Thomas Markle abandoned her to be brought up alone by the mother and only got back in touch when she became famous and there was a way for him to cash in on her.
I think Meghan's own recollections are somewhat different. She wrote the following post on her blog (The Tig) for Father's Day 2014:
"I think of so many moments with my dad; our club sandwich & fruit smoothie tradition post my tap & ballet class - classes, which by the way, he religiously took me to on Saturday mornings after working 75+ hours a week as a lighting director. The fishing trips along the Kern River and Big Bear Lake to catch catfish or trout and cook it up for dinner, and the commitment he made to lighting my high school musicals so that they felt as grand as a Broadway show."
"The blood, sweat and tears this man (who came from so little in a small town of Pennsylvania, where Christmas stockings were filled with oranges, and dinners were potatoes and spam) invested in my future so that I could grow up to have so much. He helped me turn my bathroom into a darkroom when I was 12 because I wanted to be a photographer – shading my windows in red lighting gels and filling my cabinets with extra jugs of fixer. He put gas in my car when I went from audition trying to make it as an actress. He is the person who believed in this grand dream of mine well before I could even see it as a possibility. He taught me to write thank you notes, to always arrive early, to drink Arnold Palmers, to find my light when I’m on camera…and beyond."
"And that, right there, is the point: my dad taught me to find my light. And he taught me to always make my own box. To my dad – my thoughtful, inspiring, hardworking Daddy – Happy Father’s Day. If I had all the water in the world, I’d give all the water to you…’ (You won’t get that quote, but he will. And for Father’s Day, that’s all that matters)."