Meghan Markle’s relationship with her father has deteriorated to the point that Thomas Markle Sr fears he will never see his daughter again and has taken to telling friends, “I think they’re shot of me,” according to a report in the Daily Mirror.

Markle was invited to attend the Royal Wedding and walk his daughter down the aisle, but cancelled his appearance at the last minute after he was exposed for having colluded with a photographer to stage apparently candid photographs, and had to have emergency heart surgery.

The revelation was extremely embarrassing for Kensington Palace which just days earlier had issued a letter to British media urging them to respect Markle Sr’s privacy.

Meghan was said to be heartbroken by—but ultimately supportive of—his decision not to attend, however she was to experience a fresh betrayal when Markle Sr appeared on a British TV breakfast show and gave a revealing interview in which, among other things, he detailed how Prince Harry had urged him to give Donald Trump a chance in a phone call.

British royals are supposed to be non-political and referring to or publicly repeating their private conversations is forbidden.

The TV interview completely blindsided Kensington Palace who had no warning that he was about to make the intervention.

The mess has consistently been referred to by despairing palace insiders as the ‘Markle Debacle’ and Harry and Meghan’s staff have faced huge criticism for losing control of the narrative and failing to bring Meghan’s family on side.

The Mirror now reports that Markle fears he has been cut out of the loop permanently, and is quoted as telling friends he is at a ‘complete loss’ as to why he has been excluded.

However just last week, Markle Sr launched a fresh attack on the royals, telling TMZ: “If the Queen is willing to meet our arrogant, ignorant, and insensitive president she has no excuse not to meet me, I’m nowhere near as bad.”

In another development,  Thomas Sr appears to have reconciled with his son Thomas Jr, with the two meeting for the first time in four years in San Ysidro, California, on Saturday.

Intriguingly however, Meghan’s half sister Samantha said the pictures were yet another set-up, writing on Twitter, she said: “My brother did NOT reunite with my dad—it was a set up.”