Thomas Markle, Meghan Markle’s Father, Hospitalized

Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle, has been hospitalized after he may have reported a stroke, TMZ reports. The outlet reported Tuesday afternoon that the 77-year-old was transferred Monday night via ambulance from Tijuana, Mexico across the border to a hospital in Chula Vista, California. His condition remains unknown at this time.

Paramedics were spotted loading Thomas into the ambulance at around 9:30 p.m. local time. Per the outlet, Thomas was unable to speak and “had to write down his symptoms on a piece of paper.” It was believed he suffered a stroke, and paramedics provided Thomas with oxygen as he was loaded onto the ambulance and transported to the hospital for further treatment.

Thomas’ hospitalization was later confirmed by the Daily Mail‘s Dan Wootton, who reported that the 77-year-old “underwent further tests to establish the severity of the stroke.” In a statement to Wootton, Thomas’ daughter and Markle’s estranged half-sister Samantha Markle confirmed, “my father is recovering in hospital. We ask for privacy for the family, for his health and wellbeing. He just needs peace and rest. Godspeed. We are praying. He just needs some rest. It’s a travesty how much he’s been tortured and how much he’s had to go through thanks to my sister’s disregard the past few years. That is unforgivable.”

Thomas’ hospitalization came just days before he was set to travel to London for Queen Elizabeth’s ongoing Platinum Jubilee celebrations. The annual Trooping the Colour parade, part of the celebrations marking Her Majesty’s 70th year on the throne, is set to begin on Thursday, June 2. Thomas was set to join Wootton next week “in London to celebrate the Queen’s 70th year on the throne for a TV special on my GB News show, fulfilling his long-held wish to visit Windsor Castle.” Wootton reported that due to his hospitalization, Thomas will no longer be able to make the trip.

This will mark the second such royal event Thomas has missed. He notably missed his daughter’s wedding to Prince Harry in May 2018 after he suffered two heart attacks just prior to the wedding. Amid his hospitalization, it was revealed that Thomas was paid for staging paparazzi photos before the wedding. Since that scandal broke, and amid a series of interviews Thomas has given about the royal family and his daughter, Markle has remained estranged from her father. Addressing the scandal in her March 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duchess of Sussex said she was more upset that he lied when she and Harry confronted him themselves, telling Winfrey, “We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said, ‘No, absolutely not.’”