**BONUS**Meghan’ Markle's Dad Fights for Life — Duchess Stays Mum and Sells Chocolate Bars

0:03 Calorogus Shark Media. Hello and welcome to Pallace Intrigue Game. Your host Mark Francis is a very busy Friday with a lot of attention on Harry's appearance on Cold Beer, which will break down in detail on Monday. Kate's concert is today and later this afternoon will begin breaking down the top twenty five royal stories of twenty twenty five. But we do have breaking news. Megan Michael's estranged father, Thomas Mirkle, is recovering in intensive care after undergoing a life saving amputation of his left leg below the knee.

0:43 His son, Thomas Michael Junior, confirmed to The Daily Mail that the eighty one year old former Hollywood lighting director was rushed into surgery on Wednesday in the Philippines after a blood clot cut off circulation to his foot. My dad is being very brave. His foot turned blue and then black and very quickly. I took him to a local hospital and they did some scans and an ultrasound and said the leg had to be amputated. There was no option. I was told the leg had to be removed and it was a case of life or death. There was no option given. It was either we have to operate now and remove the leg or he may die. It was a life threatening situation. One of his doctors said the next two or three days are critical. His left leg has been removed below the knee. They were worried about infection setting in sepsis or gangreen. The flesh was black and dying. Thomas Junior, who was the primary caretaker for his father, said doctors were extremely concerned as they monitored his condition. 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. They raced us by ambulance with the sirens, going to a much bigger hospital in the center of the city. My dad has undergone emergency surgery. I would ask everyone around the world to keep him in their thoughts. He is a strong man, but he has been through so much and praying that he has strong enough to survive this.

2:01 My father has been through two heart attacks, a stroke, and an earthquake. I hope he can pull through this. Rob Shooter's Shooter Scoop is claiming Harry is encouraging Meghan to reach out, saying Harry knows estrangement. He's made peace with his dad. Now he wants Meghan to have the same chance. He's been saying, don't wait, do it. Now he's showing Meghan what reconciliation looks like, and he hopes she takes it. Our Royal Inside at Deep Crown wrote us, the compassionate response is remarkably simple. Pick up the telephone, send flowers, dispatch a representative, something, anything that acknowledges basic human concern for apparent in crisis. She won't. Of course, one hopes I'm wrong, One hopes there's been private outreach. We're not privy too. But the longer the silence extends, the more it confirms what her critics have alleged all along, that the compassion is transactional, performed only when cameras are rolling and brand partnerships are at stake. A simple gesture of human decency would cost her nothing and might actually demonstrate the values she claims to embody. But I suspect will hear nothing, and that silence will speak volumes. In The Royalist, Tom Sykes pulled no punches, writing inconveniently as the Duchess of Sussex was urging viewers to craft sentimental ornaments and lean into the solace of friends and family.

3:11 Her father was lying in an intensive care unit in Cebu, the Philippines, after a three hour emergency operation to remove his foot and lower leg, without any contact from her. A spokesman for Meghan declined to comment to The Royalist on her father's hospitalization and amputation, a silence, which, is to put it, mildly, not helping matters. Such silence may suit the internal emotional logic of a long running family feud, it makes little sense when your business model revolves around being compassionate, Sikes, adds Thomas Michael himself has conceded that he has been foolish, vain and thoughtless over the years, but Megan's refusal to forgive him at a time of severe illness presents a strategic problem for a daughter who has marketed herself as the embodiment of compassion. This is, after all, the man who raised her single handed from the age of eleven to eighteen, driving her to auditions, bankrolling private schooling. Yes, it is also the man who staged toward repaparazzi pictures in the run up to her twenty eighteen Royal wedding, lied to her about it, then collapse with heart trouble and missed the big day. Meghan walked into Saint George's Chapel alone and was then handed symbolically to King Charles, whom Thomas later described as incredibly kind and generous. Since then, the line from California has been essentially no contact. Compassion is the word that won't go away. It is Meghan's favorite term when describing her mission.

4:33 It's the theme of speeches, podcasts, and now her Christmas special. It is also precisely what she is accused of withholding from the man who changed her diapers, paid her school fees, and is now minus half a leg in a foreign ICU. According to The Express, Thomas Junior said, I would ask everyone around the world to keep the thoughts and only wishes that Meghan chose my father some compassion. He is literally fighting for his life more palaceing just a moment. As mentioned at the top, Prince Harry has prompted fresh controversy in the United States after making pointed jokes about Donald Trump and American politics. During an unannounced appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The Duke walked onto the stage. As Colbert joked about the growing number of royal themed Christmas films. Harry played along, pretending he was searching for an audition for a fictional holiday movie called The Gingerbread Christmas Prince Saves Christmas in Nebraska. When asked why actual prince would want the role, he replied, you Americans are obsessed with Christmas movies, and you're clearly obsessed with royalty, so why not. Colbert disputed the idea, giving Harry the opportunity for one of The Knight's most talked about lines, Really, I hear you elected a king. Harry continued the skip by listing what he would do to secure his imaginary Hallmark role. I'll record a self tape, I'll fly myself to an audition, settle a baseless lawsuit with the White House, all the things you people in TV do. When Colbert replied, hey, I didn't do any of those things, Harry shot back, maybe that's why you're canceled.

6:05 The appearance was widely panned. In a free substanc newsletter Today, Deep Crown writes what made the exercise particularly dispiriting wasn't the content, which covered well trodden ground, but rather the unmistakable air of diminishing returns that hung over the entire proceedings. One notices these things. The media coverage was notably more muted than his previous American television appearances. The social media engagement, while present, lacked the fevered quality of earlier interventions. Even the most sympathetic commentators seem to struggle with what fresh insight might be gleaned from yet another iteration of the same essential narrative. When one's public persona becomes this predictable, this thoroughly rehearsed, the very authenticity one claims to champion, begins to ring hollow. There's a lot to be said about Harry and we'll unpack that on Monday Today. We'll have one more podcast for you this afternoon as we begin our look at the top twenty five royal stories of the year, which will continue through the weekend and will drop extra episodes of any of the current storylines change as the Sussex's week of absolutely terrible optics continues.

7:14 Meghan took to Instagram to promote her new chocolate bars. Meghan seemed proud of the ornate floral packaging and the selection of indulgent flavors. The range features dark chocolate combined with raspberry spread and sea salt, a white chocolate bar topped with flour sprinkles and hemp hearts, and a short bread infused bar finished with bee pollen. According to Vans tracking the launch, all three varieties of twelve dollars in the US had sold out on the as Ever website within hours of going on sale, and they have it. If you like to email us and addresses the Palace Intrigg at gmail dot com, Please follow us on Spotify, Apple, or the apple of your choice and leave us a nice review from enjoying the show and Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermot. This is Palace Intrigue and at times MHM