During the run up to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in May 2018 there were two guests who sparked an intense interest from both the public and the press – the bride’s mother and father.

But while Doria Ragland kept her head down before the big day, Thomas Markle – who is 81 today – appeared to be actively seeking out the limelight to capitalise on his daughter’s marriage into the most famous family in the world.

In fact, Thomas’ actions caused his son-in-law Prince Harry to declare that the father of the bride caused ‘chaos’ in the days before the wedding.

Writing in his tell-all biography Spare, Harry lifted the curtain on the drama revolving around Thomas that engulfed the Royal Family just days before the ceremony.

The prince said that Meghan had spent months trying to ‘soothe’ her father who had been left upset by his media coverage.

‘His pride was constantly wounded,’ Harry wrote.

‘Every day there was another humiliating photo in the paper.’

Considering Thomas’ previous unease with his coverage in the papers, Harry and Meghan were surprised when they got word that he had in fact staged a candid photoshoot working with the paparazzi. 

Asked point blank if the story was true Thomas said no.

Harry said: ‘He swore he’d never staged any photos, that he hadn’t taken part in any such charade, that he didn’t know the pap in question.

‘Meg whispered to me: “I believe him”.’

But then the next morning the story broke and it was proved that Thomas had indeed lied. 

‘A week before the wedding, this now became the story… Soon after the story broke, Thomas Markle sent us a text: “I’m so ashamed”,’ Harry wrote.

The story then took another dramatic turn when Thomas then had a heart attack which finally ended any prospect of him attending the wedding. 

Despite his absence, Thomas still continued to cause ‘chaos’ for the bride and groom. 

According to Harry, Meghan was somewhat distracted by her father when drama erupted over Princess Charlotte’s bridesmaid dress.

The Duke of Sussex claimed that Meghan had missed Kate Middleton’s text about issues with Charlotte’s dress because she was ‘dealing with the chaos surrounding her father’.

It has been widely reported that the tense stand-off between Kate and Meghan took place after Charlotte’s fitting for her bridesmaid dress. 

According to royal insider Tom Bower, Kate allegedly believed that the bridesmaids should wear tights as per royal protocol. However, at Meghan’s ‘insistence’ the tradition was dropped.

Their biggest disagreement was over the length of Charlotte’s hem, which Kate believed was too short for the three-year-old princess. 

Meghan’s assistant Melissa Toubati and dress-fitter Clare Waight Keller claimed to have ‘witnessed Meghan emphatically reject Kate’s observation,’ Bower said.

The altercation caused Kate to burst into tears according to presenter and friend of Queen Camilla, Kirstie Allsopp.

Reports differ about what happened next. Bower wrote that Kate went over to Meghan’s quarters in Kensington Palace with a bunch of flowers and asked her not to speak rudely to her staff.

‘In Kate’s version, Meghan slammed the door in her face and threw the flowers in a dustbin,’ Bower wrote.

 After the wedding it was the now-Princess of Wales’ report of the altercation that made headlines about Meghan’s ‘diva’ behaviour. 

Meghan would recall her version of events during her bombshell interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey in 2021.

There, she claimed that the tears were in fact hers, and the flowers an apology.

‘A few days before the wedding, she was upset about something pertaining – yes, the issue was correct – about flower-girl dresses, and it made me cry, and it really hurt my feelings,’ Meghan said during the interview.

‘What was hard to get over was being blamed for something that not only I didn’t do but that happened to me.’

‘And the people who were part of our wedding going to our comms team and saying, “I know this didn’t happen.” I don’t have to tell them what actually happened,’ she added.

Since the wedding, Meghan and Harry have not communicated with Thomas, and he has never had the opportunity to meet his son-in-law – or grandchildren Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.

‘I’ve had a good life and I am proud of what I’ve accomplished, but everything has been overshadowed by what has happened in the last six years,’ he told Mail Online last year.

‘I’ve never been one for birthdays, but I know the one person I most want to hear from, Meghan, won’t be in touch.’

Thomas has put further strain on their relationship by repeatedly giving interviews to the press since Meghan married into the Royal Family. 

In July 2018, during an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Thomas claimed his daughter would be ‘nothing without me. I made her the Duchess she is today’.

He has also appeared on talk shows such as Good Morning Britain, where he has spoken at length about his relationship with Harry and Meghan.

The Duchess’s father had been living in Mexico before he upped and moved across the world to the Philippines earlier this year.

Thomas along with his son – Thomas Jr – are now living on the tropical island of Cebu.

Speaking about his move to South East Asia, Thomas told the Daily Mail: ‘I am ready for a change.

‘I have felt stuck in a rut for some time and I am ready to meet new people and experience kindness.’

He said: ‘At 80 it is time to go somewhere where the people are lovely and I can enjoy a quieter, friendlier existence.

‘In South East Asia the medical care is good, you can live reasonably cheaply, the people are kind and respect older people and the food is healthy.

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

‘I want whatever time I have to be peaceful with none of the awful drama of recent years.’

Since the move, the Markles have not found Cebu to be the tranquil paradise they were expecting, with the men reportedly struggling to adapt to the extremely hot and humid weather on the island. 

The Daily Express reported that concerns had been raised about how the climate could affect Thomas’s poor health, with claims that the father had been seen walking with a cane recently.

Their new life in a high-rise flat in the Philippines’s fifth largest city is world’s away from the luxury lifestyle his daughter and family enjoy in Montecito, California.

But with the rift between father and daughter still as wide as ever, it seems unlikely Thomas will be making the 7,000-mile journey to reunite with Meghan any time soon.