Meghan Markle's Dad Claims Prince Harry Told Him to 'Give Donald Trump a Chance'
Meghan Markle‘s dad Thomas has never met his daughter’s husband Prince Harry in person, but they broke the rule of steering clear of political discussion the first time they talked.
“It’s been over the phone, always over the phone,” Thomas, 73, said in an interview with the U.K.’s Good Morning Britain early Monday. “We have yet to see each other face to face. We’ve had interesting conversations on the phone. He’s a smart guy… We talked a few times about Donald Trump, Brexit, things like that. He’s an interesting guy.”
Thomas then recounted their initial phone call: ” He said ‘Hello Thomas’, and I said, ‘Hello Harry.’ It became a conversation back and forth mostly about politics. He was asking me how I was feeling that day, and I was telling him how unhappy I was with the president, or with the idea of Trump, and that’s how it began. Then we talked a little bit about how they met and how happy they were with each other, and that was pretty much it for the first conversation.”
Thomas claimed that he and Harry, 33, expressed differing views on Trump, though.
“Our conversations was I was complaining that I didn’t like Donald Trump, he said, ‘Give Donald Trump a chance,’ ” the former lighting director and director of photography said. “I sort of disagreed with that …That was his politics, I have my politics.”
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But the prince, a good friend of Barack and Michelle Obama‘s, didn’t explicitly express his backing of the U.S. president. “I would hope not now, but at the time he might have been,” Thomas said of Harry being a Trump supporter.
Harry has hung out with the Obamas on both sides of the pond since their initial meeting in 2015, and Barack even tweeted his congratulations to the prince when he got engaged to Meghan in November.
Rumors swirled that the royal couple would invite Barack and Michelle to their May wedding, but the British government was reportedly concerned that an invite to the former president, 56, and first lady, 54, would hurt Trump’s feelings, as he was not on the guest list. (The president, 72, did make a donation to one of the charities Meghan and Harry suggested to guests and well-wishers.)
Meghan’s father also covered British current events with Prince Harry, tackling Brexit, the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union.
“It was just a loose conversation about something that we have to try, there was no real commitment to it, ” Thomas continued on GMB. “I think he was open to the experiment.”
Thomas said he wasn’t nervous about chatting with the royal. “He’s quite easy to talk to,” he revealed. “He’s a very comfortable person to talk to. I wasn’t nervous, 5,000, 10,000 miles apart it’s hard to be nervous with someone you’re talking to on the phone.”
So of course when Meghan, 36, started thinking her relationship would lead to marriage, Thomas supported her choice, despite never having met Harry.
“My daughter is very intelligent,” he said. “She knows how to choose who she wants to be with. She’s a smart girl and she made a good pick, didn’t she?”
Kensington Palace declined to comment on the interview.