The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Family 11: 7 May - 31 Dec 2025

[Hallo girl]

You mean me? I’m just posting what anyone with google could look up. The Markles arent exactly silent. You can literally go to their social media and see for yourself.

No I was not referring to you, and I do not follow any of these people on social media. Anyway I have more important things to be getting on with, I have guests arriving for a pre Xmas party, Wine chilling, food platters at the ready, Night all

 

[Toledo]

You mean me? I’m just posting what anyone with google could look up. The Markles aren't exactly silent. You can literally go to their social media and see for yourself.

I read the comment and I don't think it meant you. I also see your point of view that Meghan wanted space apart from her father and his side of the family.

But two things can be truth.

She also placed her maternal side of the family and her in-laws an ocean apart to a point Harry's life also became entangled with her modus operandi on family and friends. When I see her social media you would get the impression all these celebrities she hangs on with are her true relatives. And yet, it speaks volumes how she distanced from her savior and financial rescuer, Tyler Perry, who helped with the Canada to USA move out of his own pocket. And he's the godfather of their daughter, she made him part of the family and her kid's life.

Re Thomas Markle, he is problematic but I don't recall reading on physical abuse or a life of crimes as if he was a member of the Mob. He is still her father asking for forgiveness at a moment he knows he's running out of time.

It's easy to say he had it coming but much easier to say to a parent I'm here for you on your final moments and let the past stay in the past. She loves the word empowerment, how about be empowered to accept forgiveness from a parent ashamed on what he did years ago?

 

[ACO]

Well according to the UK media they asked her spokesperson if Meghan contacted her father and they confirmed “she had reached out” — whatever that means.

So she tried. All one can do.

 

[Toledo]

A tragic turn of events for Meghan's father:

Meghan Markle’s estranged father Thomas Markle has leg amputated in 'life or death' surgery

“One of his doctors said the next two or three days are critical,” Thomas Jr. reiterated, adding that doctors were concerned about complications like sepsis or infection...He was also hospitalized in 2022 after suffering a stroke while living in Tijuana. At the time, he told the outlet, “I feel hugely grateful and know how lucky I am to be alive...”​

Meghan Markle’s estranged father Thomas has leg amputated after foot turned black: 'Case of life or death'

"Thomas Markle, 81, underwent life-saving three-hour surgery at a Cebu hospital when his leg turned blue, then black as a blood clot cut off circulation to his foot..."​

​

​

Meghan Markle Reaches Out to Her Dad Thomas Markle After His Emergency Leg Amputation, Spokesperson Confirms

“I can confirm she has reached out to her father," a spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex tells PEOPLE (magazine) ​

...While Meghan’s spokesperson did not provide further details, a source notes that the outreach from Meghan is very recent, following the reports of her father's medical emergency.​

 

[HRHHermione]

I truly think it’s a huge mistake for Meghan’s media team to brief the media that she has reached out. She really would have been judged either way, but this allows for the Markle family to angrily respond with details about what she has and hasn’t done. People who empathize with Thomas Markle will believe it’s too little/too late and people who empathize with Meghan may wonder why she bothered if he was really such a terrible father.

Her decisions in regard to this are her own, I’m speaking solely about the media strategy aspect.

 

[TLLK]

I truly think it’s a huge mistake for Meghan’s media team to brief the media that she has reached out. She really would have been judged either way, but this allows for the Markle family to angrily respond with details about what she has and hasn’t done. People who empathize with Thomas Markle will believe it’s too little/too late and people who empathize with Meghan may wonder why she bothered if he was really such a terrible father.

Her decisions in regard to this are her own, I’m speaking solely about the media strategy aspect.

Excellent points HRHHermione.

 

[Magnolia471]

Let me guess, she will send him another handwritten letter and if her father is going to show it to the press she is suing them...But when Harry runs to the press after a 5 minutes meeting with his father it was just him "telling his site of the story".
Thomas is no different from Meghan e Harry...they all benefit from the proximity to the Royal Family. If he is such a bad person for speaking to the press how are Harry and Meghan any better with their documentaries and books?

 

[ACO]

I truly think it’s a huge mistake for Meghan’s media team to brief the media that she has reached out. She really would have been judged either way, but this allows for the Markle family to angrily respond with details about what she has and hasn’t done. People who empathize with Thomas Markle will believe it’s too little/too late and people who empathize with Meghan may wonder why she bothered if he was really such a terrible father.

Her decisions in regard to this are her own, I’m speaking solely about the media strategy aspect.

I mean her team has clearly been bombarded with questions. All she said was “she has reached out.” No more no less. Had she not responded they would still attack her.

 

[Curryong]

I mean her team has clearly been bombarded with questions. All she said was “she has reached out.” No more no less. Had she not responded they would still attack her.

Exactly! Neither half-siblings had seen Meghan for quite a few years before she even began dating Harry; Samantha since 2008, Thomas jnr since 2011 at their grandmother’s funeral, for instance.
And Meghan is always damned by various sections of the public whatever she does.

 

[Queen Claude]

In my book it is much better that Meghan's spokesperson shares with People that Meghan has reached out to her father than to have the story get out via Thomas Jr., or worse Samantha, and you best believe it would have. I am willing to bet that as we speak, they are dividing their time between trying to find out the details about Meghan's outreach and shopping the story and their spin on it. I can see it now, "Dan Wootton Exclusive...," [/shudders].

 

[Ghost]

Dan Wootton on X is saying that

“Thomas Markle’s family tell me there has been no contact between Meghan and her father following his leg amputation.
“He’s heard nothing and her PR are full of […],” a source close to Thomas tells me.”

I tend to pay attention to what he says knowing that he has a working relationship with Markle Sr.

 

[GondorHasNoPants]

I will give Meghan the benefit of the doubt here, and assume that she's in the process of reaching out to her father, but perhaps hasn't found a way to make contact yet. I hope she hasn't been so foolish as to claim she has definitely done something when she definitely hasn't, and other people have receipts.

 

[Lori138]

I also read that Meghan has denied reaching out to her father, even though her spokespeople said she had.

 

[hereditarytitles]

I find it appalling how the tragic situation surrounding Meghan's father is being exploited by the media. One headline after another, one denial from Markle's family and a spokesperson for Meghan follows another. These people haven't learned anything. I sometimes suspect the Markles are being paid by the press for their statements.

It would be decent and sensitive if both sides sought contact without the how, when, and by whomever the press is being informed. Why can't they manage that? It's sad and pathetic.

 

[TLLK]

Harry was recently in Los Angeles on Friday at an event with British and American entrepreneurs. He compared the BRF to the drama "Downton Abbey." Reportedly, he made no mention of his father-in-law's condition.

https://archive.ph/uwGcv

Joking about his own family, Harry said: “People sometimes ask if growing up with the royal family was a bit like Julian's Downton Abbey - yeah. But only one of those worlds is filled with drama, intrigue, elaborate dinners, marriages to Americans and the other is a TV show.”

 

[Lord-of-the-Manor]

Can't wait for his titles to go. It won't happen with his father, but when William is king, he'll no longer be a prince. He can mock the royal family all he wants after that.

 

[irish_royalist]

His only modus operandi now is to make people laugh at him. He’s like the court jester. There’s nothing else left. Very very sad.

 

[Curryong]

Harry agrees with what his own father once jokingly said, then. That remark was widely reported.

Prince Charles On Royal Family: "I Think We're A Soap Opera"...

Prince Charles On Royal Family: "I Think We're A Soap Opera"...

www.huffpost.com

 

[Curryong]

Prince Harry at a lunch for the business community in Santa Monica, providing the context in which his remark about the BRF was jokily made.

Prince Harry roasts royal life at Santa Monica Christmas lunch

Prince Harry lit up the British American Business Council's annual Christmas lunch on Friday in Santa Monica with his trademark wit, serving up laughs at royal life and American culture.Speaking to over 200 business...

www.geo.tv

 

[Ghost]

Now DM had someone see Thomas Markle in hospital. He and the hospital staff deny having been contacted by Meghan or her staff in any form.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15359793/Thomas-Markle-plea-Meghan-hospital-Duchess-leg-amputation.html

 

[Curryong]

Unusual surely, that a man would choose to tell a DM journalist about an imminent amputation before his daughter in Florida (who hasnt caught a plane to see him over the past three days, though she criticises her half-sister Meghan for not doing so) nor the son he lives with in the Philippines. Still, perhaps that’s the usual way he communicates with relatives.

 

[hereditarytitles]

Prince Harry at a lunch for the business community in Santa Monica, providing the context in which his remark about the BRF was jokily made.

Prince Harry roasts royal life at Santa Monica Christmas lunch

Prince Harry lit up the British American Business Council's annual Christmas lunch on Friday in Santa Monica with his trademark wit, serving up laughs at royal life and American culture.Speaking to over 200 business...

www.geo.tv

To be fair: The "Express" has clearly manipulated the text somewhat, omitting or taking things out of context. The headline "snubs Thomas Markle" is also misleading. At least, I didn't find anything of the sort in the article. His speech does indeed give a different impression (the jokes) to me than the "Express" article.

 

[tommy100]

This is why they shouldn’t have tried to chase the good PR of saying Meghan had “reached out”. It left them wide open to Thomas denying it and make it look like nothing more than a PR move.
“Never complain, never explain” worked so well for a long time for a reason!

 

[HRHHermione]

This is why they shouldn’t have tried to chase the good PR of saying Meghan had “reached out”. It left them wide open to Thomas denying it and make it look like nothing more than a PR move.
“Never complain, never explain” worked so well for a long time for a reason!

This is exactly what I thought would happen when I questioned the media strategy on it yesterday. I really, truly believe that Meghan as an individual rather than as a celebrity has the right to handle this in whatever feels best to her as it’s quite a traumatic situation from many angles.

But every person who works for her should be very firmly committing to “No Comment” on the matter.

 

[Curryong]

‘Never Complain Never Explain’ hasnt been adhered to by the royals in recent years because it doesn’t sit well with the modern media world.

And Meghan saying nothing would leave her open once again to accusations by the British media that she is being ‘cold’, ‘unfeeling’, ‘callous’, ‘cruel’, (choose your adjective) to her ‘poor helpless old father’.

That had already started in practically every outlet when the DM journalist Thomas apparently has on speed dial, broke the story about the hospital surgery.

 

[Tatiana Maria]

To be fair to the Duchess of Sussex's PR team, they briefed that she had attempted to contact her father, according to the BBC version.

Meghan reaches out to estranged father Thomas after amputation reports, spokesman says

Thomas Markle is reported to be seriously ill in hospital in the Philippines.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Queen Claude]

A spokesperson stating that Meghan reached out to her father is not a bad move from a media management / PR standpoint in and of itself IMO. Now if it was not a true statement that Meghan reached out to her father, the issue is not that the spokesperson's commenting to People was bad media management, but that Team Meghan is dishonest, incompetent or both.

 

[Curryong]

I wondered how long it would be before the question of money reared its ugly head.

New heartache for Meghan Markle's dad after 'life-saving' leg amputation

The development follows news the Duchess of Sussex, 44, who had been estranged from her dad, had “reached out” to him after the emergency surgery that saw his left leg amputated

www.mirror.co.uk

The unemployed Thomas Markle jnr accompanied his father to reside in the Philippines, a country that provides universal healthcare to most of its citizens but not to expats.

Yet apparently none of the Markles, including Thomas snr who has had serious health problems in his recent past, thought to take out a healthcare plan in the Philippines to cover most of what has just happened.

Now Thomas jnr is talking about ‘revenue raising’ and ‘GoFundMe’ to pay his father’s huge medical bills.

The subtext of course is/will be ‘why won’t my cruel heartless half sister pay all the bills? She has SO much money.’

I have another idea. Why don’t the DM journalists, the Dan Wootton's, and all the other tabloids pay Thomas’s bills? After all, they have made absolute fortunes in clickbait interviews etc with Meghan’s father and half siblings over the last seven years to do precisely that.

The Telegraph explanation. Unseen e-Mail from Meghan. Apparently her email went to an old no longer used email address of Thomas’s but seemed to be delivered, OK.

Access Restricted

 

[Somebody]

You'd think that using someone's phone number would be a faster way to contact someone in hospital than sending an email. So, hopefully she will do that now it is public knowledge that his old phone number is still working (as he wanted her to be able to contact him).

 

[ACO]

You'd think that using someone's phone number would be a faster way to contact someone in hospital than sending an email. So, hopefully she will do that now it is public knowledge that his old phone number is still working (as he wanted her to be able to contact him).

Absolutely not in this case. I would email too considering his close relationship with the tabloids. In fact they are literally in his hospital room. I would never call him just for him to put the phone on speaker.

So she wrote him, sent it and it didn’t n bounce back, so it was assumed to be received. Well I’m not a betting girl but I can pretty much expect she will not be reaching out anymore. And those pleas from him? Laughable.