Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond has shared her view on what Meghan Markle will be thinking as her father, Thomas Markle, faces an investigation over allegations he possessed child abuse images. Speaking on GB News, Bond said the allegations put a different complexion on Meghan's decision to distance herself from her father.
Allegations and Denial
Thomas Markle Jr allegedly found the material at his father's home in the Philippines and reported it to local authorities, according to The Sun. Thomas has denied all allegations, calling them "sick lies" in comments to the Daily Mail.
Meghan issued a statement on Friday saying she was "deeply distressed" by the allegations and was first made aware after receiving a letter from the Met Police in 2019. She reportedly sent a letter to her father in 2025 cutting off all contact and saying he would never meet his grandchildren, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5.
Bond's Assessment
Bond, who worked closely with the royals during her lengthy tenure as a royal correspondent, said on GB News: "I mean, it puts an entirely different complexion on her. What appeared to be, as you say, a rather cold-hearted approach to her father."
She noted that Thomas had "been a bit daft before the wedding" and had posed for pictures with paparazzi showing him getting ready for the wedding. Bond added that he had been "popping up in the media ever since, even though Meghan and Harry asked him not to do so."
"But all those things, surely, I thought, maybe you thought, should in the end be forgivable. But this, this is something entirely different," Bond said. "And whether these sordid allegations, which, as you say, he vehemently denies, whether they're true or not, I don't think really would matter in Meghan's head, in any daughter's head. To have your father accused of such things, you would stand back from that relationship, and you would certainly keep your children at a distance."
Letter to Her Father
Bond said Meghan made clear last year in a letter to her father in the Philippines after he had his leg amputated that she was severing all relations. "Now, I thought that letter probably was a slight softening of her position, at least enquiring about his health and wondering how he was," she said.
"But we now know it was something very different indeed. It was a letter saying, I'm severing all relations with you. I will never contact you again and you will never meet your grandchildren. And I get it now. Yes. So I think many of us did take a hard line."
