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Meghan Markle, wife of Prince Harry, said on Friday that she was "deeply dismayed" after British media reported on an investigation into her father for alleged possession of child sexual abuse images.
In the text, following the reports that emerged on Friday, Meghan Markle—who had cut all contact with her father since her wedding to Harry in 2018—clarifies that six years ago she became aware of a letter sent to British police containing "concerning allegations" against her father and that her estrangement was motivated by the need to "protect" their two children.
"I am deeply dismayed by the news that has come to light over the past 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed," the Duchess of Sussex states in the statement.
Harry, 42, the younger son of Charles III, and Meghan, 45, returned to the United Kingdom last August after moving to the United States, the Duchess of Sussex's home country, in 2020 after stepping down from their duties as working members of the royal family.
The decision caused a deep rift with the members of the British monarchy.
- Police letter -
After their return, the couple enrolled their children—Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five—in a British school which is reportedly located in the rural Cotswolds area in southwestern England, near the residence they allegedly chose to live in.
Meghan Markle's statement comes after The Sun and Daily Mail newspapers published a report in which Thomas Markle Jr., Meghan's brother, claimed to have found a set of images belonging to his father at what was his former home in the Philippines and that the country's police had opened an investigation.
"In 2018, a letter was sent to the London Metropolitan Police and the department of Royal Family and Specially Protected Persons Protection. Subsequently, that letter was forwarded to me. In it, concerning and disturbing allegations were made against my father, and I was assured that they were being investigated," Meghan states in her statement this Friday.
"I hope it can now be understood that, despite the distortions spread over the years by certain media outlets, my estrangement from my father and my decision not to allow him to have contact with our children were due to only one reason: to protect them," Meghan adds in the text.
- Her father's reaction -
When consulted by AFP, the London Metropolitan Police stated they were "verifying" information regarding the possible transmission of this letter.
However, a source close to the case indicated that the police had never investigated Meghan Markle's father and were not doing so currently.
According to the British news agency PA, this letter was allegedly delivered to the Duchess of Sussex in 2018, shortly after her wedding to Prince Harry in May.
Meghan Markle expresses in the statement that "the magnitude of what has now come to light is more repulsive than one could imagine."
Because of this, Meghan Markle expresses in the text that her "sincere wish is for justice to be fully served and for the priority to remain the safety and protection of innocent children."
In an interview granted to the Daily Mail from Florida, United States, Thomas Markle, 82, Meghan's father, rejected the allegations, which he labeled as "a bunch of lies."
"I am shocked, hurt, and deeply affected by the accusations my son leveled against me. I could never do what I am being accused of. It is the worst thing anyone could accuse me of," he declared.
Meghan had resumed contact with her father, a former director of photography for American television, in December 2025, when he was hospitalized in the Philippines after suffering an amputation of his left leg.
[Publicidad]