Meghan Markle‘s father, Thomas Markle, has been arrested in Florida, a law enforcement source told Fox News Digital.
Authorities arrested Markle Sr. in connection to possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to the Daily Mail.
The Sun previously reported that Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., recently found “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sex abuse images in boxes at his father’s former home in the Philippine city of Cebu when he was clearing out the property. Markle Jr. told the newspaper that he reported the images to police in the Philippines and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S.
Meghan condemned the alleged abuse and shed new light on her decision to cut ties with her father.
“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,” she said in a statement previously shared with Fox News Digital.
“In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father, and I was given assurances that these were being investigated.”
“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.
“I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families,” the statement continued.
“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,” the statement concluded.
On Oct. 24, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that in January 2019 it received a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
