Met Police Admits It Sat on 2019 Letter About Meghan's Father

Met Police Admits It Sat on 2019 Letter About Meghan's Father

Police confirm the letter, but date it a year later than Meghan

The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Oct. 24 that a review of its systems and records shows it received a letter in January 2019 containing "a number of claims" about "alleged offending outside the United Kingdom" by Thomas Markle Sr., the estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex. The letter was sent to the force's Protection Command to raise concerns over the security of the duchess. The timing differs by a year from Meghan's own account: in a statement on Oct. 23, she said the letter was sent to the Met and Royalty and Specialist Protection in 2018 and subsequently shared with her.

Force passed it to the Sussexes, told no other agency

According to a Met spokesperson, the letter was reviewed and passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "for their awareness," while "the details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies." The force said it is now reviewing its handling of the matter and considering whether a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct is necessary. The Met has also said it has not investigated and is not currently investigating a man in his 80s who lives outside Britain.

Meghan cites the letter to explain years of estrangement

Meghan described the letter's contents as "troubling and disturbing allegations" against her father and said she had been given assurances they were being investigated. "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," she said. She added that she hoped it could now be understood why she had kept her distance from her father and did not allow him contact with her children, in order to protect them. The duchess is 45; her children Prince Archie is seven and Princess Lilibet is five, and they have never met their grandfather, according to The Guardian. She has been estranged from her father since the run-up to her wedding to Prince Harry.

What the letter allegedly claimed, and the Philippines probe behind it

The Sun reported that it had seen a copy of the letter, addressed to the Met's Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, alleging that Thomas Sr. had sexually abused a child and claiming he had admitted travelling to the Philippines and Thailand to abuse children. The confirmation comes as Thomas Markle Sr., 82, faces investigation in the Philippines over alleged child sexual abuse images found at his former home in Cebu. His son, Thomas Markle Jr., says he discovered the material in four large boxes stored with family mementos, containing "hundreds, if not thousands" of images, and was "horrified." According to PEOPLE, Markle Jr. contacted the FBI hotline, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Pennsylvania state police on July 10, and submitted a sworn statement to Philippine authorities; investigators from the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking have appointed a task force run by the Women and Children's Protection Centre.

The accused denies everything, calls the claims sick lies

Thomas Sr. has denied the allegations. He told the Daily Mail he was "shocked" and "hurt," calling his son's accusations "sick lies" and saying he had no idea why his son was trying to destroy him. He has lived in the United States after leaving the Philippines in May following a blood clot that led to the amputation of his left leg, having earlier suffered a stroke in 2022. He is now in a nursing and rehabilitation facility in Florida, according to the International Business Times.

Two tracks to watch: the Met's self-review and Cebu's case

Two tracks matter next. First, whether the Met refers its own 2019 handling to the police watchdog, which would judge whether passing the letter only to the Sussexes without alerting other agencies breached procedure. Second, whether investigators in Cebu seize the alleged evidence and whether US agencies open their own probe. For Meghan, the letter's emergence offers her explanation for years of estrangement; for the institutions, the questions about who should have been told, and when, are only beginning.