Thomas Markle speaks for first time in tell-all interview

In a world exclusive interview, Thomas Markle, the father of the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has spoken to Good Morning about his relationship with the royal family, missing his daughter's wedding and what it's like having a Prince as a son-in-law.

Discussing first time he spoke to his daughter about her new boyfriend, he said: "The first phone calls were 'dad I have a new boyfriend'.

And I said that's really nice and she said 'He's British' and I said 'That's really nice,' and eventually the third time around was like 'He's a Prince.'"

He continued: "And at that point, she said 'it's Harry' and I said 'oh, Harry okay!'"

Thomas Markle told Good Morning Britain that his daughter went on to say she had to call Prince Harry 'H' "so that nobody knows" she was dating him before their relationship was made official.

The double Emmy award-winning former Lighting Director made headlines earlier this year after he was photographed by paparazzi looking at photos of his daughter and her fiance. It later emerged the photos had been set up and started a row which pushed Thomas down a path to poor health.

On the paparazzi photos, he told Good Morning Britain: "They'd take photos of me grabbing a beer, take photos of me getting into my car... they'd take photos of me making me look negative."

He welled up as he told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid that the staged photos were a "mistake". He continued to say that he "spoke to them both and apologised" for the images. He insisted that Harry and Meghan were "very forgiving" and said that everything was still ready for him to attend the wedding in Windsor.

At that point, he was still due to be attending the wedding.

He said: "I couldn't get over the fact that had happened, all that stuff was working on me. I had a heart condition."

After several middle of the night trips to hospitals near his home, he had a heart attack.

He told Piers and Susanna that he watched the wedding from a small rented property that a friend organised for him.

He said he was "very proud" watching Meghan at the wedding before adding: "The unfortunate thing is I am now a footnote in one of the greatest moments in history rather than the Dad walking her down the aisle."