LONDON — Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, said Friday that she was “deeply distressed” by a report alleging that her estranged father, Thomas Markle, possessed child sexual abuse images, and said that she was informed by police of “disturbing allegations” against him in 2018.
In a statement on Friday, Meghan addressed the report that her father was being investigated over claims he kept child sexual abuse images at his home in the Philippines.
The allegations were first reported by The Sun newspaper, a British tabloid, which reported that Markle’s son had informed police after finding finding a hoard of images. The Sun published a photo it said showed Markle’s son, Thomas Jr., as signing a sworn statement it said he had submitted to police and quoted Markle Jr. as saying: “I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.”
Thomas Markle Sr. denied the reported allegations, calling them “sick lies” in a statement to Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper. He added they were “the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.”
NBC News was not immediately able to identify a contact for Markle Sr., 82, who the Daily Mail reported was now in a Florida rehab center recovering from surgery. Police in Cebu City, the location of Markle Sr.’s home in the Philippines, and London’s Metropolitan Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.
Meghan has long had a limited and fraught relationship with her father, who did not attend her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018. Thomas Markle Sr. married Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, in 1979 and they subsequently divorced in 1987.
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In the rare statement on Friday, Meghan said that she had chosen to keep her children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, away from her father “for one reason: to protect 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 the statement.
Meghan said that she had been made aware of a letter sent to the British police and other authorities in 2018, that “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,” she said.
“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 added.
Asked by NBC News when Meghan was made aware of the letter to the Metropolitan Police, a spokesman for the couple said it was in the summer of 2018 after her wedding with Prince Harry.
Meghan, 45, and Harry, 42, moved back to the United Kingdom earlier this summer after several years in the United States.
The couple made their first joint public appearance last week visiting charities in central England. King Charles III has made clear that their return does not signal a return to active royal life. Prince Harry, however, has said recently he wants his disagreements with his family to “work out.”