Photo-Illustration: Photos: YouTube, Getty Images; Illustration: Vulture
Saturday Night Live UK solved some very complicated joke math last night. “Weekend Update” had to figure out how to comment on the recent allegations that Megan Markle’s father Thomas was in possession of “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sexual-abuse images. How do you joke about that while punching down, without re-traumatizing victims, and without siding with the accused or accuser? The answer: make it about former Prince Andrew and the British public’s xenophobia. “In royal news, it’s been a big 24 hours for Meghan Markle, whose dad has been accused of being an alleged pedophile, in another pathetic attempt to win over the British public,” anchor Paddy Young said. Ania Magliano added “If the allegations about Meghan Markle’s father are true and he is a pedophile, there is a genuine chance Meghan could be considered royal.”
On Thursday, British tabloid The Sun reported that Thomas Markle’s 60-year-old son, Thomas Markle Jr., reported him to authorities in the Philippines after discovering “hundreds, if not thousands” of CSA images. On Friday, Meghan Markle said she was was “deeply distressed” by the allegations against her estranged father. “In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” she said in a statement to People. “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.”
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