For the first time since announcing that he couldn’t walk his daughter down the aisle, Thomas Markle is back in the spotlight.

Don’t worry, he’s not in trouble for secretly collaborating with the paparazzi again – Meghan’s dad merely gave his first televised interview with Good Morning Britain on ITV on Monday.

Believe me, there were some juicy nuggets to be taken from the interview, from how Prince Harry asked for his blessing to marry Meghan, to his daughter’s reaction when he said that he couldn’t walk her down the aisle.

For starters, he and Meghan used a code name for Prince Harry when they first started dating, per a report by Harpers Bazaar:

Markle said his daughter first revealed to him that she was dating Harry through a series of phone calls. “The first phone calls were, ‘Daddy, I have a new boyfriend,’ and I said, ‘Well, that’s really nice,'” he recalled. “And the next call was like, ‘He’s British,’ and I said, ‘That’s really nice.’

Eventually the third time around she was like, ‘He’s a prince.’ At that point she said, ‘It’s Harry.’ And I said, ‘Oh! Harry, okay.’ Of course, we’ll have to call him ‘H’ so no one knows that we’re talking about Harry. It’s ‘H’.”

Very sneaky, you two.

Another interesting bit of info is that Markle has never met H – er, I mean, Prince Harry.

At least, not face-to-face, a report by Sky News explains.

In fact, they’ve only ever spoken to each other on the phone:

They first spoke a few months before Prince Harry and Meghan announced their engagement in November last year, talking about how the prince and the former Suits actress met and “how happy they were with each other”.

“[Prince Harry is] quite easy to talk to, he’s a very comfortable person to talk to,” said Mr Markle. “I wasn’t nervous”.

However, the only thing they didn’t see eye-to-eye on was Donald Trump:

I was complaining about not liking Donald Trump; [Prince Harry] said ‘give Donald Trump a chance’. I sort of disagreed with that, but I still like Harry. That was his politics, I have my politics.

Hmm, Markle sounds a lot more likeable, don’t you think?

Regardless of differing political views, they seemed to get along with each other.

When it came to Prince Harry and Meghan’s engagement, Thomas revealed that his future son-in-law asked for his blessing in the least fancy way.

Yup, you guessed it – over the telephone:

Meghan told me first,” Thomas recalled. “But a few times after that, Harry got on the phone with Meghan. They told me together, and Harry asked for her hand over the phone. And I said, ‘You’re a gentleman. Promise me you’ll never raise a hand against my daughter and of course I give you my permission.'”

Attaboy, Thomas.

Unfortunately, it all seemed to get too much for Father Markle once he started receiving a ton of media attention:

It was a total invasion for quite a while. Eventually [the paparazzi] found where I was at, coming out of a 7/11 and suddenly they were flashing in my face and asking me questions. I jump in my truck and throw up a peace sign – I figured it was better than putting up half a peace sign.

That does sound hectic, although kudos for him the full peace sign.

However, the whole staged photos debacle soon unfolded, and he had to undergo surgery due to heart complications. Telling Meghan and Prince Harry that he couldn’t walk her down the aisle was a tear-jerking affair:

They were disappointed. Meghan cried, I’m sure, she did cry, and they both said, ‘take care of yourself, we are really worried about you’.”

Poor bugger, it really must have sucked to tell his daughter and son-in-law the bad news, but at least they understood.

In the end, Thomas ended up watching the wedding from a small bed-and-breakfast after being released from the hospital. Watching Meghan walking down the aisle was enough for her old man to shed a few tears:

She was beautiful. It was incredible watching her. I cried a little bit about it, but she was so beautiful walking down that aisle and so proud and so gorgeous. I was very proud. I couldn’t have seen a better moment in my life.

No, I’m not crying. Someone left an onion in the office, I swear.

Maybe now that he’s up and about baring his soul to the media, perhaps it’s time we let up on Thomas Markle a bit and give him a chance.

Here’s the full interview, and apologies for Piers Morgan being involved:

[sources:harpersbazaar&skynews]