“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty The Queen.”
Those words delivered the ultimate royal shock. On January 8, 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced that they planned to step away from life in the UK.
But what drove that decision? Why abandon the castles, ceremonies, privilege and protection that came with their positions? Why step back from one of the world’s most influential families? What, exactly, lay behind Megxit?
The couple cited several factors, including relentless media attention, tensions with the Cambridges and clashes with senior palace officials—the so-called “men in grey suits.” Yet none of those explanations fully satisfied critics at the time. Could royal life really have been so unbearable?
Now, it seems possible that the answer was tied to the cloud of suspicion surrounding Thomas Markle Snr and the devastating effect it may have had on Meghan.
In early 2019, the Metropolitan Police reportedly shared with the duchess a letter making grave allegations about her father. Meghan was then around six months pregnant. Looking back at images from that period—shaking hands, meeting crowds and touring Morocco and southern Africa—it is striking how consistently she maintained a bright public smile.
She was not only adapting to life as a full-time royal and preparing to become a mother; she was also confronting allegations that her father might have a deeply troubling past. Whatever anguish lay behind the scenes, the emotional burden must have been considerable.
Thomas Markle Snr has not been convicted of any wrongdoing. However, the long-running estrangement between father and daughter, together with Meghan’s recent statement that she kept her children away from their grandfather “to protect them,” suggests she has believed for some time that he posed a serious risk.
Thomas Markle was frequently Meghan’s main caregiver, taking her to ballet and tap-dancing lessons
Before their relationship broke down, Meghan praised “the blood, sweat and tears” her father had invested in her future
The duchess was reportedly shown a letter from the Metropolitan Police in early 2019 containing serious allegations about her father
Consider how shattering such a discovery could have been. Photographs of Meghan as a child portray a close bond with her father, who was often the parent responsible for taking her to ballet and tap-dancing classes. Before their estrangement, she paid tribute to “the blood, sweat and tears this man”—who had grown up with little in a small Pennsylvania town—had invested in her future so she could enjoy opportunities he never had.
In the couple’s Netflix documentary, Meghan said: “I was a daddy’s girl all my life.” Prince Harry made a similar observation in his memoir, Spare, writing that Meghan “still, even in her 30s, called him Daddy.” He said she loved and worried about her father, including concerns about his health and habits, and often depended on him.
The impact of the letter would have been even more acute because Meghan gave birth to Archie only a few months later. The arrival of a first child can bring intense protectiveness, anxiety and fear. Learning that the person who had once been her protector was the subject of such grave allegations may have magnified those emotions and deepened her desire for safety and distance from the outside world.
By the end of 2019, it is easy to imagine Meghan reaching several painful conclusions: she had to protect her child, stay close to the one parent she still trusted—her mother, Doria Ragland, who lives in the United States—and leave the UK.
The demands of public life may have been the final pressure point, especially if she was already carrying the weight of a family secret she felt unable to discuss openly.
The allegations surrounding Thomas Markle also cast Meghan’s later conduct in a different light, including the carefully presented image of family life she has built. Social media pictures show her children playing in the sunshine, picking fruit in the Montecito garden and running around with the dogs while their mother makes jam in the kitchen.
Seen now, those images may represent less an attempt to boast than a deliberate response to the darkness associated with her own family history. What some observers dismissed as overly sweet or staged Sussex family content could instead reflect a longing for the secure, wholesome home life she wanted to create.
The Sussexes’ relatively private existence in Montecito also appears in a different light. Some observers described their Italianate mansion as resembling a gilded cage. One documentary-maker who studied their life in the United States said they appeared to have isolated themselves, while a writer for the Montecito Journal remarked that the couple was rarely seen in public.
That withdrawal may be easier to understand if Meghan’s trust in the father she once adored had been completely fractured. Faced with such a painful betrayal, who could blame her for putting up barriers around herself and her family?
The family’s return to the UK may, one hopes, offer Meghan a chance to move forward—freer, lighter and less constrained by the past. The old saying holds that the sins of the father should not be visited upon the son. Nor should allegations against Thomas Markle Snr define or permanently damage his daughter’s life.
