The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden is on another tear. He’s looking at a three-month royal gossip lull with the missing Waleses, a cancer-stricken king decamping to Scotland, a concussed Princess Anne and… let’s not forget the forgettable Sophie and Edward. Who and where are they? So, as always, Eden seizes the moment to once again rake over six-year-old gossip and throw in a dash of faux-sympathy for Toxic Thomas Markle. Apparently, today is Toxic Tom’s birthday and to celebrate, he gave some new quotes to the Mail. But that’s not all, of course not. Some lowlights from “Meghan ‘set alarm bells ringing’ at the Palace from the start. As their star wanes, there are two mistakes from those days she and Harry must fix.”

Toxic Tom’s birthday: There will be mixed emotions when Thomas Markle wakes up at his cliff-side home in Rosarito, Mexico, today. This is his 80th birthday. Yet amid the many cards and presents waiting to be unwrapped, there will likely be nothing from his famous daughter, Meghan. Tom Markle is not expecting so much as a phone call. Not even an email. ‘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,’ he lamented to my colleague Caroline Graham in The Mail on Sunday. ‘I would love to meet my grandchildren, but I would be happy with a photograph at this stage.’

QEII was “alarmed” by Meghan’s estrangement from her dad: Queen Elizabeth was so alarmed by Meghan’s estrangement from her father that the late monarch suggested Meghan write to him. In her Netflix docu-series, Harry & Meghan, the duchess confirmed she had sought the Queen’s advice. As she put it: ‘I reached out to Her Majesty and was, like, ‘This is what’s going on. What do you want me to do? I want…whatever advice you have. Ultimately, it was suggested by the Queen and the Prince of Wales [now King Charles] that I write my dad a letter.’ Which she did – although not with the results that Queen Elizabeth had perhaps intended. Speaking later about the lengthy letter he received, Mr Markle said: ‘I thought it would be an olive branch. Instead, it was a dagger to the heart.’

Alarm bells: ‘Meghan’s public disagreements with her father set alarm bells ringing at the time,’ a royal source tells me. ‘Her Majesty realised the potential damage they could do to the Royal Family in general. Looking back, the Queen might have had an inkling of what was to come,’ says the source.

The Sussexes are so eager to mend fences, you see: In recent months, Harry and Meghan have given the impression they are keen to mend fences with the Royal Family. They appeared eager to let it be known that they had enjoyed a friendly phone conversation with King Charles on his birthday last autumn. Harry certainly rushed to see his father, flying more than 5,000 miles across the Atlantic after the King’s cancer diagnosis was made public. Yet still the Sussexes seem determined to risk conflict. Harry’s decision to go ahead and collect the Pat Tillman award last week – despite protests from thousands of people including the late American hero’s own mother, Mary – was a sign of the couple’s stubborn refusal to heed criticism. With their popularity seemingly on the wane in the US, perhaps it’s time to mend a few fences back in Britain.

[From The Daily Mail]

Here’s the thing… just for argument’s sake, let’s say that QEII was “alarmed” at Meghan’s sudden estrangement from her dogs-t father in 2018. Did QEII or the courtiers honestly believe that the best course of action for the palace or for Meghan to say “to hell with Thomas Markle’s lies, interviews and taking money to sell out his daughter, we should bring him closer?” Besides, everything that’s happened post-2018, including Tom Markle SELLING HIS DAUGHTER’S LETTER TO THE MAIL, has proved Meghan’s course of action correct. Sever contact, cut him off completely. The only reason he wants a photo of Archie and Lili is to sell it for more beer. As for “perhaps it’s time to mend a few fences back in Britain.” Yeah, back in May, Harry’s father made it perfectly clear with his very loud tantrum that he and Camilla are the ones refusing to make any kind of private peace.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, 60 Minutes Australia.