Thomas Markle has rejected claims that he possessed child-sex images, describing the allegations as “sick lies”.
The 82-year-old said accusations from his son, Tom Jr, alleging that he downloaded child pornography onto computers and mobile phones amounted to “the worst thing anyone could accuse me of”.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail from a Florida rehabilitation centre, where he is undergoing treatment to learn to walk with a prosthetic limb, the Duchess of Sussex’s father said he was devastated by the claims. His left leg was amputated below the knee last December after doctors found a serious blood clot.
“I’m shocked, I’m hurt and I’m very upset that my son is making these accusations against me,” he said.
“I could never do what I’m being accused of. It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.”
“This is bulls****. It’s just a bunch of lies. It’s sick. I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these lies.”
Tom Jr, 60, Meghan’s half-brother, made the allegations in an interview with The Sun. He claimed to have found “hundreds” of child-sex images on computers and a mobile phone kept inside four large boxes, which he said Thomas Markle had left behind after moving from the Philippines to the United States earlier this year.
Thomas Markle has denied possessing child-sex images, branding the allegations “sick lies”. He is pictured with his daughter Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, in 2011.
Mr Markle described his son Tom Jr’s claims that he downloaded child pornography onto computers and mobile phones as “the worst thing anyone could accuse me of”.
Samantha Markle, left, with her father Thomas Sr and brother Thomas Jr. Tom Jr has accused his father of downloading child pornography onto computers and mobile phones.
Mr Markle challenged his son’s version of events on Friday, insisting he had not had access to the computers since leaving Rosarito, Mexico, with Tom in January 2025. He said he then moved to the Philippines in search of “a fresh start”.
“Those computers were boxed up in Mexico and put on a cargo ship, which took months to get to the Philippines,” he said. “I kept asking Tom for my computers, but he wouldn’t give them to me.”
Mr Markle has been estranged from his youngest daughter since her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry and has never met his grandchildren, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five. He said Tom had told him the devices were stored in the basement of the apartment building where they had been living.
“I could never understand why he wouldn’t give them to me,” he said. “I don’t know who had access to the computers.”
After the pair moved into two neighbouring homes in December 2025, Mr Markle said he became seriously ill as a result of the blood clot. He was admitted to hospital before later entering a rehabilitation facility.
“Whenever I asked Tom to bring my computers to me, he refused,” Mr Markle said.
He was also asked about a comment attributed by The Sun to a “source close to Meghan”, which suggested the allegations might explain why she had not had contact with her father since 2018. Mr Markle responded: “I don’t believe that.”
Mr Markle said his relationship with Meghan had been “great” until she began dating Prince Harry. He said the rift deepened after he “stupidly” agreed to pose for paparazzi photographs in the run-up to their wedding.
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Within days of the controversy, he suffered two heart attacks and was unable to accompany his daughter down the aisle.
Meghan’s brother, Thomas Markle Jr, above, claimed he found the alleged child-sex images at the former home of Thomas Sr in the Philippines.
The development comes after the Duchess of Sussex revealed on Friday she had been made aware of the ‘troubling and disturbing’ claims made in 2018
Mr Markle has been in declining health for years. When he spoke to the Daily Mail, nurses at the rehab centre had just performed an electrocardiogram because his heart rate became worryingly high thanks to the stress of learning about his son’s accusations against him.
Mr Markle returned to the States for medical treatment in May.
Tom Jr claimed he looked into four storage boxes containing his father’s possessions in July this year to find a mobile phone for his fiancee, Rose.
When he opened one phone he said he was horrified to see a graphic child-sex image. But Mr Markle insisted: ‘I have never downloaded anything like that in my life.’
Tom Jr later opened a computer and said he saw a screensaver with ‘hundreds’ of disturbing thumbnail images. He claimed he also saw video of a young girl engaged in a sex act.
When asked directly by the Daily Mail, ‘Did you download porn on to your computers?’ Mr Markle replied: ‘Never. Never. Never. I have never done that.’
He said he would welcome a computer expert who could ‘autopsy’ the computers – clarifying later that he meant they could examine the machines forensically – to determine whether he was in possession of the computers when the alleged 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.’
Mr Markle has had a turbulent relationship with Tom Jr, who left his home in Oregon in 2022 to move to Rosarito, where Mr Markle retired after an award-winning career as a lighting director in Hollywood.
Mr Markle 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.’
He added: ‘That money stopped in July this year when a family member found he had been taking money from my account.’
Tom Jr made the first claims of finding the alleged child-abuse images a few days later, both to the FBI in America and to the US Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
This week he took the material to local police in the central city of Cebu in the Philippines in the company of a Sun journalist.
Detectives in Cebu have launched an official investigation.