The Duchess of Sussex has said she is “deeply distressed” by the “sickening” allegations involving child sexual abuse images linked to her father, Thomas Markle Sr, revealing that she was informed about the claims eight years ago.
Meghan said the allegations were brought to her attention in 2018, after a letter concerning her father was sent to the Metropolitan Police’s Royalty and Specialist Protection unit.
She also addressed why Thomas Markle has never met her children, Prince Archie, seven, and five-year-old Princess Lilibet, saying her decision was made for one reason: to protect them.
Meghan, who returned to Britain over the summer after six years living in the United States, has been estranged from her 82-year-old father since her marriage to Prince Harry in May 2018.
In a statement, the Duchess said: “I am deeply distressed by the news that has emerged over the past 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.
“In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That correspondence was later shared with me. It contained troubling and disturbing allegations concerning my father, and I was assured that the claims were being investigated.
“I hope it is now clear that, despite years of distortion in parts of the media, my decision to remain distant from my father and not allow him contact with our children was made for one reason: to protect them.
“I trusted that the authorities were taking the same steps to protect other families.
“While the scale of what has now come to light is more sickening than anyone could have imagined, my greatest hope is that justice is fully delivered and that the safety and protection of innocent children remain the priority.”
Before Meghan issued her statement, Thomas Markle Sr strongly denied possessing child sexual abuse images, describing the accusations as “sick lies.”
He said allegations made by his son, Thomas Markle Jr, that he had downloaded a large collection of such images onto computers and mobile phones represented “the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.”
The Duchess of Sussex visited the Community Recording Studio in Nottingham last week
Meghan and Thomas Markle Sr have remained estranged since 2018, when she married Prince Harry
Thomas Markle Sr was pictured recovering in hospital after surgery in the Philippines last December
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail from a rehabilitation centre in Florida, Thomas Sr said he is learning to walk with a prosthetic limb. His left leg was amputated below the knee last December after he suffered a serious blood clot.
He said: “I’m shocked, hurt and extremely upset that my son is making these accusations against me. I could never do what I’m being accused of. It is the worst thing anyone could say about me.
“This is bulls***. It is nothing but a collection of lies. It is sick, and I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these accusations.”
Thomas Markle Jr, Meghan’s 60-year-old half-brother, made the claims in an interview with The Sun. He alleged that he discovered “hundreds” of child sexual abuse images on computers and a cellphone stored inside four large boxes that Thomas Sr had left behind after relocating from the Philippines to the United States earlier this year.
Thomas Sr disputed his son’s version of events, arguing that the computers had not been in his possession since he left Rosarito, Mexico, with Thomas Jr in January 2025 before moving to the Philippines in what he described as a “fresh start.”
He said: “The computers were packed away in Mexico and placed on a cargo ship, which took months to reach the Philippines. I repeatedly asked Tom to return my computers, but he refused to give them back.”
He added: ‘Tom told me they were in the basement of an apartment block we were living in. I could never understand why he wouldn’t give them to me.
‘I don’t know who had access to the computers. We moved to [two adjoining] houses in December 2025 and I was taken ill [with the blood clot] and I was in hospital and then a rehab centre. Whenever I asked Tom to bring my computers to me he refused.’
Asked about a quote from a ‘source close to Meghan’ who reportedly told the Sun: ‘Now maybe people will finally understand why she has had nothing to do with her father since 2018,’ Thomas Sr replied: ‘I don’t believe that.’
He said he and Meghan had a ‘great’ relationship until she met Prince Harry and he ‘stupidly’ posed for paparazzi pictures on the eve of their wedding.
Within days, he suffered two heart attacks and was unable to walk her down the aisle.
Thomas Sr has been in declining health for years. He returned to the US for ongoing medical treatment in May and recently had a third stent inserted into his heart after doctors found it was operating at 30 per cent efficiency.
When he spoke to the Daily Mail, nurses at the rehab centre had just performed an electrocardiogram because his heart rate was worryingly high because of the stress of learning of his son’s accusations against him.
Thomas Jr claimed he looked into four storage boxes containing his father’s possessions in July this year to find a mobile phone for his fiancée Rose. When he opened one phone he was horrified to see a graphic child sex image.
Thomas Sr said: ‘I have never downloaded anything like that in my life.’
The allegations against Meghan’s father Thomas have sent shockwaves through the family
Thomas Sr, pictured with nurse Rio Canedo, 46, is now the subject of a child sex probe
CHECK THIS OUT: Herbert Wigwe's Parents: Exploring His Ethnic Background and Family Information – NewsFinale
Thomas Sr was living in this home in Rosarito, Mexico, at the time of Meghan’s wedding
Thomas Sr moved to a home in this apartment block in Cebu in the Philippines last year
Thomas Jr later opened a computer and said he saw a screensaver with ‘hundreds’ of disturbing thumbnail images. He claimed he also saw a video of a young girl engaging in a sex act.
When asked directly by the Daily Mail: ‘Did you download porn onto your computers?’ Thomas Sr replied: ‘Never. Never. Never. I have never done that.’
He said he would welcome a computer expert to ‘autopsy’ the computers (later clarifying he meant they could forensically examine the machines) to determine whether he was in possession of the computers when the alleged vile content was downloaded.
‘These terrible lies are being made against me with no proof,’ he said. ‘How can you accuse a man of something like this with no proof?
‘I have not spoken to Tom in months. I don’t know where this has come from. I can only think he’s doing this to make money. I go between feeling very sad to feeling very angry.’
Thomas Sr has had a turbulent relationship with his son, who left his home in Oregon in 2022 to move to Mexico where his father retired after an award-winning career as a lighting director in Hollywood.
Thomas Sr said: ‘Tom came to live with me after I had a stroke. I supported him financially. I’ve supported him financially for most of his life. That money stopped in July this year when a family member found he had been taking money from my account.’
Thomas Markle Jr, Meghan’s brother, claimed to have found the child-abuse material packed up in boxes at his father’s Philippines home
Samantha Markle, left, pictured with her father Thomas Sr and brother Thomas Jnr
Thomas Jr made the first claims of finding the alleged child abuse images a few days later, both to the American FBI and to the US Center for Abused and Exploited Children.
This week, he took the material to local police in the city of Cebu in the Philippines in the company of a Sun journalist. Cebu Police have launched an official probe.
Thomas Sr said: ‘I welcome an investigation because I didn’t do this. I’m scared because I don’t feel safe any more. People believe accusations, even if they are not true. This is the worst thing you can accuse someone of.
‘I would like to ask Tom, why? I have not spoken to my son in several months but our last conversation was friendly. He didn’t ask for money but if he had I probably would have given it to him like I always have in the past.’
His eldest daughter Samantha, 61, who is her father’s main caregiver in Florida, is ‘outraged’ by her brother’s accusations.
She and Thomas Jr are the children of Thomas Sr’s first marriage to Roslyn Loveless. After their divorce, he married Doria Ragland and Meghan was born in 1981.
Samantha accused her brother of ‘making up lies’ to make money.
She said: ‘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.
Meghan with her father on the day of her marriage to her first husband Trevor Engelson in 2011
‘My brother first came out with these lies days after 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 make money from the media.
‘Those computers were out of dad’s 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 the past couple of years. Dad did not have access to these computers. Anyone could have set dad up.’
She accused her brother of nursing a ‘vendetta’ against their father saying: ‘Whenever Tom is short of cash he makes up lies and sells stories because it’s easy money. My brother has an eighth-grade education [meaning he left school at 14].
‘It’s very cruel of him to do this to dad when dad is so physically and mentally fragile.
‘Tom thinks dad never loved him enough. He was jealous dad had more money when Meghan came along and he thinks Meghan got everything. But dad did the best he could for all of us. He was very generous to Tom and I too.
‘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 this.
‘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. He is doing this to get revenge.
‘For Tom to try and destroy dad this way is cruel beyond belief.’
Thomas Sr said he is considering legal action but admitted: ‘I don’t know what I can do to defend myself? When someone accuses you of something like this it goes all over the world in seconds and some people will believe it forever. It’s devastating.
‘I’m angry, I’m hurt and I want the world to know these are terrible lies.’
The Daily Mail has contacted the Metropolitan Police and Buckingham Palace for comment.