Prince Harry explained bluntly in the 2022 Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan what the Sussex stance on Thomas Markle is: He is a non-person.
He said of his wife’s relationship with him: ‘She had a father before this [marrying a royal]. Now she doesn’t have a father. I shouldered that. Because if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad.’
Her father now lies in hospital in Cebu in the Philippines, seriously ill after his left leg was amputated below the knee this week to save his life after he developed a blood clot – and, at the time of writing, he is awaiting another life-saving operation.
Meghan’s half-brother, Tom Junior, confirmed the news last night, revealing: ‘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.’
Late last night in a dramatic development, it emerged that the Duchess of Sussex has, after all these years, finally made an attempt to contact him.
It is understood that she had not been informed of his medical emergency before it was reported in the Press. She then instructed aides to verify the claims of her father’s ill health.
A spokesman for the duchess said last night: ‘I can confirm she has reached out to her father.’ It is not clear if she has managed to speak to him and no further details were shared.
Mr Markle, who remains in intensive care but is said to be in a stable condition, now faces another procedure to remove a blood clot in his left thigh.
A source tells me Meghan has not forgiven her father for his actions around her 2018 nuptials – when he was revealed by The Mail on Sunday to have posed for staged paparazzi photographs that showed him supposedly being fitted for his wedding suit – and for his numerous emotional media interviews since then.
In a letter to him in August 2018, revealed in part by People magazine in 2019, she said she was ‘heartbroken’ by his behaviour.
That heartbreak remains. ‘I don’t think she can get over it,’ says the source. ‘He embarrassed her.’
In 2022, Mr Markle had a serious stroke that left him temporarily incapacitated, but Meghan did not go to his side. ‘They haven’t spoken in years,’ I’m told.
However, sources say that she would only go to see her father if Prince Harry and her chief-of-staff came along for support, and a journey of that magnitude – 17 hours or so from LA to the Philippines – makes it unlikely due to the logistics alone. Mr Markle moved to the Philippines in January, telling the Daily Mail: ‘I was constantly reminded of my estrangement from my daughter while I was in the US and Mexico. I could not escape her and Harry, who were always on TV with their shows, books and interviews.
‘So I moved to the other side of the world hoping for a quieter life.’
Some cynical voices say Meghan would consider going to see him to save face – the timing of his health crisis is particularly painful as it coincides with the release of her Netflix programme With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration, in which she talks about family traditions and togetherness. Others, however, point to the presence in the Philippines of Mr Markle’s son, Tom Jr, Meghan’s half-brother, who has been disobliging about the duchess.
He told Prince Harry in an open letter shortly before their wedding that he was marrying someone who ‘is obviously not the right woman for you’.
If she went to see her father she would almost certainly end up in the same room as Tom Jr. ‘It does not serve her to go,’ a source says.
Prince Harry went ahead with a cringe-worthy appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert hours after it was revealed that Mr Markle was in intensive care. And Meghan plugged her husband’s giggling TV appearance on her Instagram – even as her half-siblings were appealing for her to fly to her father’s side, saying he was ‘fighting’ for his life.
A doctor treating Mr Markle, who spoke to the Daily Mail with his permission, warned: ‘The wound is healing but the next 24 to 72 hours are critical. We need to make sure the wound heals and does not become infected. At the moment he is in a stable condition and doing well. But at his age that could change quickly.’
Tom Jr added: ‘Dad has a long road ahead. This was a major operation, but he needed it to save his life. I would appeal to Meghan to show him compassion at this very difficult time.’ Meghan’s As Ever publicity machine swung into action this week to promote the sale of a new range of batch-made chocolates she has ‘curated’.
It’s a desperately sad contrast to her own family life because Meghan and her father were once truly devoted. As a child she used to kiss the TV when his name came up on the credits of the TV show Married… With Children, on which he was lighting director and director of photography.
And between the ages of 11 to 18 she lived with him while mother Doria – a free spirit from whom Mr Markle had divorced amicably in 1987 when Meghan was six – was travelling. He also spent a large chunk of a lottery win he had on funding his daughter’s expensive private schooling and tuition at Northwestern University, where fees cost just under £75,000 a year.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday in 2018, Mr Markle said: ‘When they handed her to me and I held her in my arms for the first time… I fell in love and have never stopped loving her from that day.’
And in an interview with Vanity Fair in October 2017, Meghan told of how they were still ‘so close-knit’, even after the divorce.
Mr Markle also gave Meghan her first experience of being on the set of a TV show through his job on Married… With Children.
Indeed, Meghan has shared how she spent ‘every day after school for ten years’ on the show’s set.
Then, in 2011, Meghan landed her role on the legal drama Suits. Mr Markle said she treated him to a Christmas gift of $2,000.
When she became engaged to Harry in 2017, Mr Markle said the prince asked him for her hand over the phone.
The pair, of course, never met, and Meghan’s relationship with her father broke down in May 2018 after photos of him were staged.
A few days later, just before the wedding, Mr Markle told the showbiz website TMZ he had had a heart attack and would miss it.
Later, he told Good Morning Britain: ‘They were disappointed, but they both said, and Meghan cried I’m sure… she did cry… they both said, “Take care of yourself, we are worried about you”.
‘They said the important thing is that I get better.’
Yet, in June that same year, Mr Markle revealed he was no longer on speaking terms with the couple, implying it was their fault.
‘All they have to do is speak to me,’ he told TMZ.
Harry had advised him earlier not to speak to the Press, and
Mr Markle revealed later that the prince told him: ‘If you had listened to me this would never have happened.’
Mr Markle said he responded, ‘Maybe it would be better for you guys if I was dead… then you could pretend to be sad.’
For his part, Mr Markle has commented: ‘I wish them well.’
Now, at 81, his life hangs in the balance – half the world away from his daughter.
