The Duchess of Sussex said she was “deeply distressed” over child sex image accusations against her father Thomas Markle, adding she was made aware of “disturbing allegations” against him in 2018 by the Metropolitan Police.
Meghan issued the statement after it was reported that her father, who she has been estranged from since her marriage to Prince Harry, was being investigated over claims he kept child sex images at his home.
She added that she had not allowed her 82-year-old father to meet the couple’s two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to “protect them”.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mr Markle denied possessing child sex images, calling the accusations “sick lies”.
In a 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 duchess has been estranged from her former TV lighting director father since the weeks before her wedding in 2018, after he staged and sold photographs to the paparazzi.
It is not clear if she received the letter from Scotland Yard before or after the nuptials at Windsor Castle in May.
Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Jr made the claims to The Sun, saying he had allegedly found “hundreds” of child sex images on computers and a cellphone which were left behind when his father moved from the Philippines earlier this year.
He is said to have reported his discovery to the FBI Hotline and to the state police in Pennsylvania, as well as the US-based National Centre for Exploited and Missing Children in July.
In response to the accusations, Mr Markle said: “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.”
Mr Markle did not attend the royal wedding, leaving the King to accompany Meghan down the aisle and meaning the only member of her family present was her mother Doria Ragland.
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 in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.
She penned the emotional five-page letter to him in August 2018 after taking advice from two unnamed senior royals.
Meghan was the only child of Mr Markle’s marriage to Ms Ragland, though he has two children – Samantha Markle and Thomas Jr – from an earlier marriage.
Mr Markle had been living in Cebu but was forced to return to the US after suffering a stroke and a blood clot which led to the amputation of his left leg.
Last December, her spokesperson confirmed she had been able to send him a letter while he was being treated in hospital, after he said he did not want to die while estranged from his daughter.
He is reportedly now living in a rehab centre in Florida, where he is learning to walk again.
Harry and Meghan returned to live in the UK in August, six years after stepping down as working members of the royal family and relocating to the US.
The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.
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