In Thomas Markle’s hospital-bed interview with the Mail on Sunday, one detail jumped out: he told a journalist that he was having his lower leg amputated before telling either his daughter Samantha or his son, Thomas Markle Jr.
The Mail’s Caroline Graham writes that she got a text message from Meghan’s estranged dad reading, “Going to lose the leg today.”
Graham said that when she contacted Tom Jr. (“his father’s primary carer who lives with him in the Philippines”) and his other daughter, Samantha, with the news, “Both were flabbergasted. He had chosen to break the news of the amputation to me before his own family.”
Here at the Daily Beast, The Royalist has always believed that this story was complex, and that Thomas and his other children are compromised individuals who have relentlessly sought to monetize their connection to Meghan.
The fact that Thomas Markle was calling journalists before he called his own kids—along with a rant on YouTube by Thomas Jr. in which he encouraged people to throw excrement at Meghan—makes the case pretty eloquently, I think.
That doesn’t mean that Meghan hasn’t opened herself up to allegations of gross hypocrisy, preaching compassion while refusing to reconcile with her father.
Late on Friday, she finally said she had tried to “reach out” to Thomas. Now, predictably, her father is saying he hasn’t heard from her, and nor has anyone at the hospital, and he wants to see her “one more time before I die.”
Astute observers of this quarrelsome family may be getting flashbacks to Thomas Markle saying in a 2020 documentary that he had a phone call with Prince Harry in which he told the royal, “It’s a shame I didn’t die because you both could pretend that you’re sad,” and then hung up.
He also said in the same interview, “The last time they might see me is being lowered into the ground.”
Thomas has shown before that he isn’t above using his health situation to try to inflame public opinion against Meghan.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Meghan has handled the estrangement from her father appallingly, if only from the perspective of reputation management.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was said to be so concerned about the impact on the royals of the situation that she urged Meghan to get on a plane and reconcile with him publicly. Meghan ignored the advice, the situation deteriorated further, and, five years later, here we are.
Meghan’s disjointed communications have made a bad situation worse. On Sunday, Meghan’s team sent out a mailshot to publicize her ideal family brand, As Ever, urging customers to make Sundays a “cosy” day.
Astonishingly, one of her team appears to have briefed the London Times that they thought the leg amputation might have been a hoax. The Times reported on Friday that a “spokesperson” had told them Meghan “had instructed aides to find out if her father is unwell.”
Meghan’s office subsequently denied any such order had been given.
Thomas’s friends have reacted with outrage. Lady Colin Campbell, a friend of Markle Sr., told The Royalist it was “disgraceful” for Meghan’s team to accuse Thomas of inventing health problems to “victimize” Meghan, adding, “When he hops out of the hospital, will she say his foot is strapped up behind him?”
On the record statements in the Mail on Sunday from named surgeons saying that they had to “remove the foot” would appear to put to bed any suggestions of an elaborate hoax.
Markle said he was “confused” by widespread reports that his daughter had “reached out” to him, while a hospital source told the Mail: “Mr Markle is a VIP patient. Of course we all know who he is. If Meghan or anyone connected with her had called here we would have known. It is a big hospital by Filipino standards, but we all know each other, and we all talk.
“We were all confused when we saw the story that the duchess had reached out to her dad. As far as we are aware it didn’t happen. We would love to see the duchess here in the Philippines!”
The Sussexes said Meghan sent her father an email at 11:53 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, but the Mail said that it was to an address that hasn’t been active for at least five years.
A source in Meghan’s camp said they have asked the Mail to provide a current, active email address for Thomas or any means of contacting him.
They confirmed Meghan had not contacted the hospital where Markle is a patient, but said that was because they do not know which hospital he is in. They said they had asked the Mail to request those details from Markle but had received no response.
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