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Meghan’s final letter puts police response under fresh scrutiny
Meghan Markle’s account frames her estrangement from her father as a decision to protect her children, while Thomas Markle Sr rejects the allegations outright. The emerging dispute also raises a separate question over whether police acted adequately on information received years earlier.
Meghan Markle’s reported final letter to her father has shifted attention from a long-running family estrangement to two unresolved issues: serious allegations against Thomas Markle Sr, which he denies, and the handling of a 2019 warning by London police.
Reporting across outlets broadly agrees that the Duchess of Sussex wrote to her father in 2025 while he was recovering from a leg amputation in the Philippines. Sources close to Meghan told the BBC that she said he would never meet her children and that she would not contact him again.1 Meghan later said she had kept her distance from him “for one reason: to protect them,” adding that her thoughts were with any children who might have been harmed.2
The allegations have been amplified by Thomas Markle Jr, who says he found alleged child sexual abuse material among property at his father’s former home in Cebu. Philippine authorities are examining digital evidence; Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla said investigators needed forensic results before reaching a definitive conclusion, while saying officials were considering all possibilities because “family disputes are mixed up.”3
Thomas Markle Sr has rejected the claims. He told the Mail that he had “never had sex with anyone under the age of 18” and denied possessing abusive images.4 The contrast is stark: Meghan and her supporters present the letter as evidence that safeguarding concerns, rather than the previously publicised wedding dispute, drove the rupture; her father says the accusations are false.
A separate point of agreement is that the Metropolitan Police received a letter in January 2019 containing claims of alleged offending outside the UK. The force said it passed the letter to the Sussexes’ office but did not share its contents with other law-enforcement bodies, and is now reviewing its handling of the matter.5 Meghan’s team has acknowledged that her initial reference to 2018 was mistaken by a few months, saying the police’s time-stamped record should be treated as accurate.6
The FBI has said it is aware of the allegations and may support Philippine authorities, while the Philippine inquiry continues.7