(NewsNation) — Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, is in intensive care after undergoing emergency surgery in the Philippines.
Markle was rushed to the hospital Tuesday after he became extremely sick at home, the Daily Mail reported.
He underwent three hours of surgery and is in the ICU. He is expected to have another operation to remove a blood clot, his son Thomas Markle Jr., told the Daily Mail.
“I took dad to a hospital close to our home and they did various scans and the doctors said his life was in imminent danger,” he said.
Meghan Markle arrives at the Paley Honors Fall Gala on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP) 
Evening Standard headlines with news of Meghan Markle’s father not attending the upcoming royal wedding between the American actor and prince Harry, at Bank underground station in the City of London, the capital’s financial district aka the Square Mile, on 15th May 2018, in London, UK. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images Images)
“They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the center of the city,” he added. “My dad has undergone emergency surgery. I would ask everyone around the world to keep him in their thoughts.”
His eldest daughter, Samantha Markle, told the Daily Mail. “My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this.”
Meghan estranged from her father
The 81-year-old Markle has been estranged from the Duchess of Sussex since she married Prince Harry.
Markle did not attend the nuptials after reports emerged that he was working with the paparazzi to fake photos of himself.
“We were always so close,” Markle told the Daily Mail in 2018. “Being shut out of her life is the biggest tragedy of my life.”
“I don’t understand what I did so wrong that she never talked to me again,” he added. “I have been upset at my daughter, I have been angry at her at times – but I have never stopped loving her.”
In December 2021, the Court of Appeal in London upheld a High Court ruling that Associated Newspapers, the publisher of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, broke the law when it breached Meghan’s privacy by reproducing the handwritten letter she wrote to her father after she married Prince Harry, according to The Associated Press.