Meghan Markle's father Thomas is in hospital after suffering a major stroke days before he was due to fly to London for the first time for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.
Kiwi journalist Dan Wootton has reported Thomas, 77, is currently receiving urgent medical treatment in the United States and has lost his speech.
"I am devastated to report this news, just seven days before Thomas would have joined me in London to celebrate the Queen's 70th year on the throne for a TV special on my GB News show, fulfilling his long-held wish to visit Windsor Castle," Wootton wrote in the Daily Mail.
"But, in a cruel twist of fate, he will now be unable to make the trip as he recovers in hospital, just like he missed his daughter's wedding to the Duke of Sussex after suffering from a heart attack."
Family members have been concerned about Thomas over the past few weeks due to relentless attacks from Twitter trolls after he decided to launch a YouTube show.
His blood pressure was a concern before the stroke.
"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," Samatha Markle told Wootton.
"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 the past few years. That is unforgivable."
The pair have an estranged relationship which has played out in public, with Thomas telling Meghan to "grow up" and insisting everything she and Prince Harry were doing was "for money" in a television interview in 2021.
He has also been publicly critical of Prince Harry's decision to quit frontline royal duties.
