Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, 81, is reportedly in intensive care in a Philippines hospital following a leg amputation Wednesday. Meghan’s half brother, Thomas Markle Jr., told the Daily Mail that his father’s lower leg was amputated following the discovery of a blood clot in his left thigh.
“I was told the leg had to be removed, and it was a case of life or death,” Markle Jr. told the tabloid. “His foot turned blue and then black. It happened very quickly. I took him to a local hospital and they did some scans and an ultrasound and said the leg had to be amputated.”
Meghan’s father and half brother are both currently living in the densely populated province of Cebu. Markle Sr. relocated to the island earlier this year, following a decade spent living in Rosarito, Mexico. In January, he told the Daily Mail’s Caroline Graham that he was moving in hopes of having a “quieter, friendlier existence,” and to enjoy good medical care and “healthy” food. According to a family insider who spoke to The Daily Record in May, Markle Sr. was living in a high-rise apartment for about 500 British pounds ($670) a month and being cared for by his son. Spokespeople for the Duchess of Sussex did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meghan has been estranged from her father since the run-up to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. Staged photos of the elder Markle in Mexico appeared in a tabloid just days before the wedding, and the father of the bride subsequently decided not to attend the ceremony, citing health concerns.
The details of what really happened between Meghan and her father behind the scenes didn’t become public until three years later. In their joint interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Meghan and Harry said that they asked Markle Sr. if he was cooperating with tabloid journalists, and he claimed that he hadn’t. Meghan said the lie was hard for her to reconcile, particularly after becoming a mother herself.
Days later, Markle Sr. finally admitted to Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain that, in fact, he had been working with tabloid journalists to stage the photos. “I wish I hadn’t done the whole thing,” he said, adding that he made his decision after enduring a year of unflattering paparazzi pictures. “I went for this deal where this man was going to make me look better. Maybe I got sucked into it, but I believed him, and I thought it was going to work. It didn’t work. Of course.”
