When Meghan Markle celebrates her 37th birthday next Saturday, she will doubtless be showered with love and gifts from adoring husband Prince Harry and receive the warmest of greetings from other members of the Royal Family, including the Queen.
For Thomas Markle today claims inThe Mail on Sundaythat Meghan has cruelly excised him from her life – and he fears he may never see any children that she and Harry might have.
Retired award-winning Hollywood lighting director Mr Markle has not spoken to his "beloved Bean"– his childhood nickname for Meghan – for more than ten weeks and claims the rift is punishment for him staging fake paparazzi pictures before the wedding and then daring to speak out in his own defence.
'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," he says.
"It's her birthday on August 4 and I want to send her a card. But if I send a birthday card to Kensington Palace, or wherever she's living now, it'll just be one among thousands. She'll probably never see it.
"I thought about sending it by Priority Mail Express, but the Palace would probably just soak it in water for three days to make sure it doesn't explode."
In his most incendiary interview yet, Mr Markle spoke to The Mail on Sunday for nearly nine hours over the course of three days to say he has been left reeling by Meghan's "sense of superiority" since this newspaper first exposed him for staging a set of paparazzi pictures just six days before the May 19 wedding at Windsor.
Thomas Markle's claims:
He fears Meghan will never let him see any future grandchildren;
Meghan might be better off if he were to die: 'Everyone would be filled with sympathy for her';
Frustration at the 'mixed messages' he has received, with Harry and Meghan telling him not to apologise for the staged paparazzi pictures debacle, just hours before a Palace aide called and offered to help him 'make an apology';
Reports that he faked a heart attack and is an alcoholic are false.
Aged 74 and 6ft 4in tall, he says his body "isn't what it used to be" and winces as he rises from his chair, complaining that years of hard graft hanging heavy stage lights for TV shows have left him with bad knees and arthritis.
He also suffers from heart problems and says, astonishingly, that it might be better for his daughter if he died: "It's lucky I'm still alive.
"Oh, she's a mummy's girl now and Doria gets a lot of the credit," he says, a trace of bitterness in his voice.
"But Meghan seems to have forgotten that she lived with me up until Doria and I divorced when she was six, and even then I was still a big part of her life.
"Whenever she finished school, I was the one who picked her up because I didn't have to be at the studios until late and would then work until midnight.
"When Meghan was 11, she moved back in with me up until she was 17 and went to college.
"I was having my good years then, making good money, and could afford to give her the best, with a good school, good education, good home.
"She became the woman that she is today thanks to everything I did for her.
"And did I get any recognition for it? Any thanks? She doesn't even speak to me now. How cold is that?"
