Noel Rasmussen, the granddaughter of Thomas Markle Sr, has described herself as horrified after the Daily Mail reported discovering a cache of suspected child sexual abuse material in a storage unit he rented in Rosarito, Mexico.
The Daily Mail notified the FBI about the unit last week, prompting Mexican authorities to carry out a raid over the weekend. Markle, 82, is also under investigation in the Philippines after another collection of alleged abuse material was found at his former home in Cebu.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Rasmussen, 28, said the latest discoveries were “shocking” and urged authorities to treat the alleged material with the utmost seriousness. Her mother, Samantha Markle, 61, is the half-sister of the Duchess of Sussex.
Rasmussen also disclosed that she unknowingly helped mail a letter containing allegations of child sexual abuse involving Markle. The letter was eventually received by her aunt Meghan and contributed to the Duchess of Sussex ending contact with her father.
Her late grandmother, Roslyn Loveless, Markle’s first wife, had asked Rasmussen to send the letter to Meghan’s police protection team in London. Rasmussen said Loveless never explained what the letter contained.
“I’m shocked, just absolutely shocked. It’s surreal. It’s disturbing,” Rasmussen said from her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“Roslyn never mentioned anything relating to pedophilia to me about Sr. She just had the typical ex-wife gripes about him,” she added.
The material reportedly found in Mexico includes naked photographs of females who appear to be notably young, along with explicit magazines depicting the sexual exploitation of children. One image allegedly shows Markle on a bed with his arm around a young Asian woman; both are clothed in that photograph, while other images reportedly show her nude.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, Noel Rasmussen, 28, the youngest daughter of Samantha Markle, 61, described the reported discoveries as “shocking.” Pictured with her late grandmother Roslyn Loveless in 2019, Rasmussen said she unknowingly helped send the letter containing allegations of child sexual abuse that later reached her aunt Meghan.
Meghan Markle, pictured as a teenager, has been estranged from her father, Thomas Markle Sr, for years.
Meghan’s niece Noel Rasmussen (above) has spoken publicly for the first time about the disturbing allegations involving her grandfather, Thomas Markle Sr, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail (Source: Courtesy of Noel Rasmussen)
“She didn’t like some of his behavior. She thought he was wrong. He stayed out too late and came home too late,” Rasmussen said of her grandmother’s complaints.
“Sometimes he came home smelling of perfume. It was just typical ex-wife stuff. She never explicitly told me to stay away from him or said to me that he was a pedophile.”
Loveless, who was 79 when she died at her Albuquerque home in 2024, had repeatedly accused her former husband of infidelity during their marriage. However, she never publicly made the allegations involving child exploitation.
Meghan, 45, has since condemned her father publicly. She said she ended contact with him in 2019 after learning of allegations involving child sexual abuse in a letter from Loveless that was delivered through London’s Metropolitan Police.
Rasmussen said her aunt’s decision to distance herself from Markle was understandable given the allegations, adding that she would make the same choice if she had a daughter.
“I believe she’s completely warranted in that,” Rasmussen said. “If I were in her position, I would much rather be safe than sorry.
“I wouldn’t want to give him the potential, chance or opportunity to create another victim. This is far too serious to be taken lightly in her case.”
Born and raised in New Mexico, more than 800 miles from Markle’s former homes in Los Angeles and Mexico, Rasmussen said she had limited contact with her grandfather while growing up. At the time, she attributed the distance between them largely to geography.
Thomas Markle Sr, pictured in 2018, is 82 and faces investigations in the Philippines and by the FBI after alleged child pornography was reportedly found at properties linked to him.
Markle Sr’s son, Thomas Markle Jr (center) claims to have discovered a cache of child pornography at his father’s former home in Cebu, Philippines, triggering renewed scrutiny. The two men are pictured together in an undated family photo (Source: Courtesy of Noel Rasmussen)
When she did see him, she says, he appeared kind and caring and never behaved inappropriately towards her.
‘He came to visit several times, I want to say four or five times, maybe. I never got the sense that, you know, this is a creepy man.
‘I never felt weirded out by him. I was never creeped out by him. He never acted inappropriately. He never acted strange with me.’
Markle Sr has been at the center of a storm for over a week – sparked by son Thomas Markle Jr, 60, revealing he had uncovered a stash of child pornography at the former lighting director’s pad in Cebu.
The elder Markle, who is now living in a senior care home in Florida after losing a leg last December, has strongly denied the claims – despite appearing in some of the photos found by the Daily Mail in his rented storage locker.
He has, however, confessed to paying for sex with prostitutes during his travels in Asia, but insisted they were of legal age.
Noel said the latest revelations have left her struggling to reconcile the allegations with the memory of the man she grew up knowing as her grandfather.
‘One of the hardest parts here is that there isn’t really a neat or simple way to process something like this,’ she said.
Meghan has since spoken out against her father and confirmed she cut ties with him after she was first alerted to ‘disturbing’ allegations against him eight years ago
Noel’s mother, Samantha Markle (pictured left with her half-sister Meghan Markle years ago), has publicly defended her father amid the allegations (Source: X/ Samantha Markle)
‘You know, you can have really complicated feelings about somebody being your grandfather while also recognizing that all these allegations of this nature are incredibly serious.’
Of her own mother, Samantha, the only member of the family who has publicly defended Markle, Noel said she thinks her mom is desperate not to believe the worst.
‘I really do not blame her for trying to defend her father because at the end of the day, that’s still her dad,’ Noel said.
‘I mean, why would you want to believe something like this, something that’s serious about your own parent? That’s just the ultimate, worst-case scenario, bad news.
‘This is almost as bad as it can get.’
Meghan has since spoken out against her father, revealing she cut ties with him after she was first alerted to ‘disturbing’ allegations against him eight years ago.
In a statement released in the wake of the Philippines investigation, the Duchess of Sussex said claims against Markle were passed to her in 2018 after a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police’s royal protection team.
She also explained she had never allowed her father to meet her children, Prince Archie, seven, and five-year-old Princess Lilibet, ‘for one reason: to protect them.’
The Daily Mail alerted the FBI after uncovering a stash of sexually explicit books, magazines and photos – including of Asian females who look conspicuously young – in a Mexican storage unit rented by Thomas Markle
The Duchess, who, over the summer, moved back to Britain with Prince Harry and their children after six years in the US, has been estranged from her father, 82, since she and Harry married in May 2018.
It has not been confirmed exactly when the 2018 letter was sent, but sources have claimed Meghan received a copy of the letter that summer – after the royal wedding.
She said in a statement: ‘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.
Meghan, now the Duchess of Sussex, is the only child of Thomas Markle Sr with his second ex-wife Doria Ragland (pictured with Meghan in 2018)
Meghan and husband Prince Harry moved back to Britain over the summer after six years in the US
‘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.’
