Worried Meghan ‘trying to heal four-year rift’ with father Thomas as he leaves hospital after stroke
Worried Meghan ‘trying to heal four-year rift’ with father Thomas as he leaves hospital five days after suffering stroke ahead of Sussexes travelling to UK for Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Thomas Markle, 77, left hospital after five days following a stroke and wished the Queen a happy jubilee Meghan is ‘trying to heal four-year rift’ with her estranged father, and reached out after he left hospital Former lighting director Mr Markle had been planning to fly to UK to celebrate the Jubilee weekend next week
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Meghan Markle is ‘trying to heal four-year rift’ with estranged father Thomas as he leaves hospital five days after suffering stroke, ahead of Sussexes travelling to UK for Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Duchess of Sussex, 40, reached out to Thomas Markle‘s camp after it emerged he left hospital following five days of treatment for a stroke.
However, it is understood that Meghan is concerned about involving her half-siblings Thomas Jr, 55, and Samantha, 57, as she ‘believes they have their own agendas’.
A source told The Mirror: ‘Despite their estrangement, Meghan is concerned. She wants to know if there is any way to contact her father privately, without other family knowing about it or having to get involved.’
The insider added: ‘Meghan can’t contact her half-siblings because she believes they have their own agendas.
‘If she can contact their dad, she wants it to be totally private. It won’t involve Netflix, it won’t involve any photographs and it must not involve any tip-offs to the paparazzi.’
Meghan Markle wants to make contact with her estranged father to heal the four-year rift
The Duchess of Sussex , 40, reached out to Thomas Markle’s camp after it emerged he left hospital following five days of treatment for a stroke
MailOnline has contacted Meghan’s team for comment.
Retired Hollywood lighting director Thomas, 77, promptly sent his best wishes to the Queen for a happy Jubilee after suffering a stroke.
He said: ‘I feel hugely grateful and know how lucky I am to be alive.
‘I want to thank everyone, especially the wonderful doctors and nurses who saved my life. They are angels.
‘I have been deeply moved by loving messages I’ve received from all over the world. People have been so kind. I can’t speak right now, but I am working hard and will thank people properly when I can.’
It comes as reports suggested Mr Markle suffered a serious fall in the days leading up to his stroke.
Thomas, who had been preparing to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in the UK, told his friend Tom Bower he had ‘fallen’ but ‘thankfully, some good people picked me up from the pavement’, reports the Sun.
Retired Hollywood lighting director Thomas promptly sent his best wishes to the Queen for a happy Jubilee after suffering a stroke
Mr Markle had been planning to fly to the UK this week to celebrate next weekend’s Platinum Jubilee, but the stroke on Monday night, which has left him with limited speech, scuppered the trip.
Writing on a whiteboard with a felt-tip pen, he said: ‘I wanted to come to pay my respects to the Queen. I wish her a happy Jubilee and many more years.’
The severe stroke was caused by a blood clot on the right side of Mr Markle’s brain.
He was rushed to a hospital near his home in Rosarito, Mexico, before being transferred by ambulance to the US border where an ambulance was waiting to ferry him to a hospital in San Diego, California.
He has been in a critical-care ward all week and has made what one doctor told him was ‘remarkable progress’.
While he is now able to speak a few words, he faces what he calls ‘an uphill battle’ to regain his power of speech.
‘I have lots of hard work to do and will do it,’ he wrote. ‘I want to get well. I’m so lucky to have had amazing care and love. Thank you everyone.’
Mr Markle was forced to miss his daughter’s wedding to Prince Harry in 2018 after he had two heart attacks just days before.
However, it is understood that Meghan is concerned about involving her half-siblings Thomas Jr, 55, and Samantha, 57, as she ‘believes they have their own agendas’
He blamed them on the stress he suffered after posing for paparazzi pictures to improve his image.
He has been estranged from his daughter ever since and has never met son-in-law Prince Harry or his grandchildren Archie, three, and 11-month-old Lilibet.
Mr Markle will be cared for by his 56-year-old son, Tom Jr, who drove 11 hours through the night to be with his stricken father. ‘I was visiting my son and his family in Oregon when I got the call,’ said Tom Jr.
‘I will be here for Dad and do whatever it takes to help him on his road to recovery. It’s been a terrible shock for everyone but Dad is a strong man and he is determined to get well.
Mr Markle has never met son-in-law Prince Harry or his grandchildren Archie, three, and 11-month-old Lilibet. Pictured, Harry, Meghan and Archie with the Queen, Prince Phillip and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland
‘He’s already started working with a speech therapist and is making great progress. We’ve received hundreds of messages of support for him from people all over the world.
‘We are so grateful for the outpouring of love for Dad.
‘I’m here for him for as long as it takes.’
On Thursday, Mr Markle’s daughter Samantha said that he may need a year of therapy to recover his speech after being struck down by a stroke this week.
His family had been worried about his high blood pressure for some time before he fell ill, resulting in him losing even the ability to tell paramedics what was wrong with him.
Mr Markle, 77, had to write down his symptoms on a piece of paper.
Samantha said Monday’s ordeal could have been ‘fatal’ but her father was on the mend in a California hospital.
She told GB News last week: ‘I don’t think he saw it coming but he’s doing better – he’s in good spirits. It’s going to take several… maybe six months, maybe a year, to get his speech back. He can work with a speech therapist and it’s good, the attack he had in the speech producing part of the brain wasn’t so big that he can’t recover.’
She added: ‘But you know when you’re almost 80 years old, there’s less plasticity and things are more difficult.
‘So he has the memory of the words and the associations, the stroke was on the right side of the brain, so the damage was on the left and he’s left handed.
‘But it also impaired his speech and his ability to swallow.’
Castle Goring, Lady Campbell’s West Sussex stately home which she bought for £700,000 in 2013, could have hosted Thomas Markle
The Duchess’ father will not be able to attend the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee after he was rushed to hospital in California earlier this week, suffering a suspected stroke
On Thursday, Daily Mail columnist Richard Eden said that Mr Markle was due to stay with Lady Colin Campbell when he visited the UK for the Platinum Jubilee.
Lady Colin, 72, who was criticised for her overbearing behaviour and caustic put-downs when she competed on I’m A Celebrity, had generously offered to put up Mr Markle, 77, at her West Sussex stately home, Castle Goring, which she bought for £700,000 in 2013.
‘She had made plans for Mr Markle,’ one of the royal biographer’s friends told Mr Eden. ‘She’d hired him a dinner jacket and was taking him to Royal Ascot. And she’d organised a black-tie dinner, so he could meet lots of interesting people.’
The former Georgie Ziadie — who has her title thanks to a year-long marriage to the Duke of Argyll’s younger son, Lord Colin Campbell in 1973 — established the connection to Mr Markle via his grandson, Tyler. Her two adopted sons, Michael and Dimitri, appeared with Tyler in an MTV reality show called The Royal World in 2018.
Tyler created a new strain of cannabis called Markle Sparkle ahead of Meghan’s 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. Speaking about Tyler, Lady Colin said: ‘We hit it off straight away. He’s a very nice boy.’ Lady Colin wrote a 2020 biography of Mr Markle’s daughter, Meghan and Harry: The Real Story. Hiring, rather than buying, clothes for Mr Markle was a wise precaution on Lady Colin’s part. The Palace commissioned a £7,000 Savile Row suit for him to wear to Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding, only for him to fall ill and stay at home in Rosarito, Mexico.
Roly-poly racing PR man Johnno Spence was later spotted parading around Royal Ascot in the suit.
After also snapping up Thomas’s extra garments, including a summer suit and three shirts, Spence told Mr Eden: ‘They were half price and there’s a bit of room for expansion.’
