Meghan Markle’s Ex-Boyfriend Says Her Relationship With Dad Thomas Has Always Been ‘Complicated’

Nothing new. Meghan Markle‘s ex-boyfriend said she’s always had a strained relationship with her father, Thomas Markle.

“I knew her dad growing up as kids,” Joshua Silverstein told Us Weekly. “I didn’t see him often … but I did know that Meghan’s relationship with her dad was complicated and I understood that as most teenager-to-parent relationships are.”

“Being there when Meghan’s parents were divorced at that time … it’s hard raising your kids without the secondary parent,” he said, noting that he was closer to the Suits alum’s mom, Doria Ragland. “It’s all challenging. I don’t think there was anything specifically surprising to find out at that time because there were a lot of people that I knew [who] had challenging relationships with their parents. But I did know about it.”

The pregnant Duchess of Sussex, 39, has had a strained public relationship with her father, 76, since he admitted to staging paparazzi photographs ahead of his daughter’s royal wedding to Prince Harry.

“I wish I hadn’t done the whole thing,” the former lighting director told Good Morning Britain on March 9, “but here’s the other side of the coin. No one took any time to protect any member of our family. And in spite of all that, I still apologized, I’m apologizing today again.”

He continued, “The bottom line is, I’ve never heard back from Meghan and Harry in any way, shape or form. I would love to hear from them. I’ve been pushed around and knocked down for one thing I did, one big mistake I made and I’ve apologized many times.”

During Meghan and Harry’s bombshell CBS interview, the Los Angeles native revealed whether she felt “betrayed” that her father was “working with the tabloids.” At the time, Meghan said that Thomas had denied it all. “When I asked him, he said, ‘No, absolutely not [that he hadn’t been talking to the tabloids].'”

But when she probed her father further, saying that she and Harry, 36, had offered to try and “kill” the news story if he was in fact telling the truth, Thomas wasn’t able to say that he was.

“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,” said Meghan.

“I think at the end of the day, we’re all human beings and we all have to create boundaries with people that we may not want to create boundaries with … but at the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for you and your family,” Silverstein concluded. “If that means creating a boundary with your parents, sometimes that’s what you have to do.”