Meghan Markle's Estranged Dad Thomas, 81, 'Ready to Wed' Nurse Who's Just Two Years Older Than the Duchess

There's a new romantic twist in the Thomas Markle saga — and it's one that will surely raise eyebrows in Montecito. The 81-year-old father of Meghan Markle has reportedly told friends he is ready to walk down the aisle again with Rio Caneda, a Filipino nurse who is 35 years his junior and, in a detail that won't be lost on royal watchers, just two years older than the Duchess of Sussex herself. Should they wed, Meghan would gain a step-mother younger than herself.

The pair met under deeply personal circumstances. Thomas underwent a life-saving emergency operation in Cebu City in the Philippines last December, during which his left leg was amputated below the knee. It was at the rehabilitation hospital where he recovered that he first encountered Rio, a divorced mother of two adult children. According to those close to Thomas, their bond grew naturally and quickly — and she has since moved in with him.

In a joint interview with Rio conducted two months ago, Thomas opened up about finding joy after years marked by serious health struggles and his painful estrangement from Meghan, which began just weeks before her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. "I was in pain for so many years about what happened with my youngest daughter Meghan," he said. "I'm finally at peace. I am enjoying my life. I don't care what people think any more." He also noted, with some candour: "I still don't know why she ghosted me." To this day, Thomas has never met his son-in-law Prince Harry, nor his grandchildren Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, who turns five this week.

Thomas has since returned to America to receive a cutting-edge prosthetic limb and spend time with his other children — son Tom Jnr, 59, and daughter Samantha, 61, both from his first marriage. Insiders say that while wedding plans are far from finalised, the idea is very much alive in Thomas's mind. "There's a way to go before we hear wedding bells," one source noted, "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."