Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Meghan Markle, broke his silence after the birth of Lilibet 'Lili' Diana Mountbatten-Windsor to say that he was "very pleased" to have a granddaughter. He also wished his daughter and Prince Harry "the best of luck" for their future.

Lili, the Sussexes’ second child, was born on Friday, June 4, at 11:40 am Pacific Time, in the trusted care of the doctors and staff at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The newborn weighed in at seven pounds, 11 ounces and as per an official statement, "both mother and child are healthy and well, and settling in at home."

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The 76-year-old retired Hollywood lighting engineer spoke with the press in the aftermath of the announcement of the newborn’s birth. “I’m very pleased that my daughter and my new granddaughter had a successful delivery," Thomas told The Sun. "I wish them all my love and the best of luck.”

Of course, while this is a positive step, their relationship is anything but mended. In fact, royal biographer Robert Jobson said that it was unlikely he would get to meet his new granddaughter anytime soon. “As it stands it seems unlikely that either grandfather will meet their new granddaughter for some time,” he said.

Another royal author, Nigel Cawthorne who wrote ‘Call Me Diana: The Princess of Wales on Herself’, observed along similar lines. “In due course, he very likely will, but at the moment he won't be at the top of the couple's list for obvious reasons,” he said.

Thomas Markle has reportedly not spoken to Meghan since they had a highly publicized falling out before her wedding to Harry in May 2018. Photos of Thomas preparing for her nuptials became public. Soon after, tabloids alleged that the photos were staged and the photos allegedly sold for £100,000 ($1,41,656). 

In an unexpected move, Thomas admitted to faking the pictures and also said that Harry had called him at the time about them. He later admitted, however, that he lied to Harry about staging the photos. He said that Prince Harry told him: "Harry told me that I should never go to the press. That it would end in tears. He said, ‘They will eat you alive.’ He was right.”

Earlier this year, Meghan opened up about their relationship in her tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey. Asked if it felt like a “betrayal” when she found out her dad was working with the Press, she said, “Because when I asked him when we were told by the comms team, this is a story that was going to be coming out, which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a really key point in all this.”

“We called my dad and I asked him and he said, no, absolutely not,” she said. “I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we're not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our own kids one day.”