Meghan Markle reportedly considered speaking publicly after being told about child sex abuse allegations involving her father, Thomas Markle, but was advised against doing so by Metropolitan Police officers assigned to protect the royal family.
The claim follows confirmation from Scotland Yard that the Duchess of Sussex, now 45, received a letter outlining allegations against Thomas Markle, 82, in January 2019. The force has acknowledged that the information was not passed to other law enforcement agencies at the time.
In the seven-page handwritten letter, Roslyn Loveless, Thomas Markle’s first wife, accused the former Hollywood lighting technician of child sex abuse. She also alleged that he frequently travelled to the Philippines and Thailand, claiming that “12-year-olds are legal there.”
Loveless, who died in 2024, sent the letter to the Metropolitan Police. The document was reviewed by the force’s royal protection unit before being forwarded to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s office at Kensington Palace for their “awareness”.
It has since emerged that Meghan wanted to address the allegations publicly. Last week, she described the claims about her father as “troubling and disturbing”.
However, one member of her Royalty and Specialist Protection, or RaSP, team is said to have told her: “Leave it with us, we’ll investigate it.”
The officer reportedly urged Meghan to remain silent while she was facing criticism for ending contact with her father without publicly explaining why. Thomas Markle did not attend Harry and Meghan’s 2018 wedding.
The Metropolitan Police did not investigate the allegations because the alleged incidents were said to have taken place overseas. According to The Times, the force is still trying to identify and locate the officer who allegedly advised Meghan.
A young Meghan Markle pictured with her father, Thomas Markle. The Duchess of Sussex said last week that allegations describing him as a child sex abuser were passed to her after a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police in January 2019
Thomas Markle pictured lying on a bed with his arm around a fully clothed young woman. In other photographs, the woman appears alone and naked
Although Harry and Meghan’s protection officers were aware of the serious claims, several senior figures close to the couple at Kensington Palace were reportedly not informed.
Those said to have been unaware included Samantha Cohen, a former assistant to Queen Elizabeth II who served as the Sussexes’ private secretary, and Jason Knauf, then joint communications secretary for Harry and Meghan as well as William and Kate.
One source claimed the couple were “very private” and generally chose not to share personal information widely within their team.
Aides working for King Charles, who was the Prince of Wales at the time, are also believed to have had no knowledge of the letter or its contents.
A Metropolitan Police source said on Saturday that the RaSP officers who reviewed the 2019 letter may not have appreciated the seriousness of the allegations or escalated the matter through the appropriate chain of command.
The source said: “These people are not detectives and have a tendency to be quite linear in their thinking.
“RaSP would only have been interested in what it meant for the security of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Once they had assessed that, they should have considered the wider consequences.”
The force is now facing scrutiny over why it did not share the information with international agencies, including the FBI.
The Metropolitan Police has referred itself to the police watchdog over what it described as a “failure to pass on allegations of serious offending… to relevant overseas authorities at the time”.
The latest development came after police seized child sexual abuse material from an abandoned storage unit belonging to Thomas Markle on Saturday, following information supplied by the Daily Mail.
Sex crimes investigators and forensic experts swooped on the vault near Markle’s former home in Mexico at just after midnight. One agent is said to have recoiled, saying ‘Ay cabron’ – a Spanish expression meaning ‘oh, damn’ – as he examined the material.
Harry and Meghan on a visit to Nottingham in October this year. It has been revealed that Meghan was advised not to go public after she was made aware of the allegations against her father in January 2019
Pictured: Jason Knauf, who was previously joint communications secretary to both Harry and Meghan and William and Kate, was not made aware of the 2019 letter
The material seized includes magazines showing children being sexually abused and photographs of naked young Asian females.
Our reporters uncovered the hoard last Thursday after travelling to Rosarito, where the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father lived for a decade. Receipts confirmed that he leased the 5ft by 10ft space in 2017.
According to the search warrant, investigators were authorised by a judge to look for ‘evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material’ and ‘the alleged commission of the crime of human trafficking in its aggravated form’. After seizing a computer, thumb drives, VHS tapes and magazines, they sealed the unit with an official notice.
The raid on Baja Storage, a gated storage depot, came after the Daily Mail warned authorities that Unit 22 contained child sex abuse images. Hours earlier, the Mail photographed Markle being pushed between care homes in Lakeland, Florida, in a wheelchair.
Markle, who has had a leg amputated and been diagnosed with a cognitive illness, was accompanied by daughter Samantha and her boyfriend Mark Phillips.
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Our reporters learnt about the container last week. The 82-year-old fell behind on the rent for the storage space two years ago and moved to the Philippines early last year without emptying it.
Baja Storage’s staff knew nothing about the cache and were disgusted by its discovery.
In addition to innocent family mementos, there were strips of 35mm negatives depicting voyeuristic images of kids on a beach and dusty VHS tapes with titles including ‘Boys – Brother and Sister -Russian XX’ and ‘Manila Nites’. The lockup also contained old computers and a paper plate with the words ‘DARK WEB’ scribbled in red ink alongside various URLs.
The Daily Mail was able to access Markle’s storage locker after he failed to keep up his rental payments. Its contents included photos of Asian females who appeared to be conspicuously young and books as well as magazines that sexualized children as ‘Lolitas’
Mexican Guardia Nacional sex crimes investigators are seen raiding Thomas Markle’s storage locker in Rosarito on Saturday morning, hours after the Daily Mail reported that it contained child pornography
A grim-faced official with the Mexican Guardia Nacional totes a cardboard box during Saturday’s raid at Thomas Markle’s storage facility
FBI agents working in Tampa – close to the senior-living residence where Markle is staying in Florida after having his left leg amputated in December – are among those working on the case.
Also involved are southern California-based FBI officials.
According to the warrant obtained by the Daily Mail, Mexican state prosecutors asked Judge Estefany Moreno Gutierrez of the Judicial Branch of Baja California to sign off on a search warrant at a closed court hearing on Friday. At around 4pm on Friday a small group of uniformed officers arrived at the depot and asked to speak to the owner.
As the evening wore on, more officers arrived from Mexico’s State Investigation Agency while soldiers from the Mexican National Guard were posted outside. They showed an overnight caretaker the warrant and more than a dozen agents streamed inside at 12.48am. By 3am the raid was over and the convoy of cars drove away.
The discovery of the storage unit marks another extraordinary development in a case that could see him facing ten to 12 years in jail if charged and convicted.
The former lighting director moved to Rosarito in 2011.
Markle relocated again to the Philippines in early 2025, where he is also under investigation after being reported to the police by his own son.
Thomas Markle Jr, 60, had allegedly found ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of child sex images in boxes his dad had shipped to the Far East, according to The Sun newspaper.
Markle lost one of his legs to a blood clot and has recently been diagnosed with a cognitive condition. He denies the allegations made against him
Markle has previously described the allegations as ‘sick lies’. On Saturday Samantha Markle’s boyfriend told us: ‘The only statement that you’re going to get is that Thomas Markle doesn’t even have fingerprints on the stuff in the Philippines,’ he said.
‘He didn’t even ever touch it the whole time it was there, he can’t be charged.
‘Markle never had it in Mexico either… The FBI has no jurisdiction in Mexico. This is all bulls***.’
Thomas Markle Sr told the Daily Mail: ‘I had no storage units in Rosarito!’
In a statement last week, Meghan said: ‘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.
‘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.
‘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.’
The Duchess of Sussex has not commented on the developments in Mexico.
The Daily Mail has approached the Metropolitan Police for a comment.
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