Meghan Markle's father has unleashed after his daughter's Oprah interview, calling Prince Harry "snotty" and referring to him dressing up as a Nazi.
Thomas Markle told Piers Morgan on UK breakfast show Good Morning Britain that the last time he spoke to Meghan and Harry he was lying in a hospital bed and had to tell them he couldn't come to the wedding.
"The last time we spoke, we didn't speak, we actually texted each other," he said.
"At that point we pretty much said goodbye. Actually it wasn't quite saying goodbye, Harry had said to me at that point, 'If you had listened to me, this wouldn't have happened to you'."
Meghan's estranged father apologised for talking to the press about his daughter but added: "We all make mistakes but I've never played naked pool and I've never dressed up as Hitler."
Harry famously jumped into a swimming pool naked in Las Vegas and dressed up as a Nazi for a fancy dress party in his younger days.
"Now of course I'm sure that they can get really angry with me but that's how I felt this time," Markle said.
He admitted he shared a letter from Meghan with the press, but added: "Meghan's friends were telling stories about me, they were mostly lies."
He said he had to "retaliate".
Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, in conversation with Oprah Winfrey. Photo / AP
The 76-year-old emphasised how much he loves his daughter during his TV appearance.
"Had I known she was having psychological problems, I would have been there for her.
"It really did upset me.
"It would have been easy for her to reach out to me or any of the rest of her family."
He said he only lived 112km away from Meghan now and would still love to see her.
"She didn't lose me," he said. "She made a statement saying she lost me."
Presenter Susanna Reid told him Meghan "feels like you let her down".
He replied: "I also feel that she let me down because she – I was in a hospital bed the last time we talked and I never heard from them again. They didn't care if I died."
‘I’ve never stopped loving my daughter. I love Meghan and she can be angry with me but I’m still her dad.’
Meghan has been estranged from her father for more than two years after he leaked a private letter where she begged him to stop talking to the press, which ended in a fiery court battle. The pair haven't seen each other since before the royal wedding in May 2018 and her father has never met Harry or their son Archie.
In previously unaired clip released by CBS from Meghan and Harry's interview with Oprah, the Duchess of Sussex gave a rare insight into her relationship with her family and how her royal status caused a rift with her dad.
Meghan said her father went behind her back to talk to the press, but refused to admit it when confronted about leaking information.
Oprah asked the 39-year-old if she felt "betrayed" by her father after she found out he was working with the tabloids.
"If we're going to use the word betrayal it's because when I asked him [he denied it]," she said.
Oprah commented that her father had lied to his own daughter.
"I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we're not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our own kids one day," Meghan admitted.
She also claimed the tabloids had held on to the stories provided by her father until the Sunday before her wedding, in order to create as much drama as possible, adding they don't report the news, they "create the news".
TABLOIDS' OBSESSION
A customer takes a copy of a newspaper headlining Prince Harry and Meghan's explosive TV interview at a newspaper stand outside a shop in London. Photo / AP
Meghan said the UK tabloids became "obsessed" with anything from her world, including trying to track down her parents in the clip.
She said she did what she could to protect them from the media frenzy but the press were offering people exorbitant amounts of money to give up his address.
"Once they did, I remember being told there was a huge headline like, 'We found him' or 'We've got him.' You're talking about someone's father," Meghan said.
"And from that point, the tabloids, they moved into the apartment next door and across from him. Descended on this small town. The whole thing brings us to where we are today."
FATHER'S BETRAYAL
Thomas Markle spoke to the press about his daughter before the royal wedding where he was meant to walk his daughter down the aisle — but he did not attend after suffering a heart attack — and Prince Charles had to step into the role.
After the wedding Markle allowed the media to publish a 1250-word private letter Meghan had written in August 2018 where she begged him to stop leaking information and said he had "broken my heart into a million pieces".
"I mean, I look at Archie. I think about this child and I go I can't, I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child," she said to Oprah.
Meghan sued the UK newspaper, Mail on Sunday, in connection with the letter leaked by her father and recently won her privacy claim in February, with a judge ruling that publishing it was unlawful.
During the trial, Markle claimed the letter wasn't an attempt at reconciliation but instead directly criticised him.
A man watches a phone screen showing an interview of Harry and Meghan by Oprah Winfrey in London. Photo / AP
"It actually signalled the end of our relationship, not a reconciliation," he said at the time.
In a statement after the ruling, Meghan thanked the courts for holding Associated Newspapers and the Mail On Sunday to account for "their illegal and dehumanising practices".
She said the tactics used by media outlets had gone on far too long without consequence.
"For me and so many others, it's real life, real relationships and very real sadness. The damage they have done and continue to do runs deep."
Since then, she has requested Mail on Sunday to pay 50 per cent of her $2.7 million legal costs.
In the interview with Oprah, Meghan noted her mother Doria Ragland had also been hunted by the media but praised her handling of the situation, saying she remained in "silent dignity" and refused to speak to the press.
Markle has previously claimed that he has tried to heal the rift.
"I have apologised several times. There's not much I can offer, but I would love to make peace with Meghan and Harry and meet my grandson," he said. "If I [saw her] I'd say 'I love you and let's sit down and work this out'. She was the closest thing to me for years and years and years until she went off to college. I just think this is kind of silly; it's gone on too long."
'NOT THE GIRL I RAISED'
Appearing in a documentary last year called Thomas Markle: My Story, the retired Hollywood lighting director said he was distressed over the couple's royal exit and Meghan was not the girl he raised.
The two time Emmy winner revealed he had been the first to hold Meghan as she was born by caesarean section saying he couldn't have been "happier" when she came into the world.
Markle described his daughter as "my most important relationship and my pride and joy".
"I miss Meghan. I miss the way she was. I don't know who she is now," he said.
He described his daughter's rise in Hollywood in the documentary, from her being "embarrassed" to be on Deal or No Deal, to scoring a prime role in Suits in 2011 which she had described as "the dream".
But he also claimed his daughter was "cheapening" the Royal Family and "throwing away every girl's dream for money" by abdicating from the monarchy.
"Apparently $3 million and a 26-bedroom home isn't enough for them.," he said. "When they got married, they took on an obligation, and the obligation to represent the royals, and it would be foolish for them not to. This is one of the greatest long-living institutions ever, and they're destroying it. They're cheapening it and making it shabby. It's kind of embarrassing to me."
He also spoke of feeling abandoned by the royal family in the lead up to the wedding in 2018 and how he agreed to pose for controversial photographs to repair an image of him as a "fat slob".
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, speaking with Oprah Winfrey during an interview. Photo / AP
Meghan's father staged photos of him browsing images of his daughter and Harry in an internet cafe, netting a reported $180,000. It's been claimed that Harry made a phone call to Thomas nine days before the royal wedding where his father-in-law denied he had colluded with paparazzi to stage the photos.
Thomas also offered an apology to the Queen in the documentary, claiming that he's "not the trashy person" he's been portrayed as in the media.
"I want to apologise to the Queen and to the royal family," he said regarding the wedding.
"I want to do that and I was told by them 'don't'," he said, referring to Harry and Meghan.
He then explained of his absence: "I was scheduled to go to the airport and go fly to England because they still wanted me to come to the wedding and be at the wedding. And at that time I got a massive heart attack and was then taken to the Sharp hospital, across the border."
He has previously said Harry should "man up" and fly over to see him and described him as being "whipped".
Meghan's half-sister Samantha Markle talking on British television programme This Morning. Photo / Supplied
Meghan also spoke briefly about her half sister Samantha Markle, who has unleashed some extraordinary attacks on her over the years. Samantha has previously labelled her a "wealthy narcissist", "Cruella de Vil", and even suggested if their father dies then it will be "on her".
Samantha is releasing what she claims is a tell-all book about her half-sister, titled The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister, which the 56-year-old promised will expose "hidden truths" about the Markle family.
But Meghan said a tell all book would be difficult considering she hasn't seen her half sister in almost two decades and they had never lived together when they were younger.
"I think it would be very hard to tell all when you don't know me. I mean, this is a very different situation than my dad, right? When you talk about betrayal, betrayal comes from someone that you have a relationship with," Meghan told Oprah.
"I don't feel comfortable talking about people that I really don't know."
She said her sister only changed her last name back to Markle after Meghan started dating Harry.
But after the clip was released Samantha rubbished Meghan's claim that they haven't seen each other in almost 20 years, alleging they saw each other in 2008.
She went on to suggest that Meghan has narcissistic personality disorder, suggesting she "needs to see a counsellor".
"I feel sorry for Harry. He fell victim to her negligence and I will say sociopaths. She pulled him away from his family, all of his friends, the life that he knew," Samantha told the radio show.
"He reminds me of one of those kidnap victims who eventually starts to believe that their life was so horrible and they're in love with their captor!"
