Alleged Image Claims Involving Meghan Markle’s Father Surface Online

Police investigating allegations involving child-abuse material have reportedly received a photograph said to depict Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr, in a sexual situation with a girl who appears to be underage.

The image is understood to be part of a collection of hundreds of suspected abuse-related photographs. Reports say it shows a bearded man believed to be Mr Markle on a bed with a young Asian girl.

The claims surfaced after the Duchess of Sussex disclosed that she had been alerted in 2018 to what she described as “troubling and disturbing” allegations concerning her father, shortly after her wedding to Prince Harry.

Meghan said police had shown her a letter outlining the allegations. She has indicated that the warning influenced her decision to prevent her father from having contact with her family.

Thomas Markle Jr, Meghan’s 60-year-old half-brother, has since turned over four large boxes of material recovered from their father’s former property in Cebu City, the Philippines, to investigators.

The Sun reported that the material includes an old 35mm film negative showing a man thought possibly to be Mr Markle, now 82, lying on a bed with an Asian girl. A second image allegedly features the same man—believed to have been in his late 40s or early 50s at the time—partly concealed by the girl’s arm.

Thomas Jr reportedly spent more than nine hours formally handing over the material and claimed the boxes contained “hundreds, if not thousands” of obscene images. Mr Markle has strongly denied the allegations and has not commented on the latest claims.

Scotland Yard was also attempting to locate a letter said to have warned Meghan about child-abuse allegations against her father eight years ago.

Meghan’s public reference to the letter and its alleged “troubling and disturbing” contents made international headlines on Friday.

She said the allegations were why she had chosen not to allow Thomas Markle into her family’s life, citing the need to protect Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that officers were trying to trace the letter reportedly received in 2018. However, sources stressed that the force had not opened an investigation into Mr Markle.

The Sussexes said on Friday that they retained a copy of the document and would provide it to police if officers were unable to find the original.

Meghan’s statement followed reports that her father was under scrutiny in the Philippines over claims that he had stored images involving child sexual abuse.

Thomas Markle Jr told investigators that he had discovered boxes containing disturbing images of naked children among his father’s belongings. Mr Markle dismissed the allegations as “sick lies,” claiming his son had invented them for financial gain.

Meghan described feeling “deep distress” over the allegations, calling them “more sickening than one could ever imagine” and saying her thoughts were with any children who may have been harmed.

The 45-year-old duchess said she hoped the public would now understand that ending her relationship with Mr Markle and denying him access to her children had been motivated by one concern: their safety.

Questions surrounding the matter grew after Metropolitan Police sources said the force had not investigated Mr Markle in 2018 or at any point since. Officers were reportedly working to locate the letter referenced by Meghan.

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “We are aware of media reports that officers from the Met’s Royalty and Specialist Protection Command were involved in passing on a letter in 2018.”

‘We are undertaking inquiries internally in an effort to confirm this.’

Meghan’s statement did not specify exactly when in 2018 the letter was sent to the police or when it was subsequently shared with her. She married Prince Harry in May that year.

Other unanswered questions include who sent the letter to the Yard, who assured the duchess that it was being investigated, and which police force had investigated her father if not the Met?

The latest drama unfolded after Tom Jr, 60, told police in the Philippines he had discovered ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of child-sex images in four large boxes ‘left behind’ at his 82-year-old father’s home, where he had been living until earlier this year.

Tom Jr allegedly saw a computer screensaver with ‘hundreds’ of disturbing thumbnail images, videos of girls under 12 involved in sex acts, and ‘old books that turned out to be full of naked little girls’.

He said he was ‘horrified’ and ‘had no option but to report my dad’, first contacting the FBI in America and the US Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

This week, he took the material to police in the Philippine city of Cebu, accompanied by Sun journalists.

Mr Markle is now under investigation by a child-sex abuse task force in Cebu, with the FBI also poised to join the probe now that he is living in the US in a nursing and rehab centre in Florida.

A source close to Meghan was quoted in The Sun saying: ‘Now maybe people will finally understand why she has had nothing to do with her father since 2018.’

On Friday, Mr Markle told the Mail that the accusations were ‘sick lies’, adding: ‘I’m shocked, I’m hurt and I’m very upset that my son is making these accusations against me. I could never do what I’m being accused of.

‘It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of. This is bulls***. It’s just a bunch of lies. It’s sick. I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these lies.’

Speaking exclusively to this paper, he challenged his son’s account. He claimed the computers had not been in his possession since he left Rosarito, Mexico, in January 2025 and moved to the Philippines ‘for a fresh start’.

Asked by the Mail, ‘Did you download porn on to your computers?’, Mr Markle said: ‘Never. Never. Never. I have never done that.’ Authorities in the Philippines confirmed they were investigating. Interior minister Jonvic Remulla said Tom Jr had given police evidence including a laptop.

Meghan and her father had a very public falling-out before her marriage after he posed for paparazzi pictures on the eve of her wedding to Prince Harry.

Within days he had two heart attacks and was unable to walk her down the aisle.

The Sussexes left the UK in 2020, but returned this month.

In her statement, Meghan said: ‘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. In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. 

‘That letter was subsequently shared with me. It 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.

‘I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families. 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.’

The FBI said it was ‘aware of the allegations and will provide support, as appropriate, to the Philippine authorities. We will also investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law’.

A source close to the Royal Family said: ‘This is a matter for the Sussex household.’

On Friday, The Sun reported that the letter sent to the Met in 2018 alleged Mr Markle sexually abused a child. The author also claimed Mr Markle had admitted travelling to Thailand and the Philippines to abuse children.