The Duchess of Sussex‘s estranged father has confessed to paying for sex in the Philippines – but denies sleeping with underage girls.
Thomas Markle vowed to ‘do whatever it takes’ to clear his name after being accused of sickening child sex crimes, telling The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have never had sex with anyone under the age of 18.’
The 82-year-old admitted that when he was single, he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and ‘slept with prostitutes’, adding: ‘I like Asian women but that is not a crime.’Â
He protested his innocence as the Metropolitan Police faced questions over why it sat on a letter that made sex abuse claims against him for more than seven years.
Last week, Meghan said she was assured the ‘troubling and disturbing’ allegations were being investigated. But on Saturday the Met admitted failing to pass on the details of the ‘alleged offending outside the UK’ to other law enforcement agencies, presumably those in the US, Mexico and the Philippines where Mr Markle has lived.
Filipino authorities are now investigating the former Hollywood lighting technician for allegedly hoarding child-sex images.
One 35mm photograph reportedly shows a bearded man resembling Mr Markle having sex with a young Asian girl. ‘I have never been in a photograph like that,’ he said on Saturday.
The Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, has admitted paying for sex in the Philippines, but denies sleeping with underage girls
Meghan has been estranged from her father since 2018, the year she married Prince Harry
Mr Markle, pictured with nurse Rio Canedo, is the subject of a child sex investigation after being reported to police by his son
During an extensive two-hour interview, Mr Markle told the MoS that:Â
- He would willingly speak to investigators and take a lie detector test to demonstrate his innocence;
- He believes his son Tom Jr – who reported him to police – is possibly behind the explosive letter;
- Meghan stopped him from ever seeing his grandchildren Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, because of the ‘lies’ he has not been given the chance to challenge;
- Books among the hoard described as ‘pornographic’ are about nothing more than Hollywood history and photography;
- Any child abuse images found on his computer were ‘planted’ to destroy his reputation before he dies.
The duchess has spoken of her ‘deep distress’ at the allegations, that were ‘more sickening than one could ever imagine’. She added: ‘My thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.’
She said she hoped ‘it can now be understood’ that her decision to cut ties with her father ‘and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason – to protect them’.
Meghan initially said she learned about the accusations in 2018, although the Met later revealed they had actually passed the information on in 2019.
Mr Markle relocated to Cebu City in the Philippines from his home in Mexico last year. He is currently in a nursing facility in Florida where he is learning to walk with a prosthetic limb after his left leg was amputated last December.
Mr Markle said: ‘She [Meghan] never said a word to me about this letter accusing me of such terrible things. If Meghan or anyone else had come to me in 2018 and told me about the letter I would have had a chance to defend myself.
Meghan revealed last week that she had been made aware of the ‘troubling and disturbing’ claims about her father in 2018
Mr Markle said Meghan stopped him from seeing Archie and Lilibet because of the ‘lies’ he has not been given the chance to challenge
‘Why did Meghan not ask me about it? I will do whatever it takes to clear my name.
‘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. I am an innocent man and she gave me no chance to defend myself. I have been asking to see my grandchildren before I die.
‘If she saw this awful letter in 2018 why did she not contact me or send someone to speak to me?
‘She has the power to send the police or FBI. Why wait eight years? Why cut me off for a letter which contains lies and not let me defend myself?’
His son Tom Jr, 60, claims that he found child abuse images on computers his father left behind in the Philippines when he returned to the States earlier this year.
He told The Sun: ‘When I found this material, I was horrified and I had no option but to report my dad. I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years, but that stops now. I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.’
Officials confirmed on Saturday that Mr Markle Sr was being investigated by officers in Cebu City’s anti-trafficking and anti-child abuse task force. Meanwhile the FBI is poised to launch its own investigation after being contacted by Tom Jr.
Meghan’s half-sister Samantha, who is Mr Markle’s main caregiver, believes if a photograph exists of her father on a bed with a young-looking Asian woman ‘it may be one of his girlfriends’, adding: ‘Dad dated a wonderful Japanese woman called Carolyn who I loved. She was in her thirties but she looked like a teenager.
Tom Jr, Meghan’s half-brother, claimed to have found the child-abuse material packed up in boxes at his father’s Philippines home
A young Meghan with her father… she has spoken of her ‘deep distress’ at the allegations, that were ‘more sickening than one could ever imagine’
‘Asian women have great skin and are small and petite. They look much younger than they are. Dad had another girlfriend called Gail. She was Asian and gorgeous but looked very young.’
Mr Markle was married twice, to Tom Jr and Samantha’s mother Roslyn Loveless, and then to Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland. He said: ‘Do I love beautiful young women? Yes. Do I like looking at pictures of beautiful women? Yes.
‘But I have always dated age-appropriate women and I know if you talk to my ex-wife [meaning Doria, Roslyn died in 2024] or any of my ex-girlfriends they would tell you we had a normal sex life.’
His most recent girlfriend in the Philippines was his nurse Rio Canero, 46. There is no suggestion she engaged in prostitution.
Tom Jr claims he found the material when he went looking for a phone for his fiancee Rose in storage boxes in the house he and his father shared. When he opened one phone he saw ‘vile’ child sex images and then turned on a computer and found a screensaver with ‘hundreds’ of sexual pictures of children.
Mr Markle said: ‘I never shared a house with Tom. My computer and old phone were packed up in Mexico and put on a boat to the Philippines. It took months. I kept asking my son for my computer and he said it was coming. He would never give it to me and I didn’t understand why.’
He says Tom Jr told him when the boxes arrived in the Philippines they were in storage in the hotel in Cebu where they stayed when they first arrived there for a ‘fresh start’ in January 2025. The pair then lived in a neighbouring high-rise but Tom Jr told him his computer remained in storage.
Afterwards they moved into two houses outside the city but Mr Markle was only there ‘for a few days’ before suffering a massive blood clot. He went from hospital to a long-term care facility and then returned to the States in May this year for medical care. ‘I have not had my computer or phones for nearly two years,’ he said. ‘If there is anything bad on there it was put there by someone else.’
Meghan with her father on the day of her marriage to her first husband, Trevor Engelson, in 2011
Samantha added: ‘Tom Jr had possession of those boxes with dad’s computers and phones. They were in storage places which god knows how many people had access to. I believe this is a set-up.’
Police in the Philippines hauled off four boxes of evidence on Friday and spent nine hours with Tom Jr logging the evidence.
The FBI said it was ‘aware of the allegations’ and would ‘investigate any related allegations of federal violations of US law’.
Mr Markle said he would welcome forensic examination of his computer, and would fully cooperate with Philippine police or the FBI if they wished to talk to him.
He claimed books found in his possession, including one titled Hollywood Lolitas: The Nymphet Syndrome In The Movies by Marianne Sinclair are nothing more than history books.
Hollywood Lolitas is described on Publishers Weekly website as a ‘generously illustrated work’ which ‘traces Hollywood’s marketing of, and the movie-going public’s fascination with, nubile girls of the silver screens’.
The Met Police on Saturday confirmed it received a letter in 2019 about a ‘number of claims of alleged offending outside the UK by Thomas Sr, which they passed to the Sussexes but not any other law enforcement agencies’.Â
Meghan originally said she was made aware of the claims in 2018, but a spokesperson later said ‘she may have been mistaken by a few months’.
For now, Mr Markle remains bewildered by his son’s accusations. He has recently been diagnosed with cognitive issues, something The Mail on Sunday has been authorised to share.
Samantha said: ‘Dad is incredibly fragile both physically and mentally. I think it’s incredibly cruel of my brother to do this to him when he’s 82 and probably close to the end of his life.’
‘Why did Harry take blame for the rift?’ asks Meghan’s sister
by Caroline Graham
The Duchess of Sussex’s half-sister has questioned why Meghan now says her estrangement from her father was due to child abuse claims – when Prince Harry once blamed himself.
Samantha Markle said she believed Harry’s comments on a 2022 Netflix documentary were at odds with Meghan’s claim last week that ‘my choice to not allow [my father] to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them’.
But in Harry & Meghan, the duke suggested the rift came over events set in motion when Mr Markle collaborated with a photographer to stage pictures on the eve of the couple’s wedding.Â
‘Of course It’s incredibly sad what happened,’ he said. ‘She had a father before this, and now she doesn’t have a father. And I shouldered that because if Meg wasn’t with me, then her dad would still be her dad…’
Samantha also cited the couple’s 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview in which Meghan said while discussing the same row: ‘I mean, I’ve lost my father.’
Samantha claimed: ‘That’s not the language you would use if you cut someone out of your life for being a child predator,’ and questioned why Meghan did not mention any ‘disturbing claims’.
Sources close to the couple have said that because the allegations against Mr Markle had been reported to the police, Meghan was legally unable to repeat them publicly to avoid jeopardising any investigation.
