The Metropolitan Police asked the Duchess of Sussex for a copy of a letter containing serious allegations about her father after misplacing the original, it was reported.
The force said that in 2019 it had passed a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom” to Meghan and the Duke of Sussex, but did not share details with other law enforcement agencies.
But it has now emerged the Met had misplaced the original letter, The Times reported, as police in the Philippines investigate suspected child sex abuse images reportedly found at Thomas Markle Sr’s former home.
The newspaper said Meghan had kept a copy and was able to provide it to police when asked.
Scotland Yard was approached for comment.
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 Duchess of Sussex sent a final letter to her father while he was recovering there from a leg amputation last year, according to reports in the Sun on Sunday.
The Met said that in 2019 it had passed a letter ‘containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom’ to Meghan and the Duke of Sussex (PA)
PA Archive
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.
Philippines interior minister Jonvic Remulla told The Guardian that a forensic investigation into Mr Markle Sr would be completed in a week and provide a “definitive picture”.
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.”
Meghan is “upset and really frustrated” by the Met’s handling of the investigation, the Telegraph reported.
She said that she was shown a letter sent to Scotland Yard making “troubling” allegations against Mr Markle Sr and was assured that these were being investigated.
The Met is now “reviewing the handling of this matter”, including whether it needs to be referred to the police watchdog.
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 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.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Meghan will co-host Junior MasterChef in Australia.
Meghan is reportedly set to co-host Junior MasterChef in Australia (Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA)
PA Wire
Meghan will be based there for the duration of filming, which is likely to take place over weeks in early to mid-2027, Australian outlet News.com.au said.
She may be visited by the Duke of Sussex and their children, though no decision has yet been made, an insider told the publication.
A spokesman for the Sussexes was approached for comment.