Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has stated she is "deeply distressed" by accusations that her estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr., possessed a hoard of child sex abuse images. The allegations were made by Meghan's half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., who claimed to have found the images at their father's former home in the Philippines. Thomas Markle Sr. has denied the accusations, calling them "sick lies."
The Duchess's relationship with her father has been strained for years, with significant public attention on their troubled dynamic since before her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry.
Thomas Markle Sr. and Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, divorced in 1988. Meghan primarily lived with Ragland but maintained a close relationship with her father, who has two older children, Samantha Markle and Thomas Jr., from a previous marriage.
In early 2011, Thomas Sr. retired as a TV lighting engineer and moved from Southern California to Rosarito, Mexico. By July 2016, Meghan had met Prince Harry, and their relationship began.
The relationship between father and daughter began to publicly fracture in 2018, around the time of Meghan's wedding to Prince Harry. Amidst plans for Thomas Sr. to walk Meghan down the aisle, pictures emerged of him in Mexico seemingly preparing for the event. It was later revealed by The Mail on Sunday that these photos, which appeared to be taken without his knowledge, had been staged in cooperation with a photographer for payment.
Two days before the wedding, Thomas Sr. announced he would not attend, citing a recent heart attack and a desire not to embarrass his daughter. Prince Charles ultimately stood in for him during the ceremony. Following the wedding, reports indicated Meghan was taking "a bit of time out" from her father after he allegedly ended a call with Prince Harry during a dispute over the staged photographs. Around the same time, a letter containing unspecified allegations about Thomas Sr. was sent to the Metropolitan Police and shared with Meghan.
In August 2018, shortly after the wedding, Meghan reportedly wrote to her father asking him to stop "victimizing" her through media interviews. Thomas Sr. had previously claimed a "wall of silence" had formed between them. Friends of Meghan stated she retained "a lot of sympathy" for him, while he later complained about never meeting his grandson, Archie.
By 2020, Thomas Sr. admitted to providing Meghan's letter to The Mail on Sunday, asserting it signaled the end of their relationship. In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan stated her father had "betrayed" her by working with journalists before the wedding, adding that she found it difficult to reconcile with him.
Thomas Sr. was hospitalized in Mexico and then the United States in 2022 after suffering a stroke, forcing him to cancel a planned visit to Britain for events surrounding Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee. Meghan stated in her 2022 Netflix documentary, "Harry & Meghan," that she had not had meaningful contact with her father for several years.
In 2025, Thomas Sr. moved to the Philippines with his son, Thomas Jr. He has stated that computers allegedly containing child sex abuse images were boxed up at this point and have not been in his possession since. In December of that year, he had his left leg amputated below the knee due to a blood clot, expressing a wish to meet his grandchildren before his death. While in the hospital, he received a letter from Meghan.
In October 2026, Thomas Jr. claimed to have found a child sex image on a phone within his father's storage box in the Philippines in July, followed by the alleged discovery of "hundreds" of disturbing thumbnail images on a computer. Meghan has since stated she learned of the current accusations via the letter she sent in 2018.