Duchess of Sussex’s decision to cut ties with elderly father cast in new light as he faces sexual abuse image claims

The depiction of the Duchess of Sussex by certain sections of the media has often been one of a fame-hungry daughter casting off an elderly father in his declining years and keeping him from his grandchildren as she embraces the international celebrity stage.

Their estrangement has been the subject of countless headlines since her marriage to Prince Harry. But her statement today, released after child sex image allegations made against Thomas Markle Sr , 82, suggests deeper, darker fears as the cause.

“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,” she said.

It has been speculated that the source of the estrangement between Meghan and Markle Sr, an award-winning TV lighting director, was over his decision to collude with a photographer and be paid for setting up shots of him preparing to attend the Sussexes’ wedding at Windsor Castle where he was due to walk her down the aisle.

In the end, Markle Sr pulled out due to health issues, and it was Harry’s father, now King Charles, who lent the bride his arm on her final steps to the altar of St George’s chapel after she walked the first part of the aisle alone.

Since that day in May 2018, the relationship between daughter and father has never recovered. Now it appears the reasons why are contained in a letter from the same year, sent to the Metropolitan police and containing “troubling and disturbing allegations” against Markle Sr and shared with Meghan in the summer after her wedding.

The precise nature of those allegations has not been clarified, though they were enough for Meghan to want to keep her own family at a distance from him, her statement makes clear.

The fact she says that “the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine”, suggests the 2018 letter did not go as far as what has now been alleged.

Markle Sr has vigorously denied the latest allegations, which are made by his son Thomas Markle Jr, 60. First published by the Sun newspaper, they claim Markle Sr downloaded child sex images to computers and mobile phones found at his former home in the Philippines.

He has called the accusations “sick lies” from a son with whom he has a troubled relationship, and claims to have had no access to the computers and phones in question in the two years since he left Mexico, where he was previously living, for the Philippines, according to the Daily Mail.

Meghan clearly hopes to reframe the narrative of her estrangement from her father, which has often been shaped by his loquacious tendencies in many media interviews.

When speaking to journalists, Markle Sr has frequently lamented the breakdown of his relationship with his youngest daughter (he has two other children, Samantha Markle and Thomas Jnr, from an earlier marriage). He has spoken of how he has been unable to reach Meghan, and of how he has never been allowed to meet his grandchildren, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five.

The media depiction has often leaned towards that of an uncaring daughter, whose father paid for her education, helped sow the seeds of her acting career and found himself abandoned in his time of need.

For the most part, Meghan has not publicly acknowledged his many health woes – he has suffered a series of strokes and recently had a leg amputated due to complications with a blood clot – and she clearly believes this has been weaponised against her.

However, in 2025, Meghan’s spokesperson confirmed that the duchess had “reached out” privately to her father when he was hospitalised and very unwell. He is now understood to be in a rehabilitation centre in Florida undergoing physiotherapy after the amputation of his leg.

Whatever the outcome of this latest development, it adds a new dimension to the complicated, fractured relationship between Meghan and her family.