Met refers itself to police watchdog over action on letter about Meghan’s father
Thomas Markle Sr has admitted to paying for sex in the Philippines but denies ever possessing child sex abuse images.
The Metropolitan Police said it has voluntarily referred itself to the police watchdog because it failed to pass on a letter detailing allegations against the Duchess of Sussex’s father to relevant overseas law enforcement agencies.
It comes as police in the Philippines investigate suspected child sex abuse images reportedly found at Thomas Markle Sr’s former home.
Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, on Friday told The Sun he found a stash of child sex abuse images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines and reported it to local police and the FBI.
Mr Markle Sr has admitted paying for sex in the south-east Asian country but denies ever possessing a hoard of such material.
The Met Police has said that in 2019, it received a letter in which the author suggested “they were writing to raise concerns relating to the security of the Duchess of Sussex”.
The Met added the letter “did not actually contain any information specifically related to security matters, it did contain a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom”.
It was passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness, the force said.
Following a review, a voluntary referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct “in respect of the decision not to inform other law enforcement agencies, and the decision to pass the letter to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”, the Met said.
Commander Adam Slonecki, who leads the Metropolitan Police’s Protection Command, said: “In January 2019, the Met received a letter addressed to our Protection Command, specifically the Fixated Threats Assessment Centre.
“The author of the letter suggested they were writing to raise concerns relating to the security of the Duchess of Sussex.
“While the letter did not actually contain any information specifically related to security matters, it did contain a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom.
“The letter was assessed and subsequently passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness.
“The details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies.
“In recent days, the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards has carried out an initial review into our actions following receipt of the letter in 2019.
“Following that review, a voluntary referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in respect of the decision not to inform other law enforcement agencies, and the decision to pass the letter to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
“In addition, it is our intention to make a number of referrals to relevant overseas law enforcement agencies in relation to the allegations contained within the letter.
“That process is under way and will be completed in the coming days.”
The Duchess of Sussex sent a final letter to her father while he was recovering in the Philippines from a leg amputation last year, according to reports in the Sun on Sunday.
She wrote to say she knows he is an abuser and that he will never see his grandchildren Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, the newspaper said.
The BBC and other media including the Telegraph, which said it had seen a copy of the letter sent to Scotland Yard in 2019, reported the note was written by Mr Markle Sr’s ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, who has since died.
She is the mother of Mr Markle Jr and Meghan’s other half-sibling, Samantha Markle, who has defended their father, telling the Mail on Sunday: “I believe this is a set-up.”
Mr Markle Sr told the Mail on Sunday that he had “never had sex with anyone under the age of 18”.
He told the paper that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and “slept with prostitutes”.
“I like Asian women but that is not a crime,” he said.
“I am not well enough to go to the Philippines but I will speak to anyone who wants to talk to me. I have nothing to hide.”
Mr Markle Sr is learning to walk again at a nursing facility in Florida after he had his leg amputated during life-saving surgery in 2025.
He said he would also welcome any forensic examination of his computer, telling the Mail on Sunday: “If there is anything bad on there, it was put there by someone else.”
Ms Loveless divorced Mr Markle Sr in 1975 and he married the Duchess of Sussex’s mother, Doria Ragland, four years later.
Meghan became estranged from her former TV lighting director father in the run-up to her 2018 wedding after he was caught staging paparazzi photographs.
He did not attend the wedding, leaving the King to accompany Meghan down the aisle, meaning the only member of her family present was her mother, Ms Ragland.
In 2021, Meghan won a High Court privacy and copyright claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” handwritten letter she wrote to Mr Markle Sr in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.
She wrote the emotional five-page letter to him in August 2018 after taking advice from two unnamed senior royals.
In 2025, Mr Markle Sr moved to the Philippines for a new life after suffering a series of strokes.