‘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 marked one of the most dramatic royal announcements of recent years. On January 8, 2020, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed that they planned to step back from official life in the UK.
The decision immediately raised questions. Why surrender the privileges, ceremony, influence and security associated with royal status? What had prompted the couple to turn away from one of the world’s most prominent families? The episode quickly became known as Megxit.
At the time, the Sussexes pointed to several factors, including relentless media attention, tensions with the Cambridges and disagreements with Buckingham Palace officials. Yet many observers felt those explanations did not tell the whole story. Was life as a duke and duchess really so unbearable?
A different interpretation now focuses on the turmoil surrounding Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle Snr, and the effect that controversy may have had on her during a particularly vulnerable period.
In early 2019, the Metropolitan Police reportedly shared with the duchess a letter containing serious allegations about her father. Meghan was about six months pregnant at the time. Photographs from that year show her smiling through handshakes, walkabouts and overseas tours in Morocco and southern Africa, making the strain she may have been experiencing difficult to see.
She was adapting simultaneously to full-time royal duties, impending motherhood and deeply distressing claims concerning a parent who had once been central to her life. Whatever emotions lay behind her public appearances, maintaining that composure would have been a considerable challenge.
Thomas Markle Snr has not been convicted of the alleged offences, and the claims should not be treated as established fact. However, Meghan’s estrangement from him—and her recent statement that she kept her children apart from their grandfather ‘to protect them’—indicate the depth of her concerns about their relationship.
Thomas Markle was often described as the primary parent, taking Meghan to ballet and tap-dancing classes
Before their estrangement, Meghan praised ‘the blood, sweat and tears this man invested in my future’
In early 2019, the Metropolitan Police reportedly shared a letter containing serious allegations about Thomas Markle Snr
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The potential impact of such news is difficult to overstate. Photographs of Meghan’s childhood show a close bond with her father, who was often portrayed as the parent taking her to ballet and tap-dancing lessons. Before their relationship broke down, she praised ‘the blood, sweat and tears this man’—who had grown up in modest circumstances in Pennsylvania—had invested in her future.
In the Netflix documentary, Meghan recalled: ‘I was a daddy’s girl all my life.’ Prince Harry later wrote in Spare that she still called him ‘Daddy’ well into her 30s, adding that she loved him, worried about his health and habits, and often depended on him.
The timing of the allegations may have made them even more difficult to process. Meghan welcomed Archie only months later, when the protective instincts and anxieties that often accompany a first child would have been especially intense. Learning that a parent she had once viewed as a protector was the subject of serious claims may have deepened her desire for safety and privacy.
By the end of 2019, it is possible that these emotions—shock, grief and the vulnerability of new motherhood—had shaped Meghan’s priorities. Protecting her child, remaining close to her mother, Doria Ragland, in the United States, and leaving the UK may have seemed increasingly important.
Public life may therefore have been only one part of the pressure she was carrying. The demands of royal duty could have become harder to manage alongside a painful family crisis that she was unable, or unwilling, to discuss openly.
The controversy surrounding Thomas Markle also offers one possible lens through which to view the Sussexes’ carefully presented family life. Images of their children playing in the sunshine, picking fruit in the Montecito garden and spending time with the family dogs have accompanied photographs of Meghan cooking jam at home.
What some viewers once dismissed as overly polished or sentimental family branding can instead be interpreted as an effort to create stability and warmth. Against the backdrop of a fractured relationship with her father, a wholesome family environment may have held particular emotional importance for Meghan.
The same context may help explain the couple’s relatively private life in Montecito. Their Italianate mansion has sometimes been described as a gilded cage, while a documentary maker who studied their life in the United States said they appeared to have isolated themselves. A writer for the Montecito Journal similarly observed that the couple were rarely seen in public.
That retreat may now appear less mysterious. A relationship with a beloved parent had been severely damaged by allegations and mistrust, and Meghan may have felt compelled to protect her immediate family by keeping the outside world at a distance.
Let us hope that the family’s return to the UK signals a new lease of life for Meghan: freer, lighter, less burdened by the past. It’s been said that the ‘sins of the father should not be visited on the son’ – and nor should the alleged crimes of Thomas Markle Snr scar the life of his daughter.