Meghan Markle’s estranged father has admitted paying for sex workers in the Philippines, but says he never slept with anyone under the age of 18.
Thomas Markle is under investigation by Filipino authorities over allegations he kept a hoard of ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of child abuse images at his home in the south-east Asian country.
But in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, he denied any wrongdoing and said he would fully cooperate with police in the US or Philippines if they wished to speak with him.
The 82-year-old former lighting technician told the newspaper: ‘I like Asian women but that is not a crime.’
Addressing one allegation in particular – that a picture in his collection shows a man resembling him having sex with a young girl – he said: ‘I have never been in a photograph like that.’
Of the images said to have been found, he said: ‘I have not had my computer or phones for nearly two years. If there is anything bad on there it was put there by someone else.’
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He also questioned why his daughter Meghan, who cut him off in 2018, did not try to make contact to allow him to defend himself when she learned of a letter sent to the Metropolitan Police containing allegations.
Markle Sr was reported to the police by his son Thomas Jr, 60, who said he discovered the images while caring for his ailing father in the Philippines.
On Friday, the Duchess of Sussex said she was ‘deeply distressed’ by the allegations and her thoughts were with ‘any children who may have been harmed’.
She said: ‘‘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.’
Meghan also no longer speaks to Thomas Jr or his sister Samantha, who are her half-siblings from Markle Sr’s previous marriage with Roslyn Loveless.
A report in the New York Post and Page Six claims Loveless was behind the letter to the Met which led to the duchess cutting off her father after her marriage to Prince Harry.
Loveless, who was married to Markle Sr before Meghan was born, died in 2024.
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