Meghan Markle’s half-brother is begging for her forgiveness after nine years of ‘protecting the wrong person’ and siding with their father.
The Duchess of Sussex has no relationship with her two older half-siblings, Samantha Markle and Thomas Markle Jr., from her father’s first marriage to Roslyn Loveless.
Both siblings have spoken to the media in recent years, mocking and criticising Meghan and husband Prince Harry after they severed ties with their family.
But in a sharp U-turn, Thomas Jnr has publicly declared he’s ‘so, so sorry’ in light of allegations of Thomas Markle Snr keeping child sexual abuse images at his home. He has denied possessing the images.
Thomas Jnr, 60, had been caring for his ailing father in the Philippines for four years when he discovered a stash of the images, he claims. He handed four boxes to police in Cebu City.
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The window fitter has now spoken to The Sun on Sunday in a bid to reach the former Suits actress, stating: ‘I now know I have been protecting the wrong person for the past nine years.
‘Having seen what I have seen, I believe the man I’ve been defending and caring for is a monster.’
He added: ‘I now know exactly why you don’t talk to him anymore and why you won’t let him meet Harry or his grandchildren.
‘And I’m ashamed that I spent years taking his side when you fell out with him.’
Acknowledging that they are ‘not close’, he claimed he can ‘still remember holding’ Meghan as a baby and ‘looking after [her]’ when she was small.
‘So please accept my apology and know that I wish you and your family all the best for the future,’ he concluded.
Meghan’s estrangement from her 82-year-old father was well documented in the lead-up to her wedding in May 2018, as she ceased contact with him.
Her mother, Doria Ragland, was the only family member who attended the ceremony at Windsor Castle, while King Charles, then Prince of Wales, walked her down the aisle.
Following this week’s revelations, Meghan issued a statement of her own, explaining that she broke off contact to ‘protect’ her children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, whom Thomas Snr has never met.
She said on Friday: ‘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 said she was ‘deeply distressed’ by the allegations against her father, saying her thoughts are ‘with any children who may have been harmed’.
Describing the accusations as ‘more sickening than one could ever imagine’, she expressed her ‘sincerest hope’ that ‘justice will be fully served’, with the ‘priority’ remaining the ‘safety and protection of innocent children’.
Her last known contact with Thomas Snr came in the form of a letter sent last December after his leg amputation. He had told the press that he did not want to die distanced from his daughter.
It’s believed he is now living in a rehabilitation centre in Florida.
The Metropolitan Police has not previously investigated, nor is it currently investigating, Thomas Snr.
However, the Undersecretary for the Philippines Department of Justice, Nicholas Ty, has said ‘the matter is currently being investigated’ by an anti-human trafficking and child sexual exploitation force in Cebu.
Earlier today, the Met confirmed it received a letter in January 2019 including claims of ‘alleged offending outside the UK’.
This was then passed to Meghan and Harry ‘for their awareness’, with Meghan’s own statement saying she was ‘given assurance that these were being investigated’.
The Met said that ‘details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies’, adding: ‘The MPS is reviewing the handling of this matter in 2019 and considering whether a referral to the IOPC is necessary to review our approach.’
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