Play Brightcove video
ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship has the latest on a story that has moved on significantly since it broke on Friday
The accusations about Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, were made in a letter written by his first wife and include claims that Markle chose to travel to Thailand and the Philippines for underage sex.
The letter was sent by Roslyn Markle, also known as Roslyn Loveless, in 2019 and it was addressed, not to the Duchess of Sussex, but to the Metropolitan Police.
The force admitted on Saturday that it did receive the letter and passed it onto Meghan and Harry, but they did not share the contents with other law enforcement agencies in the US and Mexico, where Markle was living at the time.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said the force is reviewing its handling of the matter and “considering whether a referral to the IOPC is necessary to review our approach”.
Roslyn married Markle in 1964 and she is the mother of Meghan’s half-siblings, Samantha and Thomas Junior.
Meghan and Harry moved back to the UK this year Credit: PA
The couple divorced in 1974.
But 45 years after their marriage ended, Roslyn decided to write to British police to warn them of her ex-husband’s alleged behaviour.
The handwritten letter, seen by ITV News, runs to half a dozen pages and was addressed to a specialist unit of the Metropolitan Police called the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre.
The letter makes a number of accusations about Markle, including a claim that he is a paedophile.
She also alleges that she confronted her ex-husband about his behaviour and he denied the accusation.
Roslyn writes that Markle told her that he travelled to the Philippines and to Thailand for sex with minors.
Markle has denied the allegations against him and has told one newspaper in recent days that the claims are “sick lies”.
He admitted paying for sex to the Mail on Sunday, but said he had never had sex with anyone under the age of 18 and would do “whatever it takes” to clear his name.
“I could never do what I’m being accused of. It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of. This is bulls**t. It’s just a bunch of lies,” Markle also told the Daily Mail on Friday.
The Duchess of Sussex wrote in a statement on Friday that she terminated contact with her father after being passed the letter from his first wife in January 2019.
Subscribe free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.
Meghan wrote that she has cut communication since then in order to “protect” her children with Harry.
Meanwhile, police in Cebu, in the Philippines, where Markle had been living until recently, are continuing with their investigations.
Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Jr, says he handed police several boxes containing child sex abuse images which he claims to have found in his father’s home.
Police from the Exploitation of Children’s Taskforce in Cebu are going through the material that was handed to them.
One investigator has said the potential offences are of the “grossest kind” and they estimate it could take them a week to got through all the material and forensics.
This is the Talking Royals – our weekly podcast about the royal family, with ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship and Producer Lizzie Robinson