According to his son, Meghan Markle’s father is currently in intensive care following an emergency surgery in the Philippines.

Thomas Markle, aged 81, has been estranged from Meghan since her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. Earlier this week, he was urgently taken to the hospital after experiencing severe health issues at home.

On Wednesday, he underwent a surgical procedure lasting approximately three hours and remains in the intensive care unit. He is expected to undergo a second operation to address a blood clot.

His son, Thomas Jr, shared, “I took Dad to a nearby hospital where they conducted several scans, and the doctors indicated that his condition was life-threatening.”

“They quickly transported us by ambulance, with sirens blaring, to a larger hospital in the city center. My dad has undergone emergency surgery. I ask everyone worldwide to keep him in their thoughts,” he added.

Thomas’s daughter Samantha, 61, said she believed the strain of the last few years had taken its toll on her father and added to his fragility. She said: ‘He is a strong man, but he has been through so much. I am praying that he is strong enough to survive this.

‘My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this.’

Mr Markle has been in poor health for years. He suffered two heart attacks on the eve of his daughter’s wedding which prevented him from getting on a plane from his home in Los Angeles to London.

King Charles ended up walking Meghan part-way down the aisle at St George’s Chapel in Windsor, an act Mr Markle later told The Mail on Sunday ‘was the most gracious and kind thing to do. I shall be forever in his debt.’

Mr Markle, who has never met his son-in-law or grandchildren Archie, six, or Lilibet, four, suffered a massive stroke in 2022 which left him unable to speak. He regained some speech after months of therapy but has become increasingly frail in recent years.

Thomas Markle pictured at his home in the Philippines, in October. He was rushed to hospital on Tuesday after being taken gravely ill

Mr Markle pictured with his daughter, from whom he has been estranged since her 2018 marriage to Prince Harry

Meghan with her mum, Doria and dad Thomas in a photo that featured in the Sussex’s 2022 Netflix documentary

This week’s medical crisis unfolded around the time Prince Harry made a paid speech to a group of estate agents in Canada.

On Wednesday, Meghan released her holiday edition of her Netflix show ‘With Love, Meghan’ in which she stressed the importance of family and friends.

Tom Markle Jr. ,59, who has been his father’s primary caregiver since the stroke, said: ‘My only wish is that Meghan shows my father some compassion. He is literally fighting for his life.’

Mr Markle and his son moved to the Philippines in January of this year partly, Mr Markle said, to ‘escape’ from the constant reminders of his estrangement from his daughter.

He told the Mail on Sunday: ‘Every day there was some story or other about Meghan and Harry. It was a constant reminder that my daughter is no longer speaking to me. I still do not understand why she continues to ghost me. My only wish is to see my grandchildren before I die.’

Mr Markle, a retired Emmy-award winning Hollywood lighting director, said his daughter was furious with him when he posed for paparazzi pictures on the eve of her wedding.

He later said he was convinced to pose for the photographs because he believed they would show him in a ‘better light’.

He said: ‘Meghan and Harry did nothing to prepare me for the attention I was getting. The paparazzi were getting pictures of me every day and they were very unflattering. I believed the photographer when he said putting nice pictures out there would show me in a better light.’

Thomas Markle Jr, pictured in 2018, said he took his father to hospital on Tuesday 

Meghan is seen laying on her father’s chest as a baby 

Meghan with her father and mother Doria, the only person from her side of the family to attend her wedding and to whom she remains close

Meghan and Harry pictured with their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who Mr Markle has never met

Mr Markle was in hospital after suffering two heart attacks – he had a stent placed in a blocked artery – when he claimed Prince Harry called and chastised him for co-operating with the pictures.

‘He and Meghan were angry with me and when I said I was in hospital and had nearly died from two heart attacks they didn’t even ask how I was,’ Mr Markle said.

‘I reached out every way I could. I appealed to them publicly and I wrote private letters. They cut me dead. It broke my heart.’

Mr Markle split from Meghan’s mother Doria – the only person from her side of the family to attend the wedding and to whom she remains close – when Meghan was three.

But the pair remained amicable and Meghan lived with her father from the age of 11 to 18 while her mother traveled the world.

Mr Markle later paid the $250,000 tuition costs for Meghan’s education at Northwestern University.

He continued to pay off the debt even when she landed her role on the TV drama Suits.

By the final season she was earning a reported $40,000 an episode.

Meghan’s sister Samantha, pictured together in an undated photo, said she is ‘praying he is strong enough’ 

A Christmas special for the Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix series With Love, Meghan was released on the streaming giant on Wednesday

Meghan Markle appearing on an episode of law drama Suits. She was a regular on the show and by the final season was earning a reported $40,000 an episode

Mr Markle said: ‘I said I would pay for her education and I did. She went to private schools from kindergarten on. I finished paying her university debt when she was already well established as an actress and making good money. But I believed it was my duty as a father to give her the best education and the best start possible in life.’

Before she met Harry, Meghan’s blog The Tig was full of praise for her father.

She recounted one story about how he bought two sets of Barbie and Ken dolls on Christmas, one black and one white. He mixed the sets together to create a blended family which mirrored their own.

Later, when she was asked at school about her ethnicity and was given boxes marked ‘black or white’ she asked her father which box she should check.

He replied: ‘Draw your own box.’

Mr Markle said: ‘We were always so close. Being shut out of her life is the biggest tragedy of my life. I don’t understand what I did so wrong that she never talked to me again. I have been upset at my daughter, I have been angry at her at times – but I have never stopped loving her.’

Mr Markle’s son said he expected his father to remain in hospital for ‘a long time’ and that he would face a ‘grueling’ recovery. 

He said: ‘I would ask Meg, on a week when she has released a TV show talking about the power of love and family, to reach out to our dad. She needs to start showing the compassion she preaches about.’