Thomas Markle Jr. is back on home soil after spending more than month in Australia filming reality TV show Big Brother VIP.
The 55-year-old half-brother of Meghan Markle touched down in LAX on Tuesday after a long-haul flight from Sydney.
The Oregon window fitter dressed casually in a blue short-sleeved shirt over a black T-shirt, black pants and sneakers.
Back to reality: Thomas Markle Jr. is back on home soil after spending more than month in Australia filming reality TV show Big Brother VIP. The 55-year-old half-brother of Meghan Markle touched down in LAX on Tuesday after a long-haul flight from Sydney
Sporting a face mask, he pulled along a suitcase and carried two shopping bags.
Hours earlier he had posed for an Instagram photo with Delta Air Lines staff at Sydney Airport, and wrote: ‘My awesome airline girls. I’m trying to get them to come to Los Angeles and babysit me.’
Markle is understood to have flown back of his own accord, despite his visa lasting for several more months, because of the restrictions currently in place in NSW.
Laid-back look: The Oregon window fitter dressed casually in a blue short-sleeved shirt over a black T-shirt, black pants and sneakers
Homebound: Hours earlier he had posed for an Instagram photo with Delta Air Lines staff at Sydney Airport, and wrote: ‘I’m trying to get them to come to Los Angeles and babysit me’
It comes just days after the controversial personality joked he was loving Australia so much he was ‘planning to hide from immigration’.
‘Tom Markle here coming to you live from the Big Brother VIP hotel backyard, you know, where rations get a little low, so he makes us run outside here in the ocean and get her own food,’ he said in a beachside clip on Instagram.
‘It’s going to be an amazing, amazing show. I’m looking forward to making it all the way to the end,’ he teased, before he saying how much he loved being in Australia.’
See ya! Thomas is understood to have flown back of his own accord, despite his visa lasting for several more months, because of the restrictions currently in place in NSW
‘As a matter of fact, I think I’m going to hide from immigration and I’m not going to go home,’ he added with a laugh.
Markle had arrived in Australia on July 22.
The decision to grant him a visa sparked controversy at the time because thousands of Aussie citizens remained stranded overseas due to Covid border closures.
Just joking! It comes just days after the controversial personality joked he was loving Australia so much he was ‘planning to hide from immigration’
He was a last-minute addition to the Big Brother VIP line-up to replace far-right British columnist Katie Hopkins.
Hopkins, 46, had been deported from Australia halfway through her mandatory hotel quarantine ahead of her appearance on the show.
After complaining about the quarantine system and boasting about flouting the rules, she was hauled to the airport and put on a flight back to England.
Australia has enforced strict border closures since the start of the pandemic, with tickets into the country rationed and all arrivals forced to undergo mandatory 14-day quarantine in their city of arrival along with repeat testing before being allowed in.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Markle had officially signed with Australia’s premiere talent agent, Max Markson.
Markson, who is described as a ‘black-belt master of the art of spin’, announced the news via Instagram, uploading a promo shot for Big Brother VIP alongside a caption that confirmed Markle was officially on his books.
In a recently promo for Big Brother VIP, Markle claimed he had ‘warned’ Prince Harry about his ‘shallow’ sister before their marriage.
No relationship: Markle Jr. does not have a relationship with his famous younger sister, who is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. Pictured: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
‘I’m Meghan Markle’s brother, I’m the biggest brother of them all,’ he said.
He added: ‘I told Prince Harry, I think she’s going to ruin your life. She’s very shallow.’
Markle does not have a relationship with his famous younger sister, who is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
Oh dear: In a promo for Big Brother VIP, Thomas claimed he’d ‘warned’ Prince Harry about his ‘shallow’ sister before their marriage