Meghan Markle and her father Thomas are now estranged, but once had a close bond.

Meghan Markle’s now-defunct blog The Tig gave a touching insight into her complicated relationship with her father, Thomas Markle Senior, whom she has now been estranged from for six years.

The Duchess of Sussex started her blog back in 2014, two years before she met Prince Harry, in which she gave her fans a look at her private life and her love of food and travel.

It closed in 2017, the year before Meghan and Harry’s wedding, an event which also saw the end of her having contact with her father after he staged paparazzi photos and was unable to attend the ceremony due to ill health.

One post from her blog, which was published for Father’s Day, heartbreakingly shows how close they once were as she detailed special memories from her childhood with him.

She wrote at the time about one in particular: “Our club sandwich and fruit smoothie tradition post my tap and ballet class – classes, which by the way, he religiously took me to on Saturday mornings after working 75+ hours a week as a lighting director.”

Meghan Markle is estranged from her father Thomas (Image: Getty)

Meghan also described how her father used his lighting knowledge to help out with her school performances, to ensure they felt “as grand as a Broadway show”.

The Duchess signed off the emotional post by writing: “To my dad – my thoughtful, inspiring, hardworking Daddy – Happy Father’s Day. ‘If I had all the water in the world, I’d give all the water to you…’ (You won’t get that quote, but he will. And for Father’s Day, that’s all that matters).”

In a separate post, she talked about his thoughtfulness in ensuring the dolls she got for a Christmas present reflected her biracial heritage and mixed family.

Meghan and Thomas Markle in happier times (Image: Instagram)

Meghan posted: “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.

“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.”

In her and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021 Meghan confessed that she “grieved” her father, who has never met her own children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

Harry and Meghan’s children have little contact with most of their family (Image: Getty)

Archie and Lilibet also have very little contact with Harry’s family, something King Charles is said to be keen to rectify, although it may be a difficult road.

A source confirmed to Express.co.uk that the Sussexes have not been invited to join the Royal Family at Balmoral this August, where they could have enjoyed some quality bonding time.

However they instead claimed that the King has Skype calls with his youngest grandchildren over in California as he wants to see how they are getting on.