THEN THOMAS CAME UP

The friends said that Meghan had written a letter to her dad after her wedding, begging him to stop speaking to the media.

In the letter the former actress says she’s “so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.”

Thomas (74) responded with a long letter of his own, asking for a photoshoot with his daughter, according to the friends.

“She feels like, ‘That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. I’m telling you I don’t want to communicate through the media and you’re asking me to communicate through the media. Did you hear anything I said?’ ”

Meghan’s friends might have hoped to shame Thomas into silence, but their speaking out had the opposite effect.

The retired TV lighting director replied from his home in Mexico, saying he hadn’t told a soul about the letter and had planned to “keep it totally private out of respect for her” until the friends came with their attack.

He then sold the handwritten five-page letter Meghan wrote in August last year to the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

‘I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media’