Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has been branded "inauthentic" by her estranged father
The 43-year-old former actress' new Netflix lifestyle series, 'With Love, Meghan', premiered last week and while Thomas Markle - who has had no contact with his daughter since before she married Prince Harry in 2018 - hasn't seen the show in full, he hasn't been impressed by the clips he's seen so far
12 March 2025
He told the Mail on Sunday newspaper: "I haven't seen the show but I've seen a ton of clips and I've read many stories. I might sit down and watch it one day but I'm not sure.
"Cooking show are horrendously boring unless the presenter has a passion for it.
"You have to be authentic to hold people's attention. When you are stuffing the turkey's a*** it has to look like you're having fun doing it.
"Unfortunately Meghan has never been authentic. She has to think about everything. She's not spontaneous. Everything she says is pre-planned and rehearsed. It makes me laugh because I know all her looks and expressions.
"I know when she's faking it for the cameras. She's trying so hard to be perfect that she tenses up every time the camera is on her."
And the retired lighting director branded his daughter's attempts to be in the spotlight "sad".
He added: "The best cooks are funny, they mess up, they are human. She just wants to be perfect. It's sad because she's trying so hard to stay in the limelight."
Thomas accused Meghan - who has Prince Archie, five, and three-year-old Princess Lilibet with Harry - of being "out of touch with the real world".
He said: "Meghan should make affordable food and show people how to stretch their food budget.
"I grew up in Pennsylvania and my mum was a great cook - lots of meat and potatoes and cabbage. Apple butter is a sandwich spread and very tasty and inexpensive.
"The women who watch Meghan's show are not all rich and privileged. I think people would love it if she focused on more economical dishes.
"I don't think most people these days can afford to go out and spend $90 on fruit. She's out of touch with normal people.
"She puts edible flowers on everything. No one has edible flowers handy. Sending kids off to school with edible flowers on their food is silly. Kids don't like them and if you put edible flowers in a kid's lunchbox they would probably get teased at school."
In the show, the former 'Suits' star claimed she was a "latchkey kid" who grew up eating fast food and TV dinners, but Thomas insisted that wasn't the case.
He said: "We occasionally ate TV dinners, which family doesn't? But I was working two jobs so money was never an issue. We would eat out at least three times a week and order in the rest of the time.
"Like any single father who did a long day's work, I'd occasionally put a TV dinner in the microwave. But most of the time we'd go out.
"After school I would either pick her up myself and we'd go out to eat or I'd send a car to bring her to the set. She grew up on the sets I worked on. She was never a latchkey kid.
"We lived in a great area, which was packed with restaurants. We ate out all the time. At weekends when I wasn't working I'd take her to a dance class and then invite her and all her friends out for a meal."
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