Meghan Markle’s dad Thomas is believed to have had his leg amputated at a hospital in the Philippines where he now lives – and there has been an update on his condition
Meghan Markle’s dad has issued a new health update days after reportedly having a leg amputated.
It emerged that Mr Markle had been rushed to hospital in Cebu in the Philippines, where he now lives, after suffering a blood clot and is said to have had a leg amputated below the knee after his foot turned black.
He was said to have been in intensive care following the surgery last week. It comes as his estranged daughter Meghan, has been calling around hospitals to try and get in touch with her dad after hearing of his condition, sources close to the Duchess say.
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And now, according to the Daily Mail, Mr Markle has taken a step forward in his recovery by being moved out of intense care and into a regular hospital room.
It has been reported that his doctors are pleased with his progress, with his wounds healing well – although warned of a long recovery. Mr Markle told the publication: ‘I am determined to walk again. I sometimes get a weird feeling that my leg is still there.
“The doctors said it was a common thing for people to feel ‘phantom’ limbs. I know I have a long journey ahead of me. I am thankful for the excellent care I have received here in Cebu and for the wonderful Filipino doctors and nurses who saved my life.”
It is reported he will stay in hospital for another week before being taken to a rehabilitation centre for the next step in his recovery. Meanwhile, Meghan is said to have personally made phone calls to hospitals in the Philippines in an urgent bid to establish the hospital logo seen in photographs on her father’s hospital gown.
Meghan was left with no option but to email her father on a previous attempt to establish contact following the surgery as she does not have a current phone number for her father, who she fell out with in the run-up to the royal wedding in 2018.
But sources say Thomas Markle does not have his phone available to him, and therefore is out of contact. Meghan has reportedly asked her PR team to reach out to journalists from publications who are in contact with her father to ask for information on his address and whereabouts, as she wants to send him a handwritten letter.
Mr Markle, who moved from Mexico to live in the Philippines, has never met his grandchildren Archie, six, and Lilibet, four.
The retired TV lighting director 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.”
