Meghan Markle's Father Says She Is 'Cheating' Her Children by Not Returning to U.K.

Thomas Markle says Meghan Markle's children "are being deprived of seeing all their grandparents" in a new attack on his daughter.

He used an interview with Australian TV to say Meghan and Prince Harry should return to Britain to "fulfil their obligation."

Markle Sr has not met Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor despite repeated requests in media interviews.

The royals themselves have faired a little better, having met Archie, but are yet to meet Lilibet who remained in California with her mother during Harry's visit to London in July.

Markle Sr told Sunrise: "I think they (Archie and Lilibet) are being deprived of seeing all their grandparents, and I think they are being deprived of seeing all their relatives and I think that's terribly unfair to them."

"I would like to see them both go, all four of them go, back to England and fulfil their obligation," he continued. "It's better for the children and it's better for them. By not taking them back they are cheating their children. Also it's a matter of protection, they get much better protection in England than they would in Montecito.

"So I really would like to see them back in England and maybe make up with the Queen and make up with his father, and then maybe we can make up."

He also accused Harry of failing to support Meghan when she was experiencing suicidal thoughts in the aftermath of negative media stories about her in January 2019.

The duchess told Oprah she asked to go to a mental hospital but was told by a senior official that it would make the institution look bad.

Prince Harry said he did not go to his family, saying: "I guess I was ashamed of admitting it to them."

Markle Sr told Sunrise: "I think Harry was a total failure as a husband, because if a wife or child of mine came to me and said I have a psychological problem and was thinking about suicide I would get them directly to a doctor.

"I wouldn't have to go and check with someone first."

Meghan's relationship with her father was at the center of a high profile U.K. lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday, which Meghan won earlier this year.

Their relationship disintegrated after Markle Sr was caught staging pictures with the paparazzi in the days leading up to her royal wedding at Windsor Castle, in May 2018.

He gave interviews at the time to TMZ and also needed hospital treatment for heart attacks.

That August, Meghan sent him a letter begging him to stop speaking about her to the media and in early 2019 he passed it to the Mail on Sunday following attacks on him from five anonymous friends in People.

Markle Sr said he sent her flowers for her 40th birthday but received no response but he did rule out using lawyers to try to get access to Meghan's children.

He told Sunrise: "I've had offers from several lawyers—pro-bono—because we do have the right to sue to see our grandchildren.

"But to me that's like trying to descend into a game and using them like pawns and I won't sue to see them because I just think that's using them, and it's not what I plan to do.

"They shouldn't be used, they are just babies. So no, I will wait. I will wait patiently until they are ready to bring them to me. But as long as my daughter has the attitude she doesn't want me to see them, that's the way it's going to be."

Lilibet was born on June 4 and, in a further sign of their move away from the conventions of royal life, the couple have still not released a picture of her three months later.

Markle Sr's interview comes after his son Thomas Markle Jr joined Australian reality show Big Brother VIP over the summer, which is yet to broadcast.