Meghan ‘reaches out’ to estranged father Thomas Markle after his leg amputation

The Duchess of Sussex has “reached out” to her estranged father Thomas Markle after reports he had his leg amputated following surgery in the Philippines.

Meghan has been estranged from her father since her 2018 wedding when he was caught staging paparazzi photos in the run-up to the big day.

A spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex said: “I can confirm she has reached out to her father.”

The development is understood to have only just happened.

No further details have been released, including whether or not Meghan’s attempt was successful.

Meghan is said to have previously tried to reach out to him in the past.

Mr Markle, who moved from Mexico to live in the Philippines, has never met his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.

The retired TV lighting director ended up in intensive care on Wednesday after a three-hour emergency surgery, the Daily Mail reported.

He was later said to have had his leg amputated below the knee after his foot turned black.

His son, Thomas Markle Jr, said before the news that the duchess had “reached out” that he hoped Meghan would show “compassion”.

“My only wish is that Meghan shows my father some compassion. He is literally fighting for his life,” he told the Mail.

Mr Markle pulled out of attending Harry and Meghan’s wedding seven years ago after he was caught staging photographs for the paparazzi in the US, and then suffered a heart attack.

Harry’s father, now the King, stepped in to walk Meghan down the aisle.

Mr Markle went on to repeatedly speak to the media and later claimed he had been “shunned” by Meghan.

He criticised the duchess but still said he wanted to reunite with her, and publicly pleaded to be able to see Archie and Lili, saying in 2023: “She is not the person I knew as my daughter.”

The duchess won a High Court privacy and copyright claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” handwritten letter she wrote to Mr Markle in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.

Meghan, who has not seen her father for seven years, paid gushing tributes to Mr Markle on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig before she married into the royal family.

She called herself a “daddy’s girl” and wrote how he invested “blood, sweat and tears” so she could pursue her dreams.

Mr Markle worked on shows such as hit sitcom Married… With Children and popular US drama General Hospital.

He won two Emmys for his team’s work on General Hospital, but filed for bankruptcy in 2016 after reports he failed to pay his debts.

Meghan recalled how one Christmas he created a Barbie family for her when they were only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls.

Her new collection of dolls had “a black mom doll, a white dad doll, and a child in each colour. My dad had taken the sets apart and customised my family”.

She also described how when she was confronted with a tick-box form to fill in at school about her ethnicity and found she did not fit into just one category: “My dad said words that will stay with me forever: ‘Draw your own box.’”

The Duke of Sussex, who is also estranged from his brother the Prince of Wales and has a troubled relationship with the King, has never met Mr Markle in person.

Harry reunited with the King face to face at a private tea in Clarence House in September after 19 months apart, after previously telling how Charles would not speak to him amid the duke’s High Court battle with the Home Office over security.

Mr Markle has reflected on how both he and the King know how “tough” it is to be estranged from their child.

This week, the duchess’s new With Love, Meghan Christmas special – which has been roundly lambasted by critics – premiered on Netflix the same day as news broke of Mr Markle’s admittance to intensive care.