WAR OF THE MARKLES

He desperately wants to meet his grandkids, but the ice between Thomas and his daughter Meghan doesn't look to be thawing anytime soon 

- NICIDE WET

IT’S hard to believe now, with all the murky water under the rickety bridge, that they were once as close as a dad and daughter could be.

Pictures of a young Meghan and Thomas Markle show a pair clearly happy in each other’s company. In one snap she has her head on his shoulder. In another he has his arm around her and in yet another he’s smiling proudly with a beaming Meghan at her graduation.

But how times have changed. It’s been five years since the Duchess of Sussex and the father she once adored have spoken. Thomas has never met his grandchildren, Archie (4) and Lilibet (2), and he’s only had one conversation with his son-in-law – a fraught phone call in the drama-filled days before Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

But if there’s one thing Thomas doesn’t do it’s suffer in silence. Over the years he’s been vocal about being left out in the cold – and now he’s been at it again.

The 79-year-old, plagued by ill health and speaking with difficulty after a stroke he had last year, went on TV recently to lament the breakdown of his relationship with his daughter.

It’s his dying wish to see Archie and Lili, he says, but he fears this will never happen. “I’m heartbroken,” Thomas told Good Morning Britain.

“I’m very upset. This is a cruel thing to do to a grandparent – to deny the right to see a grandchild.”

He could “probably sue” Meghan for the right to see the children but he doesn’t want to resort to that. Thomas can’t understand what happened to the little girl who lived with him during her high school years after his divorce from Meghan’s mom, Doria Ragland.