NEED TO KNOW
\nMeghan Markle\u2019s father, Thomas Markle, has reportedly undergone surgery to remove his left leg below the knee.The Daily Mail quoted his son, Thomas Jr., as saying the procedure was necessary and framed by doctors as a \u201clife or death\u201d decisionThe Duchess of Sussex has been estranged from her father since her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry<\/p>\n
Meghan Markle<\/a>‘s father, Thomas Markle, has undergone surgery to amputate his left leg and is now in intensive care, according to his son.\n<\/p>\n Thomas, 81, had the limb removed below the knee on Wednesday, Dec. 3, after a blood clot in his thigh reportedly cut off circulation. According to the Daily Mail<\/a>, the three-hour procedure took place in the Philippines, where the retired lighting director relocated with his son earlier this year.\n<\/p>\n His son, Thomas Markle Jr., told the outlet, “My dad is being very brave. His foot turned blue then black. It happened very quickly. I took him to a local hospital and they did some scans and an ultrasound and said the leg had to be amputated.”\n<\/p>\n “There was no option,” he added. “I was told the leg had to be removed and it was a case of life or death.”\n<\/p>\n A representative for the Duchess of Sussex had no comment. PEOPLE has also reached out to Thomas Markle Jr. for comment.\n<\/p>\n Thomas Markle at LAX in March 2023.<\/p>\n LionsShareNews \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n Thomas is said by his son to be recovering in an intensive care ward at the hospital. “One of his doctors said the next two or three days are critical,” Thomas Jr. told the Daily Mail. “His left leg has been removed below the knee. They were worried about infection setting in \u2014 sepsis or gangrene.”\n<\/p>\n Thomas has faced ongoing health issues in recent years and reportedly suffered a stroke in 2022.\n<\/p>\n Meghan, 44, has been estranged from her father since her 2018 royal wedding to Prince Harry<\/a>, following his admission that he staged paparazzi photos with a British tabloid and, according to Meghan, lied to her about speaking to the press<\/a>. (He later expressed regret over the incident<\/a>, saying in 2021, \u201cI wish I hadn\u2019t done the whole thing.\u201d) Thomas ultimately pulled out of attending the wedding, and the then\u2013Prince Charles walked Meghan down the aisle at St. George\u2019s Chapel.\n<\/p>\n Thomas Markle on ‘Good Morning Britain’ in March 2021.<\/p>\n ITV\/Shutterstock\u00a0<\/p>\n In her 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey<\/a>, Meghan spoke candidly about the breakdown of her relationship with her father, saying, \u201cI\u2019ve lost my father.\u201d She recalled confronting him about the staged paparazzi photos, explaining, \u201cWe called my dad and I asked him\u2026 He said, \u2018No, absolutely not.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Meghan said she urged him to be honest, so she could help: \u201cI said, \u2018If you tell me the truth, we can help,\u2019 and he wasn\u2019t able to do that. And that, for me, has really resonated, especially now as a mother.\u201d She added that she \u201ccan\u2019t imagine\u201d intentionally causing pain to her own children, making the rift difficult to reconcile.\n<\/p>\n In their 2022 Harry & Meghan docuseries<\/a>, Harry said he \u201cshouldered\u201d some of the blame for the fallout.<\/a> \u201cShe had a father before this and now she doesn\u2019t have a father,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cIf Meg wasn\u2019t with me, then her dad would still be her dad.\u201d<\/p>\n Meghan Markle in ‘With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration’.<\/p>\n Jake Rosenberg\/Netflix<\/p>\n Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage?\u00a0Sign up for our free Royals newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!\u00a0\n<\/p>\n News of Thomas\u2019s health comes as the latest installment of Meghan\u2019s Netflix lifestyle series, With Love, Meghan: Holiday Celebration<\/a>, premiered on Dec. 3. The special offers a glimpse into how Meghan and Harry are creating their own traditions in Montecito, Calif. Throughout, Meghan highlights the family rituals she\u2019s building with their children, Prince Archie<\/a>, 6 and\u00a0Princess Lilibet<\/a>, 4 \u2014 crafting advent calendars and cooking the Christmas Eve gumbo she learned from her mother, Doria Ragland<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Meghan Markle\u2019s father, Thomas Markle, has reportedly undergone surgery to remove his left leg below…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-327045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}