The Duchess of Sussex told her estranged father last year that she was aware of allegations that he had abused young girls and that he would never meet her children, Archie and Lilibet.
Meghan, 45, sent the letter to Thomas Markle Sr, 82, while he was recovering in hospital in the Philippines following the amputation of his leg.
The Mail on Sunday was present when someone delivered the white envelope to him by hand. Out of respect for the Duchess’s privacy, however, we did not ask about its contents.
The Sun on Sunday has since reported that Meghan told her father in the letter that he would never hear from her again or meet his grandchildren.
Seven years ago, Scotland Yard informed Meghan about what it described as “troubling and disturbing” allegations of child-sex abuse involving her father. The claims followed a letter understood to have been written by Mr Markle’s late first wife, Roslyn Loveless.
Authorities in the Philippines are now investigating the former Hollywood lighting technician over allegations that he hoarded child-sex images.
Meghan has been estranged from her father since 2018. Mr Markle did not attend her wedding to Prince Harry that year, saying he had suffered a heart attack and did not want to cause her embarrassment.
King Charles subsequently accompanied his daughter-in-law down the aisle at Windsor Castle.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday last night, Mr Markle acknowledged that he had paid for sex while living in the Far East, but denied having sexual relations with underage girls.
The Duchess of Sussex in Australia this April… Meghan reportedly told her estranged father last year that she knew of allegations involving young girls and that he would never meet Archie and Lilibet
Thomas Markle, 82, with Filipino nurse Rio Canedo, 46, at a rehabilitation centre in Cebu, Philippines
He has pledged to “do whatever it takes” to clear his name after being accused of serious child-sex offences. “I have never had sex with anyone under the age of 18,” he said.
Mr Markle moved to Cebu City in the Philippines from his home in Mexico last year. He is now receiving care at a nursing facility in Florida, where he is learning to walk with a prosthetic limb after his left leg was amputated in December last year.
Last week, Meghan said she had been assured that the allegations were under investigation. However, the Metropolitan Police admitted on Saturday that it had not passed details of the alleged offending outside the UK to other law-enforcement agencies.
The force said it could refer itself to the police watchdog over its handling of the case. Asked about the Metropolitan Police investigation, Angela Rayner described it today as “an operational issue”.
The Housing Secretary told Sky News: “Meghan Markle has faced a tremendous amount of intrusion into her family. It must be difficult as a daughter to have all this out in the open.”
She continued: “As a mother myself, I can understand how difficult that must be for Meghan, particularly when the situation is reported in the news every day.”
“Her estrangement from her father has been in the Press for some time. But she has now been very clear, I think, about the reasons—at least some of them—why that relationship has broken down.”
“At the heart of this is a mother trying to raise and protect her children and build a happy family life. That is obviously extremely difficult when you are living in the public eye.”
Meghan issued a strongly worded statement on Saturday, saying she was “deeply distressed” by news of the discovery. She explained that the information had influenced her decision never to allow her father to meet Prince Archie, seven, or Princess Lilibet, five.
She added the decision, which came after a letter handed to her by the Met’s royal protection team, was made to ‘safeguard’ them.
‘I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed,’ she said.
‘In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated.
‘I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.
‘I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at The Community Recording Studio in Nottingham earlier this month, their first official engagement since returning to the UK
Meghan published a powerful statement on Saturday, and stressed that the allegations about her father was behind her decision to never allow him to meet Archie and Lilibet
Thomas Markle Jr, half brother of Meghan, claimed to have found a stash of child sex abuse image on computers his father left behind in the Philippines
‘Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.’
Meghan’s half-brother, Tom Markle Jr, 60, claimed he was the one to have found a trove of child sex abuse images on computers his father left behind in the Philippines.
He says he discovered the material when he went looking for a phone for his fiancée Rose in storage boxes in the house he and his father shared. When he opened one phone he saw ‘vile’ child sex images and then turned on a computer and found a screensaver with ‘hundreds’ of sexual pictures of children.
The ‘sickening’ collection is said to include videos of girls no older than ten or 11 involved in sex acts.
One 35mm photograph reportedly shows a bearded man resembling Mr Markle having sex with a young Asian girl. ‘I have never been in a photograph like that,’ Mr Markle said on Saturday.
The 82-year-old admitted that when he was single, he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and ‘slept with prostitutes’, adding: ‘I like Asian women but that is not a crime.’
Police in the Philippines hauled off four boxes of evidence on Friday and spent nine hours with Tom Jr logging the evidence.
The FBI said it was ‘aware of the allegations’ and would ‘investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law’.
Tom Jr has since issued a public apology to the duchess for ‘protecting the wrong person for the past nine years’.
‘Having seen what I’ve seen, I believe the man I’ve been defending and caring for is a monster,’ he said. ‘I now know exactly why you don’t talk to him any more and why you won’t let him meet Harry or his grandchildren.’
Officials confirmed on Saturday that Mr Markle was being investigated by officers in Cebu City’s anti-trafficking and anti-child abuse task force. Meanwhile, the FBI is poised to launch its own investigation after being contacted by Tom Jr.
Meghan’s half-sister Samantha, who is Mr Markle’s main caregiver, believes if a photograph exists of her father on a bed with a young-looking Asian woman ‘it may be one of his girlfriends’, adding: ‘Dad dated a wonderful Japanese woman called Carolyn who I loved. She was in her thirties but she looked like a teenager.
‘Asian women have great skin and are small and petite. They look much younger than they are. Dad had another girlfriend called Gail. She was Asian and gorgeous but looked very young.’
Mr Markle was married twice, to Tom Jr and Samantha’s mother Roslyn Loveless, and then to Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland. He said: ‘Do I love beautiful young women? Yes. Do I like looking at pictures of beautiful women? Yes.
‘But I have always dated age-appropriate women and I know if you talk to my ex-wife [meaning Doria, Roslyn died in 2024] or any of my ex-girlfriends they would tell you we had a normal sex life.’
His most recent girlfriend in the Philippines was his nurse Rio Canero, 46. There is no suggestion she engaged in prostitution.
Mr Markle said: ‘I never shared a house with Tom. My computer and old phone were packed up in Mexico and put on a boat to the Philippines. It took months. I kept asking my son for my computer and he said it was coming. He would never give it to me and I didn’t understand why.’
He says Tom Jr told him when the boxes arrived in the Philippines they were in storage in the hotel in Cebu where they stayed when they first arrived there for a ‘fresh start’ in January 2025. The pair then lived in a neighbouring high-rise but Tom Jr told him his computer remained in storage.
Afterwards they moved into two houses outside the city but Mr Markle was only there ‘for a few days’ before suffering a massive blood clot. He went from hospital to a long-term care facility and then returned to the States in May this year for medical care.
‘I have not had my computer or phones for nearly two years,’ he said. ‘If there is anything bad on there it was put there by someone else.’
The Daily Mail has contacted the Duchess of Sussex’s representative for further comment.