*Meghan Markle says she kept her father away from her children for one reason: their safety.
“I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them,” the Duchess of Sussex, 45, said, PEOPLE reports.
Her statement follows explosive claims her brother, Thomas Markle Jr., made about their father, Thomas Markle Sr. In an Oct. 22 interview with The Sun, Thomas Jr., 60, accused their 82-year-old father of keeping child sex abuse images.
“I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed,” Meghan said.
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According to Thomas Jr., the material turned up in boxes inside their father’s house in the Philippines. He said he alerted law enforcement, including the FBI.
“When I found this material I was horrified and I had no option but to report my dad,” he told the outlet.
He also said he is cutting ties after years as his father’s caregiver. “I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him,” he said.
Meghan revealed that warnings about her father surfaced years earlier. In 2018, a letter went to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection, and she was eventually shown it.
“It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father, and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” she said.
At the time, she said, she “trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.”
Meghan’s estrangement from her father has long been public. Thomas Sr. once confessed to arranging staged photos with the paparazzi, and Meghan told Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that British tabloids hunted him down. Her new statement offers a very different explanation for the distance.
Thomas Sr. has stayed silent so far.
“Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children,” Meghan said.
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