Thomas Markle, 81, has told friends he wants to marry Filipino nurse Rio Caneda, 46 – who is just two years older than his estranged daughter Meghan
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex
Meghan Markle’s estranged father Thomas has reportedly told his mates he’s prepared to wed once more at 81.
He’s smitten with Filipino nurse Rio Caneda, who is 35 years his junior and merely two years older than the Duchess of Sussex, who would become her step-daughter should they wed. A source told the Express: “Thomas told me he’d marry her in a heartbeat and he’s telling the rest of the family he’s happier than he could ever have imagined at the thought of spending the rest of his life with Rio.”
The pair encountered each other at a rehabilitation hospital in Cebu City in the Philippines following Mr Markle’s life-saving emergency operation last December to amputate his left leg below the knee.
During an interview two months ago, he expressed feeling “blessed and beyond happy” to have discovered happiness once more with Rio, a divorced mum-of-two adult children, following years of torment over severe health problems and estrangement from his youngest daughter Meghan, 44, since mere weeks prior to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.
Mr Markle, who relocated to Cebu with his son Tom Jnr, 59, last year, has now returned to America where he’ll receive a cutting-edge prosthetic limb and spend time with his other daughter, Meghan’s half-sister Samantha, 61, reports the Express.
Tom Jnr and Samantha are the children of Mr Markle’s first marriage to secretary Roslyn Loveless, which concluded in divorce in 1975. Meghan’s mother is his second wife, Doria Ragland. Their marriage ended in divorce after eight years in 1987, when the future Duchess of Sussex was just six-years-old.
They shared custody until she left for university and later embarked on a Hollywood acting career. In a joint interview with his new partner Rio, Mr Markle expressed confusion over Meghan’s actions, stating: “I still don’t know why she ghosted me.”
To this day, he has yet to meet his son-in-law Prince Harry, who has been married to Meghan for eight years, or his grandchildren Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, who celebrates her fifth birthday on Tuesday.
However, he stated: “I was in pain for so many years about what happened with my youngest daughter Meghan. I’m finally at peace. I am enjoying my life. I don’t care what people think any more.
“I’m an old man and never thought I would be alive at nearly 82. What happened with Rio happened naturally. We got close and she ended up moving in with me.
“It’s a relationship I treasure. She makes me very happy and takes very good care of me. I hope I make her happy too.”
According to the insider, Mr Markle has yet to hint at where he and Rio might exchange vows – whether in the US or back in the Philippines.
The source added: “He still has a recovery stretch to navigate with at least a few months in America, where he’s been face-timing Rio almost every day.
“He says he’d also love her to be able to see America sometime, so I think there’s a way to go before we hear wedding bells. But from everything he’s been saying, the sound of those bells is very much on his mind and it’s pretty clear she loves him to bits too.”
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