Cebu City, Philippines – December 4, 2025 – Thomas Markle Sr., the 81-year-old estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex, is fighting for his life in intensive care after emergency surgery, his son has revealed in an emotional global appeal for prayers. The retired Hollywood lighting director was rushed from his high-rise apartment in Cebu on Tuesday after collapsing at home. Following a three-hour operation on Thursday local time, he remains under close observation as doctors prepare to perform a second procedure to remove a life-threatening blood clot.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail from the hospital, Thomas Markle Jr., 59, described the terrifying moments that unfolded this week. “I took Dad to a hospital close to our home, and they did various scans. The doctors said his life was in imminent danger,” he said. “They raced us by ambulance, with the sirens going, to a much bigger hospital in the centre of the city. My dad has undergone emergency surgery.” Visibly shaken, he added: “I would ask everyone around the world to keep him in their thoughts.”
This latest health crisis is only the most recent chapter in a string of medical battles that have plagued Thomas Sr. in recent years. In the weeks leading up to Meghan’s 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, he suffered two major heart attacks that required stents and forced him to miss the ceremony. In May 2022, a massive stroke left him unable to speak for months and reliant on intensive therapy to regain basic communication. Just months after relocating to Cebu in early 2025, he survived a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked the island and briefly trapped him on the 19th floor of his building.
His daughter Samantha Markle, 60, told the Daily Mail she believes the cumulative toll of these events, combined with years of emotional strain, has taken a devastating physical toll. “He is a strong man, but he has been through so much,” she said. “I am praying that he is strong enough to survive this. My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke, and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this.”
Thomas Sr. has lived largely out of the public eye since moving to the Philippines in January 2025, seeking what he described as a quieter, kinder existence far from the California media glare that shadowed his final years in the United States and Mexico. In interviews at the time of the move, he spoke warmly of Southeast Asia, saying: “I travelled in that part of the world when I was a younger man. The people are so kind and welcoming, and they are respectful to older people. It is a place of culture and beauty. At 80 it is time to go somewhere where the people are lovely and I can enjoy a quieter, friendlier existence. In South East Asia the medical care is good, you can live reasonably cheaply, the people are kind and respect older people, and the food is healthy. Mostly I just want peace.”
The former Emmy-winning lighting director, who spent decades illuminating sets for shows such as General Hospital and Married… with Children, now lives in a modest high-rise apartment overlooking Cebu’s bustling streets. He is cared for full-time by Thomas Jr., who relocated with him. Despite the tropical island’s reputation for affordable living and warm hospitality, the extreme heat and humidity have proven punishing for an elderly man with a history of serious cardiovascular issues.
Thomas Sr.’s relationship with Meghan collapsed in 2018 after a paparazzi photo scandal days before the royal wedding. Since then, the two have had no contact. He has never met his grandchildren, six-year-old Prince Archie and four-year-old Princess Lilibet, and has repeatedly expressed sadness over the estrangement in rare interviews. The timing of this week’s health emergency is particularly poignant: it coincides with the premiere of Meghan’s Netflix holiday special, a celebration of family and togetherness that stands in stark contrast to the reality facing her father thousands of miles away.
As Thomas Sr. battles once again in an intensive care unit halfway around the world, his children have made no secret of their hope that the gravity of the situation might prompt some form of reconciliation. Thomas Jr. told reporters: “My only wish is that Meghan shows my father some compassion. He is literally fighting for his life.”
For now, the family waits. In a Cebu hospital ward, monitors track the heartbeat of a man whose life has been defined by bright lights, broken bonds, and an unyielding will to keep going.
