Pals’ intervention is Meghan a bad situation worse...

It had been a ticking time bomb. A profoundly emotional handwritten letter penned by Meghan Markle, that ever since its delivery to her father was being held hostage.

Now, after the Duchess of Sussex gave five pals permission to speak out anonymously in her defence, the move has badly blown up in her face.

To counter the “global bullying” directed at her, they went further in launching a personal attack on her father.

For two years, the Duchess has barely spoken to Thomas Markle.

Their relationship, once so very close, was left hanging by a thread after he was found to have cashed in by faking pictures with a paparazzi after he felt snubbed by his daughter since she met Harry.

The expose led to him suffering a heart attack which then prevented him from travelling from his home in Rosarito, Mexico, to walk her down the aisle at her wedding last May.

Mr Markle, 74, has given numerous interviews while Kensington Palace has failed to tame his outbursts.

But last week the relationship sank to new depths with the pals’ intervention. One said: “He knows how to get in touch with her. Her telephone number hasn’t changed. He’s never

called, he’s never texted. It’s super painful because Meg was always so dutiful. I think she will always feel devastated by what he’s done.

“And at the same time, because she’s a daughter, she has a lot of sympathy for him.”

One, described as a former co-star, said: “Meg has silently sat back and endured the lies and untruths.

“It’s wrong to put anyone under this level of emotional trauma, let alone when they’re pregnant.”

They then told how Meghan had written to her father revealing her words to be: “Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.” They said he responded by asking for a photo shoot.

The choosing of their words and their target was clumsy beyond belief. The Mexican standoff that had been ongoing for two years exploded.

Whereas before Mr Markle used the media to communicate with Meghan, this time he exacted his own calculating revenge.

Furious about her actions in permitting her friends to speak, he did the unthinkable – handed over his girl’s letter for the world to see.

In it, she blamed him for breaking her heart “into a million pieces” by giving interviews, manufacturing stories and attacking her husband.

She went on to complain he had made no attempt to contact her while chastising him for falsely claiming he is the one who has been shunned.

In response, he went as far as to show texts he’d sent Meghan while calling her in the presence of a reporter to be greeted with an automated message.

Never before has such a sorry royal affair been played out so publicly.

Meghan’s collusion with her friends to trash him in a magazine by disclosing the existence of a letter, one he had kept a secret for months, is at best questionable.

It gifted her father the perfect opportunity to have yet more fuel poured on the fire of their relationship but also begs the question if she knew it would evoke that response.

Even God can’t seem to save the Queen from this tawdry US soap opera.

Mexican standoff that was ongoing for two years exploded