Meghan Markle is reportedly calling around hospitals in the Philippines trying to contact her estranged father after he had emergency life-saving surgery.

British media reports the Duchess of Sussex has made desperate attempts to contact Thomas Markle, who she has reportedly not spoken to since 2018, after he was rushed into surgery last week.

“I can confirm she has reached out to her father,” a spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex said.

No further details have been released, including whether or not Meghan’s attempt was successful.

The Sun reports the duchess’s attempts to speak to her 81-year-old father were hampered by the fact that she does not have his phone number, leaving her no choice but to call around hospitals to try to find him.

Markle’s son, Thomas jr, said his father’s “foot turned blue then black” and he was rushed to a nearby hospital before learning that “the leg had to be amputated”. He reportedly then had a three-hour operation.

Markle sr earlier told The Sun he didn’t want to die estranged from his daughter and would like to meet her children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, and her husband, Prince Harry.

Thomas Markle with his daughter Meghan Markle (in an undated photo). Photo: Instagram

Markle did not attend Meghan and Harry’s 2018 wedding amid a backlash over an alleged $180,000 payment he received for staging photographs with UK tabloid The Mail on Sunday.

Harry’s father, now the King, stepped in to walk Meghan down the aisle at St George’s Chapel.

Markle sr, a former Hollywood lighting director who declared bankruptcy in 2016, was living in Mexico at the time of the couple’s wedding. He has since moved to the Philippines.

Meghan has reportedly not spoken to him since then. Her father later claimed she had “shunned” him.

He criticised the duchess but still said he wanted to reunite with her, and publicly pleaded to be able to see Archie and Lili, saying in 2023: “She is not the person I knew as my daughter”.

The duchess won a High Court privacy and copyright claim against Associated Newspapers Limited over articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” handwritten letter she wrote to her father in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.

He has since told the Mail on Sunday he wants a reconciliation.

“I’ve always said I am open to reconciling with my daughter. I have never stopped loving her,” he said.

“I don’t want to die estranged from Meghan. I want to meet my grandkids. It might be nice to meet her husband too.”

The newspaper reportedly he was yet to receive any messages from Meghan.

Markle jr said before the news that the duchess had “reached out” that he hoped Meghan would show “compassion”.

“My only wish is that Meghan shows my father some compassion. He is literally fighting for his life,” he told the Mail.

Before she married into the royal family, Meghan paid gushing tributes to her father on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig.

She called herself a “daddy’s girl” and wrote how he invested “blood, sweat and tears” so she could pursue her dreams.

The duchess’s new With Love, Meghan Christmas special – which has been roundly lambasted by critics – premiered on Netflix the same day as news broke of her father’s admittance to intensive care.

Harry’s security arrangements reviewed

Meanwhile, Prince Harry’s security arrangements while in the UK are reportedly being reviewed after he submitted a formal request for a risk assessment.

The Duke of Sussex lost an appeal in May challenging the dismissal of his High Court claim against the Home Office over the decision that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the UK.

Harry has said the Court of Appeal decision meant it is now “impossible” for him to bring Meghan and their children back to the country safely.

But the Home Office has now ordered a threat assessment for the first time since 2020, the Sun reported. It added that the process was already underway and a decision is expected in January.

A UK government spokesperson said its “protective security system was rigorous and proportionate”.

“It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”

During Harry’s last visit to the UK in September, a “known stalker” came “within feet” of him on two occasions, according to a report in The Telegraph.

-with AAP