Thomas Markle Arrested on Child Porn Charges

Thomas Markle — Meghan Markle's father — has been arrested in Florida and charged with possession of child pornography.

A criminal complaint was filed Nov. 5 by federal prosecutors.

According to the 14-page complaint obtained by Fox News Digital, FBI agents searched two storage units in Florida rented by Markle and seized about 78 items, including film negatives, slides and books containing suspected child sexual abuse material. Investigators said Markle rented the units in 2008 and continued paying for them through October 2026.

Agents identified about 18 suspected illegal images among film negatives from one unit. Investigators also uncovered a potential connection to the Philippines. They identified a hotel called Anahaw Lodge in photographs.

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 in his father’s former home in the Philippine city of Cebu when he was clearing out the property. Markle Jr. told the newspaper he reported the images to police in the Philippines and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S.

Meghan Markle condemned the alleged abuse and, at the same time, 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,” per the statement.

"I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families," the statement continued.