EXCLUSIVE: A recent award nomination for Meghan, left her estranged father bursting with pride – and almost dropping her a message.
Meghan Markle has been nominated for a prestigious award (Image: Getty)
Meghan Markle and her estranged father Thomas can make Hollywood history together if she wins a Daytime Emmy.
They would become only the second father and daughter duo in more than half-a-century to have both won the coveted TV industry award.
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But what could become a remarkable family triumph – should the Duchess of Sussex manage to land her first major professional trophy – will also be “incredibly bittersweet” for Mr Markle, a close friend told the Sunday Express.
“Like any dad, he’s enormously proud that Meghan is following in his footsteps,” the friend added. “Despite the deep divide between them, he dearly wants her to succeed and would love to see her win.”
The duchess is a first time nominee among five in the Outstanding Lifestyle Series category for her ill-fated Netflix show With Love, Meghan, which was cancelled after just two seasons earlier this year.
She is expected to attend the October 30 ceremony – at LA’s landmark Hollywood Palladium Theatre – with husband Prince Harry and her father’s friend revealed: “Invitations have already gone out to nominees and their guests and, as he expected, Thomas wasn’t among them.
“He’s agonised about sending Meghan a message congratulating her on her nomination. But in end, he didn’t because I don’t think he wanted to set himself up for the likelihood that she would simply ghost him again.”
Retired Hollywood lighting director Mr Markle, 81, won two Daytime Emmys, in 1982 and 2011, for his technical expertise on long-running daytime medical drama General Hospital.
Ironically, Meghan herself starred in two episodes of the popular soap in 2001 before she later found fame – and a cult following that still exists – on legal drama Suits.
If she does win a Daytime Emmy – a huge golden statuette of a winged woman representing the muse of art and holding aloft a single atom, which represents the science of TV – she and her father will get a special place in the record books.
The only other father-daughter duo to both win the prize in the 53-year history of the event were former TV doctor Mehmet Oz – now a senior health official in the Trump administration – and his daughter Daphne Oz, who joined him as a winner when she held aloft the 2015 shared award for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host.
Mr Markle’s friend, who asked not to be named, said: “He showed me an online photo of Dr Oz joining Daphne on stage when she collected her trophy and I remember the sad look on his face because he obviously knows that will never happen with him and his daughter.”
It’s hoped that Harry and Meghan will both attend the ceremony (Image: Getty)
Although the Daytime Emmys ceremony does not air live on broadcast TV in America – unlike the prime time Emmy Awards, this year on September 14 – Mr Markle told his friend he will be watching Meghan’s bid for glory via the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ streaming app online.
He will still be in America after flying back three months ago from his new home in the Philippines, where he had his left leg amputated below the knee as a result of a serious blood clot.
He is undergoing intense physical therapy as well as having a prosthetic leg fitted and a customised electric wheelchair built.
“He’s been through some pretty tough times of late,” said his friend.
Despite this, however, Mr Markle’s family has confirmed he has also fallen in love again – with Rio Caneda, one of the Filipina nurses who cared for him after his amputation surgery and who, at 46, is 35 years his junior.
“He believes he’s blessed to be with Rio,” his friend added. “But even she can’t mend his heartbreak over his relationship with Meghan and the fact that even if she does land her award, he’ll never get to share that or any other magical family moment with her again.”