What Meghan said about the 2018 letter
The Duchess of Sussex issued a statement explaining that a letter containing claims about Thomas Markle had been sent to the Metropolitan Police in 2018 and was afterward shared with her. She recalled being told at the time that those claims were being looked into. She called the allegations more sickening than anyone could imagine and added that her thoughts were with any children who may have suffered harm.[S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
Meghan said she hoped people would understand why she had kept her distance from her father and had not permitted him to have contact with her children, explaining that her aim was to protect them. She added that she had trusted the authorities to do the same for other families, and that her sincerest hope was for justice to be fully served while the safety of innocent children remained the priority.[S1][S6][S8]
The allegations and the Philippine investigation
The statement followed reports, initially carried by The Sun, that images of child sexual abuse said to belong to Thomas Markle had been discovered at a previous residence of his in the Philippines. Meghan's half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, told the paper he had come across the images there and had alerted police. Thomas Markle, who lives in the US, denies having any such images.[S1][S6][S7][S8]
Nicholas Ty, an undersecretary at the Philippines Department of Justice, told the BBC that a task force on anti-human trafficking and child sexual exploitation based in Cebu is looking into the matter. Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla said separately that national police had taken Thomas Markle's computer into custody for a full digital forensic examination, with investigators analysing the data to determine the extent of the alleged activity. He said results would take a week. The BBC said it had asked Thomas Markle and the Metropolitan Police for comment.[S1]
A family rift revisited
The disclosure casts fresh light on the strained relationship between Meghan and her father, a former television lighting director. Ties broke down before her 2018 wedding, when he was found to have worked with photographers and accepted payment to stage pictures of himself preparing for the ceremony; he then withdrew from the wedding, citing health problems, and King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, escorted her down the aisle instead.[S1]
Meghan is the only child from Thomas Markle's marriage to Doria Ragland; from an earlier marriage he has two other children, Samantha and Thomas Markle Jr. According to the BBC, Meghan found out about the allegations after the wedding, and the timing sharpens questions over why Prince Harry and the couple's two children seem never to have met her father. It also raises whether the allegations played any part in the Sussexes' quick return to Britain in late summer; their spokesman did not answer whether that was a factor in leaving the US.[S1]
Thomas Markle moved to the Philippines in 2025 after a series of strokes. He is reportedly living in a rehabilitation centre in Florida, where he is relearning to walk after a leg was amputated during surgery in December 2025.[S1]
