Thomas Markle was the man of the moment back in 2018, dominating headlines, news channels, and royal headspace. But as soon as the mania around Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding cooled down, he slipped out of the spotlight and into the back of the public’s mind.
This week, unfortunate circumstances have brought him into the spotlight once more. Thomas Markle has been “fighting for his life” in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the Philippines, according to his son (and Meghan’s paternal half-brother), Thomas Markle Jr.
The 81-year-old, who lives full-time in the East Asian country, was rushed into emergency surgery on Wednesday after falling seriously ill at his home. He may have to have further surgery to remove a blood clot, according to reports.
“I took dad to a hospital close to our home and they did various scans and the doctors said his life was in imminent danger,” Markle Jr told the Daily Mail. “They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the centre of the city. My dad has undergone emergency surgery,” adding that Markle was “literally fighting for his life”.
Meghan Markle with her dad, Thomas Markle, in happier times
This is not the first time Markle has taken seriously ill in recent years. His daughter, Samantha Markle, revealed that Markle had suffered a stroke in 2022 that left him temporarily mute. He also struggled with health issues around the time of Harry and Meghan’s wedding in 2018, suffering two heart attacks mere days before the ceremony. These meant he was unable to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day.
Meghan and her father became estranged around the time of her wedding to Prince Harry, which is believed to be due to Thomas Markle’s cooperation with the media and paparazzi. Markle has never met Harry or his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet. But previous interviews have seen Meghan speak fondly of her father, referring to their relationship as “close-knit”. In one interview, she even recalled watching the credits of every episode of the show her father worked on while she was a child, just so could “give the screen a kiss” when she saw his name.
So, how does a relationship go from this level of fondness to totally defunct? For that explanation, we have to go back to the beginning.
A loving upbringing that fostered Meghan’s TV career
A young Meghan Markle with Thomas Markle
Meghan was born in Canoga Park Hospital, Los Angeles, in August 1981 to parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland, who separated when she was just two years old, then divorced four years later.
In one of his many newspaper interviews in 2018, Thomas Markle spoke to the Mail on Sunday about Meghan’s birth, saying, “When they handed her to me and I held her in my arms for the first time it was love at first sight. She was the most beautiful baby […] Meghan winked at me and I fell in love and have never stopped loving her from that day forward.”
Meanwhile, Meghan once spoke at length about her childhood and their relationship in an essay for Elle. “It was the late Seventies when my parents met, my dad was a lighting director for a soap opera and my mom was a temp at the studio. I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques,” she wrote.
Meghan Markle attends the DPA pre-Emmy Gift Lounge at the Peninsula Hotel on September 18, 2009 in Beverly Hills
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Meghan has also previously spoken about what it was like growing up biracial and in a divorced household, opening up in an interview with Vanity Fair in October 2017. “I never saw [my parents] fight,” she recalled. “We would still take vacations together. My dad would come on Sundays to drop me off, and we’d watch Jeopardy! eating dinner on TV trays, the three of us… We were still so close-knit.”
She also added that Thomas had gone above and beyond to customise a doll family set that looked like theirs. In her Elle piece, she wrote, “When I was about seven, I had been fawning over a boxed set of Barbie dolls. It was called The Heart Family and included a mom doll, a dad doll, and two children. This perfect nuclear family was only sold in sets of white dolls or black dolls. On Christmas morning, swathed in glitter-flecked wrapping paper, there I found my Heart Family: 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 continued.
Thomas also gave Meghan her first experience on TV sets through his role as lighting director and director of photography for Married…With Children (he retired in 2012). Meghan has shared how she spent “every day after school for ten years” on the set of Married…With Children after school, which she called “a really funny and perverse place for a little girl in a Catholic school uniform to grow up.”
Meghan Markle attends the Some Kind-a Gorgeous Style and Beauty Lounge at the Chateau Marmont on August 26, 2010 in Los Angeles
Getty
Speaking to Esquire in 2013, Meghan said that she “wasn’t allowed to watch [the show] at home.” “There were a lot of times my dad would say, ‘Meg, why don’t you go and help with the craft services room over there? This is just a little off-color for your 11-year-old eyes.’” However, she said, “I could watch the end credits so I could give the screen a kiss when I saw my dad’s name go by.”
In 2011, Meghan landed a role on the legal drama Suits as the fierce paralegal Rachel Zane. When speaking to Esquire, she revealed how growing up on a television set with her father had impacted her working life on set. “Transpo [the transportation crew]—that’s the world that I’m comfortable with,” she explained. “Especially the director of photography. I will always find my light. No question.
“And if I don’t, I’ll know, because my dad will be the first person to call me and say, ‘You need to have him bring another 2K in,’ and ‘Why aren’t you using this sort of lighting gel?’ The crew guys know that it’s where I grew up,” she continued.
In one interview with the Mail on Sunday, Thomas Markle said that after Meghan landed her role on Suits, she gave him a Christmas gift of $2,000 to spend on a future vacation.
Cracks start to show as Meghan’s relationship with Prince Harry goes public
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While on his unofficial (and highly contentious) press tour of UK media in 2018, Thomas Markle revealed to Good Morning Britain how Meghan had broken the news of her relationship to him. “Well the first phone calls were, ‘Daddy I have a new boyfriend’ […] and the next call was like ‘He’s British’ […] and eventually the third time around was like ‘He’s a Prince,’” he said. He then revealed how Meghan had requested that they call him H in order to keep the relationship under wraps, and said he spoke to Harry on the phone during the early days of their courtship.
In the same interview, Markle detailed how Harry had asked for his permission to propose to Meghan in 2017. “Meghan told me first, and a few times after that Harry got on the phone with Meghan, they called me together, and Harry asked me [for] her hand [in marriage] over the phone,” he shared. “I said, ‘You’re a gentleman, promise me you’ll never raise your hand against my daughter, and of course I give you my permission.’”
Meghan also revealed in her and Prince Harry’s engagement interview with the BBC that Thomas was still yet to meet her fiancé in person. “Everybody was really happy. And [Prince Harry’s] talked to my dad a few times, hasn’t been able to meet him just yet, but it’s all been, it’s all been worth every effort,” she said.
Thomas later told the Mail on Sunday that the engagement was a turning point. He claimed he had “seven paparazzi on my doorstep night and day for seven days”, with some going as far as to rent the house next door to his.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pose for a photograph in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace in west London on November 27, 2017, following the announcement of their engagement
AFP via Getty Images
Despite their divorce, Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland decided to issue a joint statement following the engagement, saying: “We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents. We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together.” At this moment in time, Thomas Markle was believed to be walking his daughter Meghan down the aisle.
However, things began to turn sour when images of Thomas Markle “preparing” for Harry and Meghan’s wedding were widely circulated in April 2018. He was photographed in a coffee shop while rather pointedly reading a book entitled “Images of Great Britain: A Pictorial Tour Through History” and while being measured by a tailor for a suit.
In May, The Daily Mail reported that these images were in fact staged, with the reported fee as high as $100,000 (Thomas Markle has since disputed this figure, claiming it was lower). Meghan’s half-sister Samantha eventually claimed she was responsible for the staged photos, tweeting: “The bad press over my father doing staged photos is my fault. The media was unfairly making him look bad so I suggested he do positive photos for his benefit and the benefit of the Royal Family. We had no idea he would be taken advantage of. It was not for money @KensingtonRoyal.”
Thomas Markle also admitted to taking the staged photos after a paparazzi agency “approached him”, saying that he said yes in the hopes that it “would help recast his image.” However, he claimed the pictures looked “stupid and hammy” and that he regretted taking them.
Thomas later revealed that Prince Harry had called him at the time to talk about the pictures. Thomas admitted that he lied to Harry about taking the pictures, but that Harry told him “[…] that I should never go to the press. That it would end in tears. He said, ‘They will eat you alive.’ He was right.”
Thomas Markle’s place in the royal wedding becomes unclear, his health deteriorates
Harry and Meghan on their wedding day (Ben Stansall/PA)
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Amid all the staged photograph drama, Harry and Meghan’s May 19 wedding was right around the corner, which made interest in the story even more rabid. Shortly after the Daily Mail exposé, Thomas Markle took part in another interview, this time with TMZ, explaining that he had suffered a heart attack. Speaking to the publication, he claimed he had experienced a heart attack that led him to be hospitalised on May 8, before ultimately checking himself out of hospital so he could attend the wedding. However, he then revealed that he had decided to miss the wedding for fear of embarrassing the Royal Family.
After this, Markle appeared to change his mind again, as he told TMZ that Meghan had reached out to him and sent him a text “telling him she loved him and was concerned about his health” after he missed a phone call from her. He then said, “I hate the idea of missing one of the greatest moments in history and walking my daughter down the aisle.”
Then, in another conversation with TMZ mere days later, he told the publication he would not be attending the wedding due to his ill health, saying he was experiencing pains “triggered by emotional upset”. He named his daughter Samantha Grant as one of the causes of upset, as well an open letter penned by his son, Thomas Markle Jr. to Prince Harry warning him against marrying Meghan. In the letter, Thomas Markle Jr. told Harry that Meghan “’is obviously not the right woman for you” and urged him to reconsider the wedding. He later wrote Meghan another letter apologising, before asking to be invited to the wedding.
Kensington Palace released a statement from Meghan regarding her father, which read, “Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding. I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health.”
The wedding day came and went without a hiccup. Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle, which she said was “the most gracious and kind thing to do. I shall be forever in his debt.” Meanwhile, Thomas Markle Sr. was still busy speaking to the media, even amongst his health issues. Speaking in an interview with Good Morning Britain, he told hosts that when he told Meghan he couldn’t go to the wedding, she burst into tears.
“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,” he said.
However, in June, 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.
Markle agreed to another interview with the Daily Mail in August, three months after the wedding. He made several bold claims in this interview, including that Prince Harry had called him after his heart attack and said, “If you had listened to me this would never have happened.” Thomas said that he responded, “Maybe it would be better for you guys if I was dead… then you could pretend to be sad.”
“Then I hung up,” he finished. He also added that Prince Harry was “absolutely right” to tell him off and that Meghan told him he was not allowed to make a father of the bride speech if he attended, which he said “hurt.” “I’m not mad at Harry. I’m not mad at Meghan. I love them. I wish them well. But as for the rest of it, f*** it. I’m done,” he told the Daily Mail.
Thomas Markle continued to give interviews months on from the wedding, including an interview with the Daily Mail in the wake of Meghan’s October 2018 pregnancy announcement, and a December interview where he revealed he’d actually had two heart attacks, not one, before the royal wedding.
In another interview with the Mail on Sunday that December, Thomas described himself as “frozen out,” saying: “Meghan and I never had any problems before this. If she would just speak to me, things could be different. I love Meghan very much. I want her and Harry to have a beautiful, healthy baby and a great life. But I want them to stop believing the lies.”
A personal letter from Meghan to Thomas reignites the fire
Harry and Meghan
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After a few months of relative calm, an article published by People in February 2019 breathed new life into the story. In the article, anonymous friends of Meghan’s reveal the existence of a letter sent from Meghan to Thomas Markle Sr. after her wedding.
A friend claimed, “After the wedding she wrote him a letter. She’s like, ‘Dad, I’m so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimising me through the media so we can repair our relationship.’ Because every time her team has to come to her and fact-check something [she has said], it’s an arrow to the heart.”
Thomas had already shared the letter with the Mail on Sunday, which published it days after the People article went live. Meghan went on to successfully sue the Mail on Sunday for this invasion of her privacy and breach of copyright.
The letter, which is five pages long, was sent in August shortly after the royal wedding and extracts were published in an article titled “Revealed: The letter showing true tragedy of Meghan’s rift with a father she says has ‘broken her heart into a million pieces’.”
In the letter, she refers to Thomas as “Daddy” and opens the letter, “It is with a heavy heart that I write this, not understanding why you have chosen to take this path, turning a blind eye to the pain you’re causing.”
She adds in the letter that his actions had “broken my heart into a million pieces” and made other claims, including that Thomas had not tried to reach out to her, was lying to journalists and also that he had rejected their help after his embarrassing paparazzi scandal and heart attacks.
The Mail on Sunday did not publish the letter in its entirety and only included extracts of the letter, as well as extracts from Thomas’ response letter in which he defended himself against her. “You can hate me if you want. I can’t force you,” one part of Thomas’ letter read. “I made a big mistake… I’m human and I’m sorry! How much longer must I say it??”
He also defended asking Meghan for a photo op, explaining he believed Meghan had a “tragic misunderstanding” of his intentions as he wanted to show the world “they could be friends again.” In the letter he wrote, “I wish we could get together and take a photo for the whole world to see. If you and Harry don’t like it? Fake it for one photo.”
Thomas Markle stokes the embers for a year before going underground
Thomas Markle continued to give sporadic interviews about Meghan and Harry throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020, amid the birth of their two children, their decision to leave the monarchy, and during Meghan’s court case against the Mail on Sunday. At one point he even threatened to sue Meghan himself, telling The Sun: “I wish it hadn’t come to this, but I will certainly testify against the things that have been said about me. The lies.”
Saying that it would be “emotional” and that “everything will come out”, he continued, “When me and Meghan end up in a courtroom together, it will be quite stunning for everybody.”
Around this time, his comments towards Harry and Meghan became increasingly irate. In the same Sun interview, he said, “I’d be happy to duel with Harry anytime. One round in the chamber. Cocked. Ten steps, turn and fire. That’d settle the score. The way he’s been acting, I think he’d crouch on the ground before he gets to ten steps.”
Thomas Markle appears on Good Morning Britain 18 September 2023
ITV
However, he also routinely changed his tune. “I don’t like the idea of sides, of being in a battle with my daughter,” he told the Sun. “I don’t like not being able to talk to her. But in a way I would be thrilled to meet her, wherever she shows up. Although that [a court] is not the ideal place. I love my daughter. I think I have made that clear to everybody.”
Thomas also shared his opinion on the couple’s break from the royal family, saying that it was the “dumbest thing they could have done.” He said, “That is exactly what they told me I shouldn’t be doing. They’ve gone commercial. They should be just called Harry and Meghan now.”
Then the pandemic hit, throwing all other news into the abyss. Thomas Markle’s relationship with Meghan was no longer headline news, nor was it mentioned again until Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Oprah interview in March 2021. In the interview, she said there was an “obsession” with finding her parents after her relationship with Prince Harry became public, and she criticised the British tabloids for hunting her father down and “descending” on his life. “I did everything I could to protect both of them in that media frenzy,” she said.
Meghan also discussed her father’s staged tabloid photos, saying: “If we’re going to use the word ‘betrayal,’ it’s because […] we called my dad and I asked him, and he said, ‘No. Absolutely not.’”
“I said, ‘You know, the institution has never intervened with anything for us. But they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we’re not going to be able to use this leverage to protect our own kids one day,’” she told Winfrey. “And I said, ‘So I just need you to tell me. And if you tell me the truth, we can help.’ And he wasn’t able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.”
Health scares and a plea for ‘compassion’ from Meghan
Meghan Markle in her With Love, Meghan Christmas Special
Netflix
In 2022, Thomas Markle suffered a stroke that left him temporarily mute, according to his son, Thomas Markle Jr., who has become his sole caregiver. He regained some speech after months of therapy, but has reportedly become increasingly frail in the years since. Thomas Markle Jr. and Sr. have both relocated to the Philippines, where they live full-time.
On December 3, 2025, it was revealed that Thomas Markle Sr. had been rushed to intensive care, where he underwent a three-hour-long surgery. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Thomas Markle Jr. said that his father had been “fighting for his life.”
“I took dad to a hospital close to our home and they did various scans and the doctors said his life was in imminent danger,” he told the publication. “They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the centre of the city. My dad has undergone emergency surgery. I would ask everyone around the world to keep him in their thoughts.”
Thomas’s daughter Samantha, 61, also spoke to the publication. She claimed that the strain of the last few years had taken its toll on her father, adding to his fragility. “He is a strong man, but he has been through so much. I am praying that he is strong enough to survive this,” she said. “My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this.”
Meanwhile, Meghan Markle is currently promoting the Christmas special of her With Love, Meghan Netflix series. Thomas Markle Jr. has made a plea for “compassion” from the Duchess, saying: “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.” Meghan has not currently commented on her father’s health situation.
