The Philippine interior minister has told a newspaper that the Duchess of Sussex's father appears to be a "possible sex offender of the grossest kind".
Meghan's half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, on Friday told the Sun he found a stash of child sex abuse images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines, and subsequently reported it to local police and the FBI.
Their father, Thomas Markle Sr, has admitted to paying for sex in the south east Asian country but denies ever possessing a hoard of such material.
Forensic investigation nearing completion
Philippine interior minister Jonvic Remulla told The Guardian that a forensic investigation into Mr Markle Sr will be completed in a week and provide a "definitive picture".
According to the outlet's report on Sunday, he said: "In these cases where family disputes are mixed up, we have to consider all the angles.
"Right now all signs point to a possible sex offender of the grossest kind. We want to be sure before we release the findings.
"The forensics data will be complete in a week."
A statement will be released once the data has been analysed, he said, adding: "Please give us a week to determine the contents and to come up with a definitive picture."
The same minister told Agence France-Presse the country's national police found a "trove of child pornography materials as well as a laptop" when it inspected Mr Markle Sr's former home in Cebu.
"The PNP (Philippine National Police) will co-ordinate with their counterparts to locate and take appropriate legal actions against Mr Markle if found that there is sufficient evidence to charge him", he said.
Metropolitan Police review
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that in 2019 it had passed a letter "containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom" to Meghan and the Duke of Sussex, but did not share details with other law enforcement agencies.
The BBC and other media including the Telegraph, which said it had seen a copy, reported the note was written by Mr Markle Sr's ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, who has since died.
She is the mother of Mr Markle Jr and Meghan's other half-sibling, Samantha Markle, who has defended their father, telling the Mail on Sunday: "I believe this is a set-up."
Meghan is "upset and really frustrated" by the Met's handling of the investigation, the Telegraph reported.
She said that she was shown a letter sent to Scotland Yard making "troubling" allegations against Mr Markle Sr and was assured that these were being investigated.
The Met is now "reviewing the handling of this matter", including whether it needs to be referred to the police watchdog.
Meghan's friend told the Telegraph: "She's obviously upset and really frustrated that, having effectively been told to stay quiet and having been given assurances it would be investigated, it appears nothing was done.
"She's obviously pleased that the Met is now considering referring itself to the police watchdog."
Mr Markle Sr's response
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner called the Met's decision not to share the allegations about Mr Markle Sr an "operational issue".
She expressed sympathy for the "tremendous amount of intrusion" the Duchess of Sussex has faced into her family, saying it "must be difficult as a daughter to have all this out in the open".
In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Markle Sr said he has "never had sex with anyone under the age of 18".
He told the paper that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and "slept with prostitutes".
"I like Asian women but that is not a crime," he said.
"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."
Mr Markle Sr is learning to walk again at a nursing facility in Florida after he had his leg amputated during life-saving surgery in 2025.
He said he would also welcome any forensic examination of his computer, telling the Mail on Sunday: "If there is anything bad on there, it was put there by someone else."
Ms Loveless divorced Mr Markle Sr in 1975 before he married the Duchess of Sussex's mother, Doria Ragland, four years later.
Meghan became estranged from her former TV lighting director father in the run-up to her 2018 royal wedding after he was caught staging paparazzi photographs.
He did not attend the wedding, leaving the King to accompany Meghan down the aisle and meaning the only member of her family present was her mother, Ms Ragland.
Meghan was the only child of Mr Markle Sr's marriage to Ms Ragland.
In 2021, Meghan won a High Court privacy and copyright claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over articles that reproduced parts of a "personal and private" handwritten letter she wrote to Mr Markle Sr in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.
She wrote the emotional five-page letter to him in August 2018 after taking advice from two unnamed senior royals.
In 2025, Mr Markle Sr moved to the Philippines for a new life after suffering a series of strokes.
