****## A statement years in the making Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, has broken her silence over allegations against her estranged father, saying she was first told of "troubling and disturbing allegations" against him eight years ago — and that the knowledge shaped one of the most scrutinised decisions of her life: keeping her children away from their grandfather. In a statement issued on Friday, Meghan said she was deeply distressed by what had emerged in the previous 24 hours, and that her thoughts were with any children who may have been harmed. The intervention came a day after Britain's The Sun newspaper reported that Thomas Markle, 82, was under investigation in the Philippines over an alleged stash of child sexual abuse images, reportedly discovered by his son at a former family home. Meghan, 45, has had no public contact with her father since the run-up to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, a rift that has been endlessly picked over in the press. Until now, she has never publicly explained the reasons in these terms. The statement — reported by Reuters, CNN, USA Today and People magazine — marks the first time she has addressed the matter directly. The BBC's original report on her statement is available on its UK news pages.
What triggered the statement
The Sun reported on Thursday that Thomas Markle Jr, 60, Meghan's half-brother, had uncovered a large collection of indecent images of children at his father's former home in Cebu City in the Philippines, and had reported the discovery to the authorities there. The newspaper reported that the images were allegedly found in storage boxes and on computer hard drives, and that Markle Jr had also contacted the FBI hotline in the United States, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and police in Pennsylvania, where his father was living at the time. On Friday, the Philippine justice undersecretary, Nicholas Ty, told Reuters that the anti-trafficking and anti-OSAEC task force in Cebu — OSAEC refers to online sexual abuse and exploitation of children — was currently investigating the matter. Thomas Markle Sr is reported to have left the Philippines and moved to the United States earlier this year. He has strenuously denied the allegations, telling Britain's Daily Mail that they were untrue and describing them as sick lies. He is reported to have said that the computers in question had not been in his possession since he left Mexico with his son in 2025. It is essential to be clear: the allegations are unproven, Thomas Markle has not been charged with any offence, and he denies any wrongdoing. Verity is reporting the claims as allegations only, and nothing in this article should be read as asserting their truth.
The 2018 letter
According to the duchess, a letter containing allegations against her father was sent to London's Metropolitan Police and its Royalty and Specialist Protection unit in 2018, shortly after her wedding to Prince Harry that May. The letter, she said, was subsequently shared with her, made troubling and disturbing allegations against her father, and came with assurances that they were being investigated.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said the force was aware of media reports that officers from its Royalty and Specialist Protection Command were involved in passing on a letter in 2018, and that it was undertaking internal enquiries to confirm this. It is understood that the force has not previously investigated Thomas Markle, and is not currently doing so.
A source familiar with the situation told People magazine that at the time, the allegations had not been substantiated, and that Meghan was advised that speaking publicly about them could jeopardise any potential investigation. She was also said to be concerned about the legal implications of repeating unproven claims. That advice, the source indicated, is why she is only addressing the matter publicly now.
Meghan Markle with Prince Harry during their visit to Northern Ireland in March 2018, shortly before their wedding
"To protect them"
The emotional core of the statement is Meghan's explanation for the estrangement that has defined her relationship with her father for nearly a decade. She said she hoped it could now be understood, despite what she described as years of media distortion, that the distance — including her decision not to allow her children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, to have contact with their maternal grandfather — was, in her words, "for one reason: to protect them." "I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families," she added — a line widely read as a pointed comment on whether the 2018 assurances of an investigation were ever followed through. The duchess framed her remarks as a response to years of commentary. Neither of her children has ever met their grandfather; Archie was born in 2019 and Lilibet in 2021, after the rift had already become permanent. The statement also directly addresses the welfare of any potential victims, with Meghan saying her thoughts were with any children who may have been harmed. That sentiment, placed at the very top of the statement, was the first thing she chose to say.
Denials and official responses
Thomas Markle Sr's denial has been emphatic. Speaking to the Daily Mail, he rejected the claims as "sick lies", describing the accusation as the worst thing anyone could level at him, according to reports of his comments. He has maintained that the computers on which the material was allegedly found were no longer in his possession. His son, Thomas Markle Jr, has given a sharply different account. He told The Sun he had been horrified by what he found and felt he had no option but to report his father. The Sun reports that he described discovering a very large number of images, in storage boxes and on computer hard drives. The Times also covered the duchess's account of being informed by police in 2018. The official picture remains incomplete. Philippine authorities have confirmed an investigation by the Cebu anti-trafficking taskforce. The Metropolitan Police is checking its own records about the 2018 letter. No charges have been brought against Thomas Markle in any jurisdiction.
A long estrangement
The new statement lands at the end of a family breakdown that has played out in public for eight years. Thomas Markle's relationship with his daughter collapsed in the days before her May 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, when he admitted staging paparazzi photographs and then withdrew from the ceremony, citing ill health after reported heart surgery. Since then he has given a series of interviews to tabloid newspapers criticising the duchess, while she has remained almost entirely silent about him — until now. Whether Meghan's statement changes the public understanding of that long silence will depend on what the investigations find. Follow further royal developments on the Verity homepage. For now, it stands as the first on-the-record account from the Duchess herself of why she drew the line she did: not, she says, out of spite or publicity, but to protect her children. As Verity has previously noted in its royal coverage, including our piece on Queen Camilla's documentary work, the royal family's private fractures continue to generate intense public interest on both sides of the Atlantic — see more in our News section and About us page for how we cover these stories.****
