Although Meghan Markle‘s father has yet to meet his royal son-in-law in person, Thomas Markle called Prince Harry “great” and “an interesting guy” from their conversations over the phone.
Thomas, who bowed out of attending the royal wedding on May 19, opened up about his relationship with Harry in an interview with the U.K.’s Good Morning Britain early Monday.
“It’s been over the phone, always over the phone. We have yet to see each other face to face,” he said. “We’ve had interesting conversations on the phone. He’s a smart guy.”
Recalling their first chat, Meghan’s father shared, “He said, ‘Hello Thomas,’ and I said, ‘Hello Harry.’ It became a conversation back and forth mostly about politics. He was asking me how I was feeling that day, and I was telling him how unhappy I was with the president, or with the idea of Trump, and that’s how it began.”
Thomas also learned of his daughter’s new romance in bits and pieces over the phone.
“The first phone calls were ‘Dad, I have a new boyfriend.’ And I said, ‘That’s really nice,'” the 73-year-old said. “And then the next call was like, ‘He’s British.’ And I said, ‘That’s really nice.’ And eventually the third time round was, ‘He’s a prince.’ At that point she said, ‘It’s Harry.’ And I said, ‘Oh Harry, okay.’ And she said, ‘Of course, we’ll have to call him H so no one knows we’re talking about Harry. It’s H.’ “
“And then we talked about that, and eventually I spoke to him as well,” continued Thomas. “Very nice man. Gentleman. Very likable.”
The 33-year-old royal even made sure to give Thomas a call before presenting Meghan with her ring, to formally ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
“Harry asked for her hand over the phone and I said, ‘You’re a gentleman, promise me you’ll never raise your hand against my daughter and of course I will grant you my permission.'”
Although Thomas was surprised to find out his daughter would be part of the royal family, he feels Harry is just as lucky as she is.
“Of course it’s ‘Wow,’ it comes out as a ‘Wow,’ but this is my daughter and she’s certainly a prize for him as well,” he explained. “He’s great, an interesting guy, a prince, but my daughter’s been a princess since the day she was born.”
Thomas Markle told Good Morning Britain that Meghan, 36, “has wanted children for a long time.”
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“And when she met Harry she spoke about how much she loved him and so there has to be a child making somewhere soon,” he said. “I don’t think there is a stork in the air yet but I think it will happen sooner or later.”
