EXCLUSIVE: Meghan’s the one I want to hear from on my birthday, but here’s why I know she won’t call: Just weeks from his 80th, a forlorn THOMAS MARKLE sees no hope of a reconciliation with his daughter

Turning 80 is an important milestone in anyone’s life. But for Thomas Markle, his big day on July 18 will be tinged with regret and mixed emotions. “I never expected to live to be 80 because Markle’s men never do,” he said last night. “My father died at 61 years old. ‘I have had a good life and I am proud of what I have achieved, but it has all been overshadowed by what has happened in the last six years.

“I’ve never been one to go to birthdays, but I know the person I want to hear from most, Meghan, won’t be in touch. I’d love to meet my grandchildren, but right now I’d be happy with a photograph.” Thomas Markle with a young Meghan. He separated from her after he failed to walk her down the aisle for her marriage to Prince Harry.

Markle separated from her youngest daughter, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in 2018 when she was unable to walk her down the aisle for her marriage to Prince Harry after he suffered two heart attacks on the eve of their wedding. The couple has not spoken to him since.

Markle never met her grandchildren Archie, five, and Lilibet, three. Speaking from his cliffside home in Rosarito, Mexico, just 250 miles from the Sussexes’ 16-bathroom home in Montecito, California, he remains perplexed because he has also never met his son-in-law. ‘When I reflect on my life, as you do when you approach 80, that is one of the questions I can’t find answers to.

‘Why didn’t Harry ever come to see me? He has the resources to fly around the world (and he does), but why didn’t he come see me, especially when people in the royal household like Jason Knauf (Harry and Meghan’s former communications secretary) were urging him to do so? That has never made sense to me. ‘What man marries without knowing his wife’s father?’

As he speaks, the effects of a serious stroke he suffered two years ago are evident. He sometimes has trouble finding words or stumbles over sentences. She endures the aches and pains of old age, including knee and back problems, and becomes frustrated when she cannot remember names or places. Markle has “deep empathy” for King Charles, who is “in the same boat” when it comes to not seeing his grandchildren.

‘I’d love to talk to him because I’m sure he has as many unanswered questions as I do. None of us deserve the treatment we have received. “He’s going through cancer treatment and I’m not in the best of times. I’m not afraid of dying. It is what it is. ‘I have so many questions I would like to ask Meghan and Harry. The main one is, why have they treated not only me but also the Royal Family and the King so badly?

Like millions of people around the world, Markle watched the stunning footage from last weekend’s Trooping The Color show, which marked Catherine, Princess of Wales’s first appearance since her cancer diagnosis. But it was the sight of William and Catherine’s three children – George, Charlotte and Louis – on the balcony of Buckingham Palace that particularly moved him.