Thomas Markle Sr, the father of Meghan Markle, has been released under home detention and electronic monitoring just hours after his arrest. The release came after he was accused of possessing child abuse images, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Arrest and release details
Mr Markle Sr was reported to authorities in the Philippines last month after his son Thomas Markle Jr claimed he found a haul of child sex abuse images. Last week, four boxes of materials allegedly found in Mr Markle Sr’s former home in the Philippines are said to have been handed over to authorities. It is understood the boxes contained computers, phones, hard drives and old video tapes.
Mr Markle Sr was seen being taken from the care home in a wheelchair. He has previously denied the allegations against him, calling them “sick lies” but he did not enter an official plea during his Friday court appearance at the federal courthouse in Tampa.
Conditions of release
According to PEOPLE, he was required to surrender his passport and was released under his own recognizance - a written promise and trust that they will return to court, though a penalty amount is still legally attached if they fail to show up.
It comes as the DoJ said federal agents seized nearly 80 items from inside storage units rented by Mr Markle Sr, including slides, film negatives and books that contained suspected child sex abuse images. He was allegedly in some of the images that were found. It said if convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
DoJ statement and investigation
The statement from the DoJ went on: “According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, in October 2026, law enforcement learned that an individual signed an affidavit regarding their discovery of suspected CSAM among Markle’s possessions in the Philippines.
“Law enforcement also interviewed another individual who disclosed that Markle rented a storage unit in the Los Angeles area. Information from the first individual later led agents to a second unit.
“Pursuant to judicially authorized warrants, FBI special agents searched two storage units registered to Markle. Markle has rented both storage units since 2008, with his most recent payments on both made last month by auto-pay.
“Inside the units, agents seized approximately 78 items, including slides, film negatives, and books that contained suspected CSAM. The affidavit describes three of those images. Two images depict an adult man – whom a witness identified as Markle – with a nude prepubescent girl.
“The third image depicts a nude prepubescent girl in a room that appears to be part of a motel chain in the Philippines. The affidavit also describes additional photographs that appear to show Markle with children in various stages of undress.”
Family reaction and police probe
When allegations against him surfaced, Meghan Markle revealed she was "deeply distressed" and said she was sent a letter via the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection in 2019 which made “troubling and disturbing allegations” about her father, but that she was given assurances these were being investigated.
The Met has admitted it never shared the details with other law enforcement agencies, with the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), now investigating the force’s conduct.
