Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan Markle, is the subject of a child sexual abuse investigation after his son reported him to police.
Authorities are examining a collection of images reportedly discovered at Thomas Markle Snr’s former home in the Philippines.
The allegations have triggered a furious family dispute. Meghan’s half-sister Samantha accused her brother, Thomas Markle Jr, 60, of fabricating the claims for financial gain and suggested their father may have been framed.
Thomas Jr told police he found what he described as “hundreds” of child sexual abuse images in four large boxes at his father’s property in Cebu, The Sun reported on Thursday evening.
The material allegedly included a 15-minute video showing young girls, apparently under the age of 11, being sexually abused, along with still photographs of children wearing little clothing.
Thomas Jr also claimed that one image showed a laptop, with a room visible in the background that he recognised as part of his father’s former home in Mexico.
He said he made the discovery during the summer, after Thomas Snr returned to the United States following a stroke and blood clot that resulted in the amputation of his left leg.
Thomas Jr said he was looking for a mobile phone belonging to his Filipino girlfriend when he came across the material, which he claimed his father had left behind.
Thomas Markle Snr, pictured with Rio Canedo, 46, is being investigated after his son reported him to police over alleged child sexual abuse material
Meghan Markle and her father Thomas have been estranged since 2018, the year she married Prince Harry
Meghan’s brother Thomas Markle Jr claimed he discovered the alleged abuse material in boxes at his father’s property in the Philippines
He reported the alleged discovery to the FBI Hotline, the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and police in Pennsylvania, where his father had been living, on July 10.
Police in the Philippines have opened an investigation and are preparing to take possession of the reported evidence.
A source reportedly close to Meghan told the newspaper: “Now maybe people will finally understand why she has had nothing to do with her father since 2018.”
The Daily Mail has contacted the Sussexes for comment.
Samantha, however, strongly rejected her brother’s allegations, describing them as “disgusting” and insisting they had “no merit in them whatsoever”.
Ms Markle, 61, who is her father’s main caregiver, called her brother a “liar” and alleged that he had invented the claims in an attempt to make money.
Samantha also disputed The Sun’s account, saying it was incorrect to claim that the boxes had been found at their father’s house in the Philippines.
She said: “That is not factually true. The computers were packed up in Mexico and put on a cargo ship. They were then in storage in the basement of a building in the Philippines. Dad had no access to them. The boxes were then in Tom Jr’s house. Dad had no access to those computers for two years. Who knows who could have had access to them? I don’t believe any of it. Anyone could have set dad up.”
She added: “There is no merit in these disgusting allegations whatsoever and my brother is disgusting for making them up. He wants to destroy our dad. Shame on him.”
‘My brother first came out with these lies a few weeks ago when the cash from my dad was cut off. He has used dad as a cash cow for years and once the money stopped he made up the most outrageous lies he could to try and make money from the media.’
Samantha added that her father’s computers were out of his possession for two years.
A young Meghan pictured with her father
Meghan and Prince Harry in Sydney in 2018
Meghan and her father
Samantha Markle pictured with her father Thomas Snr and brother Thomas Jnr
Meghan on her wedding day Sept 10th 2011 to Trevor Engelson in Jamaica
She said: ‘There is no proof my dad downloaded any images. Those computers were out of his possession for two years. That leaves a lot of room for tampering. These are unsubstantiated allegations. Anyone could have been in contact with those computers over a couple of years. Dad was in a rehabilitation facility and did not have access to those computers.’
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Samantha is Tom Jr’s sister from her father’s first marriage to Roslyn Loveless. Award-winning Hollywood lighting director Mr Markle Sr. then married Meghan Markle’s mother Doria Ragland and Meghan was born in 1981.
Tom Sr became estranged from Meghan on the eve of her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry after he suffered two heart attacks and was unable to attend the ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
He has never met his grandchildren Archie, seven and five-year-old Lilibet.
Samantha said her 82-year-old father is in poor health and ‘hanging on by a thread: ‘Dad has severe physical and cognitive issues and is too frail and sick to defend himself. It’s disgusting that my brother is trying to destroy a man who has done nothing but support him his entire life. My brother needs money. That is what this is all about.’
Mr Markle had his left leg amputated below the knee last December and has suffered several heart attacks and a stroke.
Samantha accused her brother of nursing a ‘vendetta’ against their father.
She said: ‘My brother has had this vendetta against my dad for years and when the money runs out he makes up stories for cash. He made up a story a few years ago about my dad snorting cocaine with hookers in Thailand. My brother makes up lies about dad and sells stories because it’s the only way for him to make money fast.
‘When you talk to dad he shrugs and says: ‘It is what it is.’
‘Dad is very disappointed in Tom.
‘My brother has a track record of lying about dad which our father does not deserve because he has always supported Tom and has given him tens of thousands of dollars over the years. He has helped him get jobs and dad bent over backwards to help him.
‘It was never enough for Tom. He thinks dad didn’t love him enough.
‘When Meghan came along she got everything but my father was in a better financial situation then. My dad always gave me, my brother and Meghan everything he could afford at the time.’
Tom Jr moved from his home in Oregon to live next door to his father in Rosarito, Mexico after Tom Sr suffered a devastating stroke in 2022.
The two men moved to the Philippines ‘for a fresh start’ at the beginning of 2025 but Tom Sr. returned to the States earlier this year to be fitted with a prosthetic leg and for ongoing medical treatment for a series of health issues.
He recently had another stent put in his heart after tests showed it was operating at 30 per cent efficiency.
Samantha said: ‘I remain fully in support of my dad who is very fragile. He will always have my support. I love him and will always love him and think it’s shameful that his final years should be marred by all of this drama. He doesn’t deserve it.
‘Tom isn’t saying these terrible things to support anyone. He’s doing it to destroy dad and make money. He wants revenge on dad because the money he was making off dad has stopped flowing. When Tom was living in Mexico and the Philippines dad was supporting him fully. Tom could drink and party as much as he wanted. Dad got upset at the way Tom was drinking.
‘Dad totally indulged my brother and helped him live beyond his means. My brother is jealous of dad because dad had a successful career and Tom only has an eighth-grade education. Tom didn’t want to put in the work in any of the jobs dad helped get him in Hollywood and elsewhere.’
Samantha said she blames her brother for not getting her father adequate medical care in the Philippines.
‘Dad’s foot was turning blue and he was complaining of pain and I was begging Tom to take him to the emergency room but he didn’t. By the time he finally called an ambulance it was too late and dad had a massive blood clot which meant his left leg had to be amputated below the knee. I hold my brother somewhat responsible for that.
‘My brother needs money and since my dad will no longer give it to him he has to extrapolate it from the media somehow. The bigger the lie, the bigger the buzz, the bigger the pay-day.’
Samantha said: ‘Without any evidence that those images were not put there by someone else because those computers were out of my dad’s possession for a couple of years, I don’t believe that they are his.
‘I have no reason to believe those are his because anyone could have been handling those computers.
‘I think this is absurd and vengeful that my brother would do this. My dad has been through two heart attacks, a stroke and an amputation and his life is hanging in the balance and it’s incredibly cruel that my brother would do this.
‘There is a suggestion that Meghan knew about this. I can’t speak for Meghan but she publicly bragged at the UN and on her website Tig about what a wonderful father he is and she wouldn’t have done that if she suspected anything like these allegations she would now have been bragging about him on the world stage.
‘Tom has a history of lying about dad. He said my dad did cocaine with hookers in Thailand. That was a lie for money too. He lies to get money. Tom has a history of drinking. I think this is just revenge.
‘I love my father and I will continue to support him because this has no merit.’
Samantha added: ‘You can’t accuse someone of being an offender when the alleged tools of the crime have been in other people’s hands. There is no way to prove any of this. I believe my dad is innocent. He was not in possession of those computers for two years. Who knows who has had access to them?’