because he is looking for “peace” and “kinder people”.

I was with Mr. Markle this week as he wrapped up a lifetime of memories. We drank PG Tips and ate endless pies while he sorted his belongings into packing boxes and burned the things he didn’t want to keep.

Here were Meghan’s school reports describing her as a child who “shows constant effort and is active in classroom discussions” – dog-eared documents he first received when she was nine years old and which he has cherished all these years.

And there were endless photos of Meghan – feeding the ducks with her father, playing miniature golf, laughing on fishing trips to a neighboring lake.

The images could have come from any happy family album, something that struck me as particularly sad as I watched Mr. Markle carefully piece together the only memories he now has of his youngest child — the “baby” he affectionately called “Megsy,” whom he would rock. in his arm and rocked to sleep with the sound of the refrigerator rumbling.

Each photo was carefully placed in a plastic bag for protection and then boxed up for the long journey to wherever life would take it next.

When I tell him he’s “brave” to start over at age 80, he shrugs, smiles and says, “I don’t know if brave is the word.”

‘I’m ready for change. I’ve been stuck in a rut for a while and am ready to meet new people and experience kindness.”

On one table were videos of Meghan’s first wedding to Hollywood producer Trevor Engelson, whom she married on a beach in Jamaica in 2011 and divorced in 2014 – two years before she met Prince Harry on a blind date.

“I really liked Trevor,” Mr. Markle said softly. “I don’t think he ever understood why she dumped him.”

To be with him at this moment, especially at Christmas, felt particularly emotional.

While there is no suggestion he is ‘fleeing’ because of Meghan and Harry, he says he hopes to find a quieter place to live and is considering options in South East Asia.

‘I traveled in that part of the world when I was younger. The people are so nice and welcoming, and they respect older people,” he said. It is a place of culture and beauty.’

Incredibly, he has yet to meet his son-in-law Prince Harry or his grandchildren Archie, five or three-year-old Lilibet, who is named after the late queen.

He has come to accept that he will now probably never do that again – although the door remains open to him all the time.

The Emmy-winning Hollywood lighting director has not renewed the lease on his Mexican rental home. Instead, he plans to travel and explore his options with his son Tom Jr., 58, Meghan’s half-brother.

“I don’t know where I’ll end up, but it’s time to move on and find a place where I can live among friendly people and enjoy the time I have left,” he said.

Although Mr Markle declined to discuss politics, he said a return to his native US – he was born in Pennsylvania but spent most of his life at ABC Studios in Hollywood on shows including General Hospital and Married With Children – was unlikely.

“I distance myself from the policies of the United States that disappoint me,” he said.

‘At eighty, it’s time to move somewhere where the people are nice and where I can enjoy a calmer, friendlier existence.

‘In Southeast Asia, medical care is good, you can live fairly cheaply, the people are friendly and respectful of the elderly and the food is healthy.

‘Mostly I just want peace. At 80, none of us know how long we have left.

“I want to be peaceful no matter what, without the terrible drama of the past years.”

Despite living in the beach community of Rosarito, Mexico – a 250-mile drive from the Sussexes’ £11 million, 16-bathroom mansion in Montecito, California – he has never been invited to visit the sprawling home of the daughter he raised. from 11 years.

While the trailer for Meghan’s Netflix show this week showed off teeming beehives, fruit orchards and breathtaking sea views, her father remains firmly out in the cold.

Neither Meghan nor Harry ever traveled to Rosarito to visit Tom. Harry asked Tom for permission to marry Meghan during a telephone conversation. While Tom divorced Meghan’s mother Doria, a secretary, when Meghan was a baby, the couple remained close and Meghan enjoyed a happy upbringing with both parents.

Her father, a three-time Emmy winner, made a good living in the 1990s, often working all night to give his daughter ballet and dance lessons, as well as private acting lessons.

He sent her to private schools from kindergarten and then to Immaculate Heart school in LA, followed by the prestigious Northwestern University in Illinois.

As he sorted through a lifetime of belongings this week as he prepared to move, he seemed wistful about happier times.

Mr. Markle viewed images of him and his beautiful, ever-smiling daughter, often photographed with their arms around each other at proud school events such as graduations, concerts and school musicals for which he helped provide the stage lighting.

He laughed, “They were always very well-lit shows. Well, they let me light them! I worked so damn hard on those school productions.”

There were old posters next to one of Meghan’s first acting photos, a black-and-white photo he took himself that helped her land her first speaking roles on Married With Children and the game show Deal Or No Deal. These performances launched her as an actress in Suits, the show that brought her to the world’s attention.

He showed me birthday cards and Christmas cards, all in Meghan’s signature calligraphy — a signature form of cursive handwriting that was featured this week in the credits of her new TV show. She also used the skill to raise money by writing wedding invitations during lean times, when acting work dried up.

He said: ‘There were good times. She was a good girl. ‘I don’t like some of the things my daughter has done, but I will always love her. My door is always open for her. I love her and that will never change. I love all my children.

“Meghan once told me she wanted me to stop talking to Tom Jr. and Samantha, my children from my first marriage. But what parent could ever agree to that?’

Mr Markle is still ‘baffled’ by the fact that he believes his daughter blames him for not attending her wedding in May 2018 because he suffered two heart attacks on the eve of the ceremony.

He opened a drawer of medical records revealing that when Meghan and Harry claimed a car was waiting at his house to take him to Los Angeles to board a flight to London, he was hospitalized in Rosarito was lying down and being treated for heart problems. later transferred across the American border to have two heart stents placed.

Instead of walking his daughter down the aisle of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, he watched the wedding in a rented Airbnb after being released from hospital. He shows me a doctor’s note forbidding him to travel.

Mr Markle remains ‘incredibly grateful’ to King Charles for walking his daughter down the aisle. ‘I’m a grandfather and he’s King of England – but he’s also a grandfather who wants to see his grandchildren.’

He shakes his head. ‘I’m not running away. I am looking for a more positive life. Every day I see something about Meghan. This week it’s the new TV show.

‘I don’t wish her any ill will. My dream is that one day I can bring my whole family together, as a ‘normal’ family.

‘The British people have been so kind to me. I would like to thank them for their support and kindness.

‘I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the kind people of Britain.’ And with that, he closed the door of his house for the last time and we climbed into my Cadillac and drove to Los Angeles International Airport.

While I watched him and Tom Jr. waved goodbye, I felt sad but also hopeful that Thomas Markle will finally find the peace he deserves.

As he said to me: ‘It’s a new year and time for a new start.’

Have a safe trip, Tom – and good luck.