Meghan Markle and her 74-year-old father’s volatile relationship has taken another battering after he likened the Royal Family to a cult last night.
The close and unrequited bond the pair once had now appears to be in tatters as Thomas Markle and Meghan’s half-sister Samantha take it in turns to make public digs at Meghan, her husband Prince Harry and the Royal Family .
Meghan, however, has kept a dignified silence – and reportedly not spoken to her father since her wedding almost three months ago.
But in a fresh outburst yesterday Mr Markle said of the Royal Family: “They are cult-like —– like Scientology — because they are secretive.
"They close the door, pull the shades down and put their fingers in their ears so they don’t have to hear."
However before the now Duchess of Sussex, 37, met Harry she lovingly described Mr Markle as "the most hardworking father you can imagine".
She laid bare her love for the man who "always believed she would be a success" and who made sacrifices so she could fulfill her dream of becoming an actress.
She also told of the heartwarming Christmas gift her father gave her as a child, which she pictured him getting glares for from mums.
And the only time she ever saw him so enraged it made his ‘eyes pop’.
Meghan has also revealed the four words her father told her that will stay with her forever: “Draw your own box.”
It was after Meghan came home one day from school upset.
Recalling the incident, she says she had to fill out a census form before an English exam and tick whether she was white, black, Hispanic or Asian.
Being biracial – with a Caucasian father and a African American mother – she didn’t know which box she fitted into, so out of confusion and sadness she left it blank.
When she told her father what happened she admits she had never seen him angry before, but she could see the blotchiness of his skin crawling from pink to red.
"It made the green of his eyes pop and his brow was weighted at the thought of his daughter being prey to ignorance," she said.
"And in one of those parenting moments that no guidebook could ever prep you for, my dad said words that will stay with me forever: ‘Draw your own box.’
"He wanted me to see beyond that census placed in front of me. He wanted me to find my own truth."
Meghan has made no secret of struggling with her identity growing up, even saying her 20s were "brutal".
She recalls being at home in LA on a college break when her mother, Doria Ragland , was "called the ‘N’ word."
She said: "We were leaving a concert and she wasn’t pulling out of a parking space quickly enough for another driver.
"My skin rushed with heat as I looked to my mom. Her eyes welling with hateful tears, I could only breathe out a whisper of words, so hushed they were barely audible: ‘It’s OK, Mommy.’
"I was trying to temper the rage-filled air permeating our small silver Volvo.
"We drove home in deafening silence, her chocolate knuckles pale from gripping the wheel so tightly."
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Meanwhile, so conscious his young daughter was wrestling with who she was as a person, Mr Markle one Christmas took apart two Barbie boxed sets, which came as a white Barbie family or a black one, to make a custom one for Meghan.
"When I was about seven, I had been fawning over a boxed set of Barbie dolls," she said.
"It was called The Heart Family and included a mom doll, a dad doll, and two children. This perfect nuclear family was only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls.
"I don’t remember coveting one over the other, I just wanted one.
"On Christmas morning, swathed in glitter-flecked wrapping paper, there I found my Heart Family: a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each color. My dad had taken the sets apart and customized my family.
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"I picture him standing there in Toys R Us, moms glaring at him for taking the toys apart, perhaps an employee saying ‘excuse me sir, you can’t do that’ — as my dad carefully separated the boxed sets to make one that echoed my reality.
"One that showed me that I should (and could) make my own box."
Meanwhile, as we reported this week Mr Markle is said to be growing “increasingly bitter” that his past generosity to his children has not been paid back.
The ex-Hollywood lighting director has told pals he expected Meghan , Samantha and Thomas Jr to help pay for his retirement but complained he had not received a “f***ing dime”.
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