‘Exceedingly difficult for the duchess to contact her father privately’: Meghan in touch with hospitalized father, spokesperson says

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, participates in The Archewell Foundation Parents' Summit "Mental Wellness in the Digital Age" as part of Project Healthy Minds' World Mental Health Day Festival on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

Prince Harry’s wife Meghan is in contact with her estranged father Thomas Markle, who is in a Philippines hospital after reportedly having his leg amputated, the Duchess of Sussex’s spokesperson said Wednesday.

“It has been exceedingly difficult for the duchess to contact her father privately, despite her efforts over the past several days,” the spokesperson said.

Thomas Markle told a reporter from The Daily Mail tabloid in the Philippines over the weekend that he wanted his daughter to see him “one more time before I die” and that he wished to see Harry and his grandchildren “before it’s too late”.

“With the support of reliable and trusted contacts, her correspondence is now safely in his hands,” Meghan’s spokesperson said.

However, the spokesperson said that Thomas Markle “continues” to have a reporter by his hospital bedside “broadcasting every interaction”, which made it difficult for Meghan’s letter to initially reach Markle.

It came after a back-and-forth as Meghan’s team said she was in touch with her father last week, but the Daily Mail reported Markle claiming that he had not received any messages.

The Duchess of Sussex cut ties with her father after he staged a photo shoot with paparazzi in 2018, shortly before her marriage to King Charles’s youngest son.

Meghan and Harry stepped back from royal duties and moved to California in 2020 over rifts with the royal family and concerns about Meghan’s treatment by the British press, which Harry long blames for the death of his mother Diana.

In 2021, Meghan won a U.K. High Court privacy and copyright claim against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers over articles that reproduced parts of a “private” letter she wrote to her father, asking him to stop talking to the press.