Meghan Markle’s uncle Mike, a former diplomat, has passed away at the age of 82 after a battle with Parkinson’s disease.

Sources told The Sun that Mike had been fighting Parkinson’s for years, and that he had suffered multiple falls as of late.

“Mike was a lovely, gentle, softly spoken old man,” one insider said. “He was always happy to be asked about Meghan, but whenever he spoke to anyone he mainly wanted to talk about his late wife – he loved her so much.”

The source went on to say that Mike was “very proud” of Meghan and wished he could have met her husband, Prince Harry.

“He was quite well known in his community for being Meghan’s uncle, and he would always stop for a chat to say how proud he was of her even though he didn’t often agree with how she went about things,” the insider said. “He would usually just chuckle and say, ‘It’s not every day you have a prince in the family, though, I suppose!’”

Mike once told Woman Magazine that he helped Meghan on her journey to becoming a stateswoman when she was 20 years-old, as he got her an internship as a junior press officer in the American embassy in Argentina. At the time, she was considering a career in international relations, although she would ultimately decide against it to become an actress instead.

Like his brother Thomas, who is Meghan’s father, Mike said that he had become estranged from Meghan before her wedding to Harry. Another source said that Mike “wasn’t a fan of how they’d iced out her dad.”

“His face often turned a bit dark whenever that was mentioned. I don’t think they were ever in touch with him to his dying day,” this source said.

“I know he was disappointed not to be invited to the wedding – he knew that a lot of the family wouldn’t be, but he held out hope that since he shaped her formative years by getting her that internship in Buenos Aires at the embassy, she might see fit to invite him,” the source continued. “He wasn’t well enough to travel even back then, but it would have been nice for him to know he was loved and appreciated by the niece he helped so much when she was just starting out.”

Last year, Mike called on Meghan to reach out to her father before it’s too late.

“Meghan famously said, ‘Not many people have asked if I’m OK.’ She would do well in this time of a genuine crisis to ask her dad if he is OK,” Mike told The Express in 2020. “People of my age and Tom’s are dying due to the virus. There’s nothing wrong with being courteous.”

“It’s about time she should try to mend any differences she has with family before it is too late. I think that she should be in touch with her dad,” he added at the time. “Tom should be speaking to his daughter and his newest grandson.”