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The letter which was sent to the Duchess of Sussex in 2019 containing allegations about her father has been seen by ITV News.
It is a handwritten note, across several pages, which sets out a series of claims about Thomas Markle.
The letter was addressed to the Metropolitan Police’s specialist unit called the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, which deals with individuals who could pose a risk to royals, senior politicians and other VIPs.
It was then passed to Meghan’s police protection team so they could hand it to her.
As it contained no claims of illegality in the UK, no police investigation was launched and, it seems, no record of the letter was logged in the police database.
However, ITV News has now seen a copy of the letter. It contains claims about Thomas Markle’s behaviour.
The letter was written by someone who is close to the Markle family and has connections with a number of family members.
ITV News has decided not to reveal the contents of the letter, the individuals’ names in it or the specific allegations made.
On Friday Meghan’s office said she received it in the summer of 2018 – but now admit Meghan may have wrongly recalled the date by a few months.
It caused the Duchess to terminate all contact with her father.
They have not spoken since, and Mr Markle has never met Prince Harry or his grandchildren Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
As Meghan explained in her extraordinary personal statement on Friday, her decision to refuse her father contact with Harry and Meghan’s children was taken “for one reason: to protect them”.
The Metropolitan Police has admitted it did not pass on the allegations to any other “law enforcement bodies” which is why it is considering referring itself to the Police watchdog.
Meghan described the allegations in the letter as “troubling and disturbing“, but says she was assured, at the time, that they would be properly investigated.
The Duchess had been advised not to speak publicly about the claims concerning her father as it would risk jeopardising any subsequent criminal investigations.
Meghan said, in her statement, that some media organisations had, for many years, “distorted” her decision to distance herself from Mr Markle but she hoped that her position would now be better “understood”.
The existence of the letter came to light after Thomas Markle’s son, Thomas Junior, claimed he had found large quantities of sexually explicit material involving children at the home in the Philippines where Mr Markle senior had been living.
Thomas Junior, who is Meghan’s half-brother, told The Sun newspaper that he had reported the items to police.
Meghan’s father moved to the city of Cebu in the Philippines in 2025.
The country’s Department of Justice has confirmed it is now investigating an American citizen in his eighties.
The Department’s Undersecretary Nicholas Ty, who is in charge of the Interagency Council Against Trafficking, told ITV News: “Our Anti-Trafficking and Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children task force in Cebu is currently investigating the matter.”
Thomas Markle has denied the allegations and referred to them in one newspaper interview as “sick lies”.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “Following a thorough review of Met Police systems and records, we have confirmed that in January 2019, we received a letter containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom.
“It was sent to the MPS Protection Command to raise concerns in relation to the security of the Duchess of Sussex.
“The letter was reviewed, and a decision was made that it should be 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.
“The MPS is reviewing the handling of this matter in 2019 and considering whether a referral to the IOPC is necessary to review our approach.”
This is the Talking Royals – our weekly podcast about the royal family, with ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship and Producer Lizzie Robinson