The electronic ankle monitor that Thomas Markle cut off at around 1:45 on Tuesday morning was presumably tethered to the one leg he’s got left.
asserted
he → cut → leg
That was merely the latest dumb move for the estranged father of the daughter-in-law of King Charles.
asserted
That → estrange → Charles
He was rearrested immediately, removed from the assisted living facility in Florida where he’d been residing, and had his bail revoked.
asserted
bail → rearreste → Florida
Even when he had two good legs, long before amputation in the Philippines last year, Markle wasn’t fit to walk his daughter, Meghan, down the aisle when the American TV actress married Prince Harry in 2018.
asserted
actress → have → 2018
So Charles stepped up.
asserted
Charles → step → ?
Emergency heart surgery just days before the nuptials took Thomas Markle out of the frame.
asserted
surgery → take → frame
But more so because he was persona non grata after staging paparazzi photos — shown getting measured for his wedding duds at a Mexican tailor’s shop — in exchange for cash.
asserted
he → stag → cash
It was an ominous augury of what became a bitter relationship — nonrelationship, more accurately — between father and daughter.
asserted
what → become → father
Though it was Meghan who was depicted, primarily in the tabloids that made a sport of belittling her, as the cold-hearted and unforgiving child.
asserted
that → depict → child
Now we know why she kept her distance.
asserted
she → know → distance
The Duchess hasn’t spoken with her father since the wedding.
asserted
Duchess → speak → wedding
The Duke of Sussex — Harry — has never met him.
asserted
Duke → meet → him
And that’s not even the worst scandal of a sexually predatory nature that’s befallen the House of Windsor in recent years.
asserted
that → ’ → years
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, stripped of his prince title over his long-standing association with convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein, still holds that distinction.
asserted
Windsor → strip → distinction
But it’s bad enough, even if degrees of separation — and ostracism — stand between the royals and Markle.
asserted
degrees → ’ → royals
They’re offstage somewhere in this particular melodrama.
asserted
They → ’re → melodrama
What he allegedly rationalized to his first ex-wife, as he headed for Thailand.
uncertain
he → rationalize → Thailand
“It’s legal over there.
asserted
It → ’ → ?
That’s how they support their families, by prostituting them.”
asserted
they → ’ → them
Markle, 82, was arrested in Florida last Friday and charged with one count of possession of child pornography.
asserted
Markle → arrest → pornography
His arrest followed the seizure of some 78 items, including slides and film negatives of child sexual images, from a storage locker in the Los Angeles area.
asserted
arrest → follow → area
Reuters reported that the material allegedly included sexually explicit photographs of Markle with underage girls, taken in what appeared to be a motel in the Philippines.
uncertain
what → report → Philippines
Shortly thereafter, Philippine authorities disclosed they’d found more than 7,000 child sexual-abuse images there on devices belonging to Markle.
asserted
they → disclose → Markle
It’s difficult pulling apart all the strands of Markle’s alleged predation.
asserted
It → ’ → predation
But it was his first wife, Roslyn Loveless, who was behind a letter sent to United Kingdom police in 2019, detailing “disturbing allegations” of child sex abuse by her former husband.
asserted
who → send → husband
Loveless gave interviews to The Sun that were apparently too risky to publish at the time.
asserted
that → give → time
That letter was passed on to Meghan.
asserted
letter → pass → Meghan
And that was why she both definitively cut off communication with her father and refused to let him see his grandchildren.
asserted
him → cut → grandchildren
Last month, as the story began to surface, Meghan released a statement saying she was “deeply distressed” by the allegations.
asserted
she → begin → allegations
It was Markle’s son, Tom, who first raised the alarm with authorities in the Philippines upon finding a cache of disturbing material among his father’s abandoned belongings at his home in Cebu, after Markle had relocated to the U.S. last December.
asserted
Markle → raise → U.S.
“It’s a huge relief,” Tom Markle told the Sun after his father’s arrest.
asserted
Markle → ’ → arrest
“I feel vindicated because I’ve been under a lot of pressure this past few weeks.
asserted
I → feel → pressure
I was devastated to discover who my father really is and it has been an ordeal coming forward.”
asserted
it → devastate → ?
Meghan’s mother Doria — recall that dignified Black woman sitting alone in the church, watching her only child marrying a prince — is reportedly also assisting investigators.
uncertain
child → recall → investigators
Meghan and Harry are still notorious grifters who fled England, throwing off their royal shackles for lives as quasi-royal private citizens, subsequently smearing Harry’s family via tell-all biography (“Spare”), television interviews (Oprah) and self-serving documentaries (Netflix).
asserted
who → flee → biography
But there’s no doubt that Meghan had been crucified in the tabs, with heavily racist overtones.
asserted
Meghan → ’ → overtones
At the moment, the red tops are delighting in a newspaper war over the Thomas Markle affair, swapping scoops.
asserted
tops → delight → scoops
While Harry and Meghan moved back to England in August, Harry still hasn’t reconciled with brother William and likely there will be no invitation to spend Christmas together at Sandringham.
But maybe Meghan was never quite the shrew, succubus and “Duchess Difficult” as portrayed.
asserted
Meghan → move → Sandringham
The Aporia
