Ham pr disasters 57! ….continuing the confusion and controversy….

[jeffgoldblum]

Once more into the breach dear friends!!

Good questions. Who knew - or even suspected, and when? I've just asked why both wives left him with their children. They couldn't have suspected anything at the time.

I wonder this too. It's very odd for two wives to leave their kids with the father and just more or less abandon them. I know M saw her mother occasionally but she wasn't a consistent parent. Doria was also very young when she met TM. I can't remember if Roslyn was too. He seems to have gone for young immature women who then left him with the child/children.

In addition Thomas never remarried or seems to have had any real relationship after Doria left him and Doria has never remarried and never seems to have had a relationship with anyone else publicly. It's bizarre.

@StrawberryWasp if the allegations are true it’s entirely feasible no one in the family had any idea as to what was happening. Abusers of all kinds are masters in the art of secrecy and deceit which is why so many of them get away with it for so long, even to the extent of taking their secret to the grave with them.

He seemed to continue the relationship with Doria in that when she visited, they were friendly, and they all had Thanksgiving together, for example, as recently as 2016. I've no idea why Doria left, she had her reasons, but obviously had no concerns about him as a Dad.

I was wondering that as well.

Perhaps both women just wanted out and weren't mature enough to know if he was a decent father. Apparently he wasn't around much during his first marriage anyway. He was always working which is part of the reason the marriage broke down. To then leave a man who wasn't around with the kids seems very strange. I wonder if they were both just young and desperate and he was the best option. No wonder all the kids turned out totally dysfunctional.

I don't think we'll ever get and answer to this. The letter writer, Roslyn Loveless, died in 2024. Nobody really knows why she suddenly wrote about him 44 years after they divorced.

Re the letter - I married in 1980, he did a bunk a few years later, we tried for three years to patch it up and eventually divorced in the early 1990s. Now I could (for whatever reasons) write a letter in 2019 about his behaviour and character that would not be at ALL complimentary but that would be based on the man I knew at the time. Not necessarily the man he was 30 years later and whom I haven't seen since. So the importance being given to the letter is rather strange.

The RF must be so relieved that the letter was issued on the HAM’s return, making their status crystal clear. It has saved them from having to do any further public distancing as a result of these revelations, which might have looked mean spirited (to some…not to mean old me, after what they did!).

They can now carry on as usual and just let the HAMs sort this one out.

It's entirely possible that the letter from the Met was not the first one Meghan had received, hence the confusion. And also entirely possible that she took no action because a) she saw the letter(s) as vexatious and b) in the letter(s) the writer expressed the intention to go to the authorities themselves.

That has to be the best euphemism I've ever read.

But it’s still very unusual for mothers to leave the family so completely, and for a father to raise the children. I don’t subscribe to the “jailbird Doria” rumours but it is bizarre that mystery still surrounds her disappearance from M’s life for so long.

Exactly, let them sort their own shit out.

It's strange that all this has surfaced now on the heels of H&M moving back to UK and some of the lukewarm PR they've received.

It is. In which case, Meghan should not have jumped in feet first with her over complicated explanations. She should, as many have said, made a non committal “shocked and upset” comment and waited for clarification. But she is incapable of not inserting herself into situations and making it all about her, all without prior thought

@jeffgoldblum thoughts and prayers for you as you must currently be unable to leave your computer and live your life due to never knowing how quickly we might need a new thread. Thanks for your outstanding service to Mumsnet posters this weekend!

Lots of lukewarm PR. And - as she complained about on her royal tour of SA - no one asking if Meghan is ok…

She hasn’t got any sense, that’s the problem. As ever.

She may not have known until later.

So the DM article (haven’t read the Times one kindly posted upthread yet) appears to be the only article in the UK media that’s starting to try and thread things together.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16238013/Thomas-Markle-alcoholic-ex-wife-wayward-son-royal-scandal-GUY-ADAMS.html

Pagesix, way back on Friday, which seems weeks ago now! Was the only paper to ask questions. Which is interesting because the UK press has been- poor old Megs!

https://pagesix.com/2026/10/23/royal-family/meghan-markle-and-prince-harrys-behavior-to-her-father-questioned-amid-claim-they-knew-of-disturbing-allegations-in-2018/

’One highly placed source confirmed to Page Six that they “knew there was an issue” with Thomas Sr. in 2018. Others questioned why Meghan and Harry seemingly didn’t alert authorities in the US and Mexico, where Thomas Sr., now 82, was then-living.

It was, however, made firmly clear to Page Six Friday that Markle’s hands had been tied, as she didn’t have firm proof of the allegations and to make public allegations could have jeopardized an investigation or opened her up to litigation.
Another Sussex source questioned why Markle had long blasted the media for a rift with her father if she knew about these allegations, saying, “One of her biggest gripes is the media and ‘false reports.’”
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“She could have said eight years ago that some troubling accusations have come to light, I will help whatever way I can,” a source added.
As late as 2021, Markle told Oprah Winfrey in a bombshell royal-bashing interview: “I grieve a lot… I mean, I’ve lost my father.” Husband Prince Harry then went on to add he “shouldered” the blame for the situation adding, “If Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad.”

But if she was aware of disturbing allegations, why did Markle send a saccharine handwritten note to Thomas in August 2018, begging him to stop talking to reporters, saying he had broken her heart “into a million pieces” with his media interviews, one well-placed insider questioned.
She ended the five-page letter by writing, “I ask for nothing other than peace. And I wish the same for you.”

Ao her team are saying her hands were tied, she was told not to speak out. Both nothing was happening! There was no moment!

How can someone tie your hands about doing something, if they aren’t doing anything themselves?

So Meghan was saying as recently as 2021, and Harry was backing her up - that she lost her Dad because of the RF?
The blaming of the RF is obsessive and pathological.
Dear god.

It's only that she's lost excess fat due to weight loss injections. So her face looks very different , mouth and nose look bigger chubby cheeks gone face dropped a bit. Lots of people on wli have this effect.

It's all they had, really. But now they need the rf (and uk tax payers cash) we'll see what happens next

It was, however, made firmly clear to Page Six Friday that Markle’s hands had been tied, as she didn’t have firm proof of the allegations and to make public allegations could have jeopardized an investigation

That's why they're called allegations, because there isn't necessarily firm proof one way or the other. That's why you alert the people who can investigate them and find or not find that proof.

or opened her up to litigation.

All about her again. Never mind that her allegations might have prevented years of CSA, she didn't want it to come back on her. What litigation was she expecting if she acted in good faith?

I don’t believe I need ask.

The language used suggests that she may well be dealing with another rather shell shocked father rather closer to home who is wondering why he wasn’t as aware of the gravity of claims that could be levelled at the father-in-law he never met. And why he was encouraged to trash his own family publically for relatively minor wrong doings when compared to CSA. Because the least you’d expect from a spouse with (factual or fictional) allegations of CSA in the family is to have some perspective about lip gloss & lime light sharing.

It’s either done because they know the RF is unlikely to enter into rebuttals, or in order to provoke them into a public ding-dong.