Meghan Markle is facing another betrayal by her father, Thomas Markle, who gave a vicious nine-hour interview to the Mail on Sunday this weekend in which he repeatedly criticized his daughter for not being in touch with him and changing her numbers so he can’t contact her.
In the new interview, the man most unlikely to win dad-of-the-year first says his daughter is suffering a superiority complex then has the gall to act surprised that she has changed her phone numbers and will not to speak to him after he repeatedly sold her out in media interviews.
Mr Markle accepted a payment of several thousand dollars to conduct an interview with a British breakfast TV show in which he revealed the content of private conversations with Prince Harry and his daughter.
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He also reiterates suggestions made to the Sun last weekend about being on the verge of death, and throws himself a little pity party as he opines that maybe it would be better if he were dead because then everyone would have sympathy for Meghan.
In fact, everyone clearly has sympathy for Meghan already, largely due to the fact that Mr Markle is still so very lively, with the actress wife of John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, speaking for many when she tweeted criticism of Mr Markle.
While some commentators hired by the Mail on Sunday attempted to use Mr Markle’s latest outburst to argue that Meghan should renew contact with her father, it’s hard to see that argument holding any weight in either Meghan’s heart or the halls of Kensington Palace right now.
It seems very likely that the first thing Mr Markle would do if his daughter did agree to meet him would be to sell the story. Who knows, he might even rig a few cameras to capture the event for posterity.
It’s hard to think of a shittier thing for a father to do than exploit his children for money, attention and fame.
But doing so while attempting to shame the child, and making out that the child is the one at fault, probably tops it in the a-hole stakes.
He told the Mail on Sunday: "I'm really hurt that she's cut me off completely. I used to have a phone number and text number for her personal aides at the Palace, but after I said a few critical words about the Royal Family changing Meghan, they cut me off.
"Those numbers were disconnected, they no longer work. I have no way of contacting my daughter."
Hmm. ‘A few critical words’? Is the 73-year-old perhaps referring to his comments last week when he told the Sun that he could just tell his daughter is “terrified” due to her “pained smile”?
How is a child supposed to respond to that? “Hey pops, just wanted to call and say thanks for saying my vivacious spirit was being crushed by the royals!”
In his new interview Mr Markle said he worries he has been frozen out of the family, and thinks he will not get to meet any children Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have.
He said: "What's sad is that some time in the next year Meghan and Harry will have a baby and I'll be a grandfather, and if we're not speaking I won't see my grandchild."
So, maybe the answer is to shut up.
And let’s not forget that while Markle makes endless complaints about how he has been ignored and sidelined, there are a few important facts that he has conceded which totally contradict his story, namely that Meghan and Harry begged him to come to the wedding (he refused, claiming heart surgery which was reportedly fake) and that they did, in fact, call him after the ceremony, which was only six weeks before his Good Morning Britain interview.
In that interview he also conceded that after he collaborated with a paparazzo to stage fake candid pictures, “Harry and Meghan called and said, ‘You don’t have anything to worry about. You’ve got three suits waiting and shoes to wear’…Arrangements were being made to take me to the airport.”
Hardly the words of a bitter and rage-filled daughter.
By his own testament, Harry and Meghan could not have been more supportive. He repaid them, unfathomably, by giving a TV interview.
Mr Markle even has the gall to evoke Princess Diana in the new interview, saying that she would have encouraged Meghan to reach out to him.
Er, no. Diana was very familiar with the experience of being sold out by people she thought she could trust (see James Hewitt) and it’s hard to imagine her being anything other than utterly heartbroken for her son and daughter-in-law at Mr Markle’s desperate and continued calculating cruelty.
