First contact in years Duchess Meghan contacts her sick father
Meghan and her father are considered to be at odds. Now the 81-year-old is seriously ill. His daughter is said to have contacted him.
06.12.2025, 08:09
06.12.2025, 11:17
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- According to a spokesperson, Duchess Meghan has contacted her ill father Thomas Markle, with whom she has been estranged since 2018.
- Thomas Markle is in intensive care in the Philippines following emergency surgery and a leg amputation.
- It is not yet known whether Meghan's attempt at contact was successful.
Duchess Meghan hardly talks about her father anymore. Since the days of her wedding to Prince Harry over seven years ago, her relationship with Thomas Markle has been considered broken and non-existent. According to reports, Meghan's father has never met his grandchildren, Prince Archie (6) and Princess Lilibet (4). Now, shortly before Christmas, a rapprochement seems possible. According to a media report, Thomas Markle is in intensive care.
"I can confirm that she has made contact with her father," a spokesperson for House Sussex told the German Press Agency. The British media sent breaking news around the world on Friday evening. It remained unclear whether the Duchess, who was once a successful actress, was successful in making contact.
It had previously been reported that Thomas Markle was being treated in a hospital in the Philippines following emergency surgery. The Daily Mail reported on Friday, citing son Thomas Jr, that the 81-year-old had to have part of his left leg amputated. According to the PA news agency, Meghan is said to have tried to make contact beforehand.
The princely couple's difficult family circumstances
Meghan (44) and Harry (41) have lived with their children for years in the US state of California, thousands of kilometers away from the British royal family, from whom they have both broken away. Harry's relationship with his father, King Charles III (76), is also considered to be extremely difficult. In September, however, there was a rapprochement between the two, with father and son meeting for tea in London.
Harry is said to have never met his father-in-law in person. The rift between Meghan and Thomas Markle occurred shortly before the wedding, which Markle then failed to attend. He was convicted of staging paparazzi photos for money. He later stated that the shame of his behavior had taken its toll on him and that he had a heart condition that made the trip to London impossible. Meghan was walked down the aisle by Charles, who was still Prince at the time.
Meghan did not believe her father
Years later, Meghan and Harry spoke about Thomas Markle and the photo scandal in their Netflix documentary. "We called my dad, I said, 'You're supposed to have accepted money from the tabloids for posed photos, is that true? And he said: No," Meghan reported on the moment she found out about the planned publication of the story.
However, her father had turned down the offer to fly him out of Mexico, where he was living at the time, to avoid the expected media hype. That's why she didn't believe him, said Meghan. She then found out from the tabloids that her father was not coming to the wedding. Thomas Markle's closeness to the tabloid press was a recurring theme in the following years and even led to court proceedings.
In the documentary, Harry took responsibility for the rift between the two. "It's incredibly sad, of course, what has happened. She had a father before, and now she doesn't have a father," Harry said. He added: "I take the blame for that because if Meghan wasn't with me, her dad would still be her dad."
