Meghan Markle’s Father Thomas Fearful of Never Seeing Daughter Again: ‘I Don’t Think at This Point They Are Thrilled to See Me’

Thomas Markle, Meghan Markle‘s estranged father, fears that he will never see her again before he is “lowered into the ground.” Speaking about their strained relationship in the 90-minute tell-all Channel 5 documentary Thomas Markle: My Story, Markle expressed his belief that his relationship with his daughter will never be repaired.

“The last time they might see me is being lowered into the ground,” he said in the documentary, according to Page Six. “I don’t think at this point they are thrilled to see me or want to talk to me.”

Expressing his desire to make amends, Markle also opened up about the circumstances that led to his fallout with the royal family, revealing that he staged paparazzi photos in an effort to “change his image” after facing criticisms from the press.

“My clothing were critiqued, the way I looked was critiqued, the things I bought was critiqued,” he explained. “Suddenly, I became an alcoholic.”

Just days ahead of the May 2018 royal nuptials, during which he was set to walk his daughter down the aisle at St. George’s Chapel, Markle found himself shrouded in scandal when news broke that he had staged photos, which he received 30 percent of the sales for. Shortly after, he experienced a heart attack and had a conversation with Prince Harry that seemed to be the breaking point.

“Harry said to me, ‘If you had listened to me, this would not have happened to you,’” Markle claimed. “If I stayed in the house, and never spoken to anyone this wouldn’t have happened. To me, that was a very rude thing to say, especially when he knew I was lying in a hospital bed. At that point I said to him, ‘It’s too bad I didn’t die because you guys could pretend that you’re sad,’ and then I hung up on them. I was done. That may have caused everything, I don’t know. But I’ve not heard from them or spoken to them since.”

Now, Markle is so far estranged from the royal family that he has been on the outskirts of some very important news, including the announcement that his daughter was pregnant.

“I was sitting in my car waiting to cross the border and I heard the good news from the royals is that Meghan is pregnant,” Markle recalled. “Which is almost a joke — when you tell people, well, you heard it on the radio…This is my daughter, talking about my grandchild. She’s going to have a grandchild that’s mine. I’m not hearing about it on the phone, I’m hearing about it on the radio.”

Set to make their relationship more strained is the fact that Markle, who has not met his grandson, is set to be the key witness in a UK newspaper’s defense after Meghan and Harry filed a lawsuit against the paper or printing a letter she had sent her father.