Thomas Wayne Markle is an American retired television lighting director and director of photography.

He is also the father of an American member of the British royal family and a former actress, Meghan Markle.

Thomas Markle hospitalized: What happened to Meghan Markle’s father?

According to TMZ reports on Tuesday, May 24, Thomas was transported from Tijuana, Mexico, to a nearby hospital in Chula Vista, California, after fearing for his health. He reportedly could not speak and was told to write his symptoms down instead.

The 77 years old, was photographed receiving attention from paramedics in an ambulance with an oxygen mask strapped to his face. He has been reportedly suffering from a major stroke that has led him to lose his speech.

The host Dan Wootton wrote in the Daily Mail that, he was supposed to arrive in the U.K. to comment on Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee for right-wing media outlet GB News.

Samantha Markle half-sister of Meghan told Wootton: “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 for the past few years. That is unforgivable.”

The circumstances of the stroke preventing his trip to Britain mirror the two heart attacks he suffered just before Meghan married Prince Harry, which meant he could not be present for that occasion.

He said, he had hoped to meet his grandchildren Archie and Lilibet for the first time during his Platinum Jubilee trip, adding to GB News: “I would like to meet with Prince Charles and thank him for walking my daughter down the aisle, and also to meet and talk with him because I think we have a lot in common now. We’ve pretty much both been ghosted by our children.”