Meghan Markle’s Brother Wants Their Fractured Family to “Start Fresh”

Another day, another public plea.

After Meghan Markle‘s father, Thomas Markle, appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain Monday and begged her to contact him (followed by a series of critical tweets from her sister, Samantha Markle), the Duchess of Sussex’s older brother, Thomas Markle Jr., is trying his luck.

So far, Meghan has continued to ignore their appeals through the media.

Earlier this morning, Thomas, a 52-year-old window fitter from Grants Pass, Ore., shared a picture of the Christmas card he’d sent to Meghan and Prince Harry with DailyMailTV. In part, he wrote, “It would be nice to mend our family back together for the New Year. We miss you, love you and are very proud of you.” As he explained in a subsequent interview, “I’m making a point to reach out to Meghan again with a personalized Christmas card to her saying we should all put our differences aside and remember the family we had before. I want to say to her, ‘Merry Christmas to you and Harry, and I hope Santa brings you everything you ever wanted.'”

Like his father, Thomas Jr. has yet to receive a holiday card from Meghan this year.

And, like other members of his immediate family, Thomas Jr. admitted he doesn’t expect to hear from Meghan for a while—if at all. “I’d be really surprised if I got a call from Meghan at Christmas or a Christmas card, but that would be really nice. With everything that’s gone on for the last two years, I think the New Year is the perfect time for a new beginning for her, for the family—just to start over, start fresh and make some sort of contact, [and] definitely to let my father see his grandchild when it’s born,” he said. “I would feel pretty honored if she opened up her door and invited the Markles in to see their new relative, the new baby. It would mean a lot.”

Thomas Jr. hopes Meghan will come around this holiday season. “I think when she sees the difference between the Christmas she spends at the palace, and she doesn’t have her family around her, I think she’ll realize that she’s missing something,” he suggested, adding that their father has always loved the holiday, as it “was the one time of the year for him to really shine.”

It’s likely that his father will spend Christmas “by himself in Mexico,” Thomas Jr. said, though he hopes Samantha might be able to join him this year. “I think he’ll probably be a little hurt if he doesn’t get a Christmas card [from the royal family]. I sincerely hope Meghan does reach out to my dad, at least for Christmas,” Thomas Jr. added. “This family rift has been going on for quite some time now and I think Christmas is the one time of year when you do need to get together with your family. Good, bad or indifferent, put everything aside and at least enjoy the holidays.”

Addressing all his relatives, Thomas Jr. added, “Let’s be the family that we should be.”