*Thomas Markle Sr. is firmly denying his son’s claim that he possessed child sex abuse images, and he says he welcomes an investigation.
“I welcome an investigation because I didn’t do this,” Meghan Markle’s father, 82, told the Daily Mail. “I’m scared because I don’t feel safe anymore.”
He spoke from a Florida rehab center, where he is recovering from a leg amputation last December.
“I’m shocked, I’m hurt and I’m very upset that my son is making these accusations against me. I could never do what I’m being accused of,” he said. “It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.”
The allegations come from Thomas Markle Jr., 60. He told The Sun he found the images on computers and a phone stored in boxes his father left in the Philippines. He says he reported them to the FBI and to police in Cebu, who have reportedly opened a probe.
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Thomas Sr. disputes that timeline. He says the computers were shipped from Mexico to the Philippines and stayed out of his hands for months. He claims his son repeatedly refused to return them.
“I don’t know who had access to the computers,” he said.
When the Daily Mail asked him directly if he had ever downloaded such material, he answered, “Never. Never. Never. I have never done that.”
“These terrible lies are being made against me with no proof,” he said. “How can you accuse a man of something like this with no proof?”
He said he has not spoken with his son in months and suspects money is the motive. “I go between feeling very sad to feeling very angry,” he said.
His eldest daughter, Samantha Markle, who cares for him in Florida, also defended him. She called the claims “unsubstantiated allegations” and argued that “anyone could have set dad up.”
Meghan has since said she kept her father away from her children “to protect them,” according to a statement via PEOPLE. She revealed that a 2018 letter to the Metropolitan Police made “troubling and disturbing allegations” about him.
Before her statement, Thomas Sr. rejected a claim from a source close to Meghan that the allegations explain her distance. “I don’t believe that,” he said. He traced their rift to the staged paparazzi photos he took part in before her wedding.
He says he is weighing legal action.
“I’m angry, I’m hurt and I want the world to know these are terrible lies,” he said.
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