Meghan Markle’s father is Thomas Markle, an Emmy-winning lighting director who worked on such shows as General Hospital; her mother is Doria Ragland, a former TV studio intern who later became a social worker and yoga instructor. Markle’s parents divorced when she was a young child, but both remained active in her life. However, shortly before her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018, Meghan and her father had a falling out. He became the center of a controversy after admitting that he had arranged staged paparazzi photos. Thomas did not attended his daughter’s wedding, citing health issues, and Prince Charles (later Charles III) walked Meghan down the aisle. Their estrangement deepened in 2019, when she learned that her father had been accused of child sexual abuse.
In November 2026 Thomas Markle, 82, was arrested in Florida and charged with possession of child pornography. Federal authorities alleged that they found sexually explicit photographs of Markle with “prepubescent girls” in storage units he rented.