The Duchess of Sussex sent a final letter to her father saying she knows he is an abuser and he will never see the grandchildren, according to reports.
Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, alleged to The Sun that he found a stash of child sex abuse images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines and reported it to the local police and FBI.
The father, Thomas Markle Sr, has admitted to paying for sex in the Philippines but denies he had a hoard of such images.
The Metropolitan Police on Saturday confirmed it had passed a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom” to Meghan and the Duke of Sussex in 2019, but did not share details with other law enforcement agencies.
Meghan is “upset and really frustrated” by the Met’s handling of the investigation, the Telegraph reported later that day.
She said that in 2018 she was shown a letter sent to Scotland Yard making “troubling” allegations against Mr Markle Sr and was assured that these were being investigated.
The Met is now “reviewing the handling of this matter”, including whether it needs to be referred to the police watchdog.
A spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex said if police had a time-stamped record confirming the letter was reviewed in 2019, then that “should be treated as the accurate reference point for when it was received and shared with the duchess”.
The time passed makes it “understandable” Meghan “may have been mistaken by a few months”, they added.
Meghan’s friend told The Telegraph: “She’s obviously upset and really frustrated that, having effectively been told to stay quiet and having been given assurances it would be investigated, it appears nothing was done.
“She’s obviously pleased that the Met is now considering referring itself to the police watchdog.”
The Sun on Sunday reported that Meghan had written a final letter to her father, telling him she knows he is an abuser and that he will never meet his grandchildren.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has since called the Met’s decision not to share the allegations about Mr Markle Sr an “operational issue”.
She expressed sympathy for the “tremendous amount of intrusion” the Duchess of Sussex has faced into her family, saying it “must be difficult as a daughter to have all this out in the open”.
Ms Rayner told Sky News on Sunday: “The police have a very robust system in place of independence, where they will act to ensure that where they need to share information, it’s appropriate, they will do that.
“That is an operational issue for the police. They’re independent, I’m sure that they’re making those decisions based upon people upholding the law and especially protecting children.”
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were informed of the allegations in 2019 (Jonathan Brady/PA)
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In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Markle Sr said he has “never had sex with anyone under the age of 18”.
He told the paper that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and “slept with prostitutes”.
“I like Asian women but that is not a crime,” he said.
“I am not well enough to go to the Philippines but I will speak to anyone who wants to talk to me. I have nothing to hide.”
Mr Markle Sr is learning to walk again at a nursing facility in Florida after he had his leg amputated during life-saving surgery in 2025.
He said he would also welcome any forensic examination of his computer, telling the Mail on Sunday: “If there is anything bad on there, it was put there by someone else.”
Meghan became estranged from her former TV lighting director father in the run-up to her 2018 royal wedding (Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA)
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Mr Markle Sr’s eldest daughter Samantha Markle defended her father, telling the paper: “I believe this is a set-up.”
Meghan became estranged from her former TV lighting director father in the run-up to her 2018 royal wedding after he was caught staging paparazzi photographs.
Mr Markle Sr did not attend the wedding, leaving the King to accompany Meghan down the aisle and meaning the only member of her family present was her mother, Doria Ragland.
Meghan was the only child of Mr Markle Sr’s marriage to Ms Ragland, though he has two children, Samantha and Mr Markle Jr, from an earlier marriage.
In 2021, Meghan won a High Court privacy and copyright claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” handwritten letter she wrote to Mr Markle Sr in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.
She wrote the emotional five-page letter to him in August 2018 after taking advice from two unnamed senior royals.
In 2025, Mr Markle Sr moved to the Philippines for a new life after suffering a series of strokes.