Meghan Markle's Team Confirms She ‘Reached Out’ to Her Dad After His Medical Emergency
Meghan Markle was busy with her entrepreneurial endeavors and celebrating warmth and love on screen, but a grave development off camera has pulled her back into one of the most challenging chapters of her past. After years of distance, the Duchess of Sussex has reached out to her long-estranged father, Thomas Markle, after he suffered a medical emergency that left him fighting for his life.
"I can confirm she has reached out to her father," a spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex tells PEOPLE, in what is the first on-the-record confirmation in years that she and her father have been in direct contact. The outreach comes in the wake of reports that Thomas, 81, underwent an emergency amputation of his left leg earlier this month after a severe circulatory complication. His son Thomas Markle Jr. said the procedure took place on December 3 in the Philippines, where the pair relocated earlier this year. A blood clot in Thomas's thigh reportedly cut off circulation to his lower leg, sending his condition into rapid decline. By the time doctors intervened, the damage was extensive. "It was life or death," Thomas Jr. told the Daily Mail, adding his father's foot had turned "blue then black" before surgeons determined amputation was unavoidable.
He also said, “My dad is being very brave. 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.”
Though Meghan’s spokesperson wouldn’t discuss the nature of the contact, a source confirms that the timing was immediate; her message reached him only after news of the surgery went public. Thomas Jr. says his father remains in an intensive care ward, where doctors are keeping a close watch for signs of infection. “The next two or three days are critical,” he says.
Meghan and her father have been publicly estranged since her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. The father-daughter relationship soured when Thomas admitted he had staged paparazzi photographs in the weeks leading up to the royal ceremony, then gave conflicting accounts of his communications with the media. Meghan has said the breach of trust was devastating. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, she spoke of the loss with rare finality. "I've lost my father," she said at the time.
Just hours before her spokesperson formally confirmed the outreach, earlier reports claimed that Meghan had directed her team to reach out to her estranged father after learning he was in intensive care following surgery. According to The Times, the Duchess had “instructed aides to verify the claims of her father’s ill health” after discovering that she had not been informed of his condition before it appeared in the media. However, reacting to the same, the Duchess's spokesperson negated these claims to The Express, stating, "This is a complete fabrication. No aides have been instructed to reach out."