Meghan Markle's hastily released statement explaining her rift with her estranged father has backfired after Scotland Yard publicly contradicted the timeline she laid out, forcing her PR team into damage control.
The Duchess of Sussex broke her silence on Friday with an explanation for cutting ties with Thomas Markle Snr, claiming she was first told in 2018 of "troubling and disturbing allegations". Her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jnr, has claimed to have found indecent images of children at his father's home in Cebu, Philippines. Mr Markle Snr has condemned and denied the accusations as "sick lies" and "the worst thing anyone could accuse me of".
Meghan stated that learning of these claims was the direct catalyst for keeping her father out of her life and away from Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Scotland Yard Contradicts Timeline
However, Scotland Yard confirmed that the correspondence regarding these allegations was received by its Protection Command in January 2019, before being passed to the Duke and Duchess's office, contradicting Meghan's timeline.
By Sunday, the Duchess's representatives said she was "doing her best" to recall events from over seven years ago without "the benefit of a diary entry or contemporaneous record", conceding that the Met's official time-stamp should be taken as the accurate record.
Question of Records
The claim of having "no contemporaneous record" has been questioned, as Meghan told the Cut in 2022 that she had rediscovered a private journal she kept while living at Frogmore Cottage as a senior working royal between May 2018 and March 2020.
King Charles's handling of allegations surrounding his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, where the Palace stated that "the law must take its course", has been cited as an example of restraint.
The Sussexes' crisis management approach has been criticised for prioritising speed over verification, with the timeline error leaving them to issue clarifications for avoidable mistakes.
