The Metropolitan Police had to ask Meghan Markle for a copy of a letter containing serious allegations about her dad after the force reportedly misplaced the original.
Officers said they had passed on a letter ‘containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom’ to the Duchess of Sussex in 2019.
But they did not share details with any other law enforcement agencies.
Mr Markle’s ex-wife Roslyn Loveless is understood to have sent the letter to the police detailing allegations of child sex abuse. She died two years ago.
But it has now emerged the Met had misplaced the original letter, The Times reports.
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Meghan had kept a copy and was able to provide it to police when asked.
Police in the Philippines are investigating suspected child sex abuse images reportedly found at Thomas Markle Sr’s former home.
Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, told the Sun he found a stash of illegal images at his dad’s former home in the Philippines and reported it to local police and the FBI.
Mr Markle Sr has admitted paying for sex in the south-east Asian country but denies possessing such material.
Meghan is ‘upset and really frustrated’ by the Met’s handling of the investigation, the Telegraph reported.
The Met is now ‘reviewing the handling of this matter’, including whether it needs to be referred to the police watchdog.
The Duchess of Sussex sent a final letter to her father while he was recovering there from a leg amputation last year.
She wrote to say she knows he is an abuser and that he will never see his grandchildren Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, the newspaper said.
Mr Markle Sr told the Mail on Sunday that he had ‘never had sex with anyone under the age of 18’.
He told the paper that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and ‘slept with prostitutes’.
‘I like Asian women but that is not a crime,’ he said. ‘I am not well enough to go to the Philippines but I will speak to anyone who wants to talk to me. I have nothing to hide.’
Mr Markle Sr is learning to walk again at a nursing facility in Florida after he had his leg amputated during life-saving surgery in 2025.
He said he would also welcome any forensic examination of his computer, telling the Mail on Sunday: ‘If there is anything bad on there, it was put there by someone else.’
In 2025, Mr Markle Sr moved to the Philippines for a new life after suffering a series of strokes.
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘Following a thorough review of Met Police systems and records, we have confirmed that in January 2019, we received a letter containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom.
‘It was sent to the MPS Protection Command to raise concerns in relation to the security of the Duchess of Sussex.
‘The letter was reviewed and a decision was made that it should be passed to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their awareness. The details of the allegations in the letter were not shared with other law enforcement agencies.
‘The MPS is reviewing the handling of this matter in 2019 and considering whether a referral to the IOPC is necessary to review our approach.’
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