Meghan Markle Didn't Want Her Father At Wedding To Prince Harry, Royal Pundit Claims

Royal biographer Lady Colin Campbell has weighed in on Meghan Markle's relationship with her dad, Thomas Markle Sr.

In a new Q&A video uploaded to her YouTube channel, Campbell suggested that the Duchess of Sussex may have "manipulated" her father into pulling out of her 2018 royal wedding to Prince Harry.

"Meghan knew her father would never choose her and abandon ... her brother and sister [Thomas Jr. and Samantha]. That tells me she never had any intention of having him at that wedding," claimed the author of "Diana in Private" and "Meghan and Harry: The Real Story."

While she was close to him growing up, the duchess has been estranged from her father since Thomas backed out of attending her nuptials and after reports surfaced that he had staged photos of him supposedly getting ready for the wedding with the paparazzi.

During an interview on "Good Morning Britain" last month, Meghan's father claimed the duchess "pretty much disowned both sides of her family" over the past year, Us Weekly reported.

When asked why he thought Meghan "ghosted" him, Thomas claimed that he refused to cut ties with his two other children, Thomas Jr. and Samantha, who have been outspoken about the duchess. "She thought I was giving too much attention ... to her stepbrother and stepsister, but nonetheless she wanted me to stop talking to them and I couldn't," Thomas said.

Campbell said that "it's quite obvious" to her that Meghan didn't want her father at her nuptials because the duchess allegedly "chose a situation where [he] was going to have to say no."

The royal pundit also claimed that the royal family had offered Markle help with her father in the run-up to the wedding, but the duchess allegedly "systematically refused it."

Campbell noted that it was a different story when it came to Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, whom the author claimed "got help" because she had the "talents of the well-practiced who have been exposed to all sorts of situations and know how to keep their traps shut."

However, the royal author claimed that Thomas "would have spilled the beans on" his daughter.

"There is no doubt in my mind ... that she did not dare have her father present. And if he had to be present, he was going to be as quickly in and quickly out as possible so that he would be distracted and nobody would rarely get a chance to engage with him," Campbell continued.

During her interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, Meghan said her father "betrayed" her by talking to the tabloid press and lying to her when she asked him about it.

"I said, 'I just need you to tell me and if you tell me the truth, we can help,' and he wasn't able to do that," she recalled. "And that, for me, has really resonated, especially now as a mother. I look at Archie, I think about this child [due to arrive], and I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. I can't imagine it. So it's hard for me to reconcile that."

Meghan also noted that her mother had not spoken to the media since she began dating Prince Harry in 2016, unlike her father who has given a number of interviews in the past five years.

In August, Thomas claimed he sent his daughter a bouquet of flowers for her 40th birthday but did not receive a reply.

Days later, however, he gave an interview with GB News, in which he accused the duchess of being a "liar" and claimed that she's "changed" since meeting Prince Harry.