Meghan Markle knew since 2019 that her father consumed child pornography

BarcelonaThe Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, knew since January 2019 that her father allegedly consumed child pornography. The police alerted her to the facts seven years ago, after her wedding and before she left the British royal household in 2020 and moved with Prince Harry to the United States. This was the reason why she cut off contact with him, as Markle herself explained on Friday in a letter to the newspaper The Sun. The Duchess states that she has endured media criticism regarding her cold father-daughter relationship so as not to hinder the investigations into these "disturbing and unsettling allegations," as requested by the London Metropolitan Police. "I hope it is now understood that all the distance from my father and my decision not to allow him any contact with our children had a reason: to protect them." According to the BBC, the Duchess had one final communication with her father, who is 82 years old, last year, when he asked to see her, them, and the grandchildren "before dying." She responded by letter telling him that she and the police knew he had abused girls.

The British police have confirmed that in 2019—the Duchess was mistaken about the date, as she said the summer of 2018—they received allegations against Markle senior. Scotland Yard reportedly shared this information with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex but not with other security agencies. The Telegraph reports, citing sources close to the family, that the Duchess is "disgusted and frustrated" by the inaction of the Metropolitan Police, because the sexual abuse allegations against her father were not passed on to foreign authorities. Scotland Yard has explained that it had received a letter "containing various allegations of alleged crimes" outside British jurisdiction and that it did not pass them on to the Philippines, where Markle resided.

In her statement, Meghan said she was "overwhelmed" by information worse than she could have imagined: "My thoughts are with the children who may have been abused." Meghan Markle's unusual statements came just hours after her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, reported their father after discovering he had "hundreds, if not thousands" of explicit images of child pornography and abuse at his home in Cebu (Philippines), where he lived until May. The father left precipitously to receive care after suffering a heart attack, which ended with the amputation of a leg. The son revealed that in the four boxes he found there were images of girls aged 10 or 11 participating in sexual acts in different locations, among which he recognized the house that his father had for some years in Rosarito (Baja California, Mexico). The father, who is now in Florida, has denied it. Thomas Markle Jr's sister, Samantha, famous for her disagreements with her half-sister, says it is a setup because the father stopped sending money to the brother, and the Philippine authorities have opened an investigation.