Nov. 6, 2026
BREAKING: Meghan Markle's Dad Arrested by FBI in Florida for Child Porn
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RSS Feed Federal authorities arrested the 82-year-old estranged father of Meghan Markle, Thomas Markle Senior, at his Florida senior care facility. The FBI released a statement charging Markle with keeping child sexual abuse material in his two LA storage units . Agents seized 78 items from the units including slides, film negatives, and books, some of which contained images showing Markle with what appeared to be naked, prepubescent girls. Markle has maintained his innocence.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, November 6th, and a breaking story on this Friday afternoon. The father of Meghan Markle has been arrested in Florida on child pornography charges. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, where these are very serious, sick allegations. And when this came down, look, this story has been bubbling up for the past couple of weeks. This came down today. And I know there are victims out there. I just first, about Meghan Markle, I said, this girl can't catch a break. This story has now, Robes, turned into what they call him in the Philippines, possibly a monster of the grossest kind.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, exactly. And so when we first got word that... Thomas Markle Sr. was being arrested, I thought, I think a lot of folks might have thought, okay, the Philippines, they've got their ducks in a row. They've conducted their investigation. They're arresting Thomas Markle Sr. No, it's the FBI, the Department of Justice. Kash Patel actually sent out an announcement, made a statement. Yes, they went in and seized a total of 78 items of from Thomas Markle Sr. 's storage unit. It was in Los Angeles. He's had it for quite some time. And they were alerted about this storage unit from his son, the very son, who alerted Philippine officials about what he found in his father's home.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: So, yes, the investigation that started this story, really, that started in the Philippines has made its way to the U.S., investigators, yes, like you said, Roe picked up the trail, which has led to charges here. Now, we should say, first, we don't know what's coming, but there are no, excuse me, I shouldn't say allegations. There's no evidence, and the charges right now don't have to do with potential victims in the U.S. right now, but Roe's, some of the materials they describe suggest that You damn sure better believe there are victims of his out there.
00:02:12
Speaker 2: Yes, because reportedly he is depicted alongside what appears to be prepubescent girls in some of these images. So the FBI seized slides, film negatives, books, and they said they were able to digitize some of those negatives. And they say they have found 18 images that appeared... To constitute, this is the language, child sexual abuse material. And yes, in two of them, Thomas Markle Sr. is with a naked, underaged girl.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: Okay, so this story, of course, first of all, rose end of last month, end of October, got going. Because word came from Thomas Markle Jr., right turned in his dad in the philippines these two were living in the philippines we'll get into why maybe here in a second but they're living in the philippines dad has a stroke has to come back to the u.s thomas markel senior comes back to the u.s for treatment he's in florida now at a senior facility where he's supposed to be undergoing some rehabilitation the center where ropes he has had a leg amputated this is apparently by all accounts an 82 year old man is not in good health correct um That gets this story going, at least there in the Philippines. Rose, we see the investigation start there. And we were struck by how much the son was describing was found in the house. And then the pictures we saw of people, authorities taking stuff out of the house was pretty remarkable.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: That's right. So Thomas Markle Jr., said, yeah, that he was horrified, described his own father, yes, as a monster he didn't, he said he didn't realize he was living with, protecting, and actually choosing sides with, against his half-sister Megan, but he said that he found hundreds, if not thousands, of shocking, disturbing, and yes, illegal images, and yes, we saw those photos of Philippine officials taking out massive like extra large, like two people have to lift a box kind of boxes out of his home into police evidence.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: So when this first comes out, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, does put out a statement. She does put out a statement, Robes, saying that she is distressed, that was the word she used, by what was found. But she also, Robes gave us more and gave us more questions about, about potentially what she knew and for how long she knew.
00:05:02
Speaker 2: Uh, that's right. She said that she was deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours. So she did seem to indicate that more information than she was aware of came to light, but she did say back in 2018 that, that London's Metropolitan Police gave her a letter basically showing her there were troubling and disturbing allegations against her father, but that she was given assurances that those allegations were being investigated. So she was explaining to folks, I hope now it can be understood, she wrote, 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. And then she went on to say the issue was her understanding that police authorities were doing what they needed to do to protect other people's children.
00:06:00
Speaker 1: So at that point, a lot of people... thought, the suggestion was that this was kind of a, see, I told you, to the public and to the press who thought she was being mean to her dad by not reaching out when he was having difficulty, when he was having health issues. So that, though, Roe, sparked all kinds of conversations and questions about authorities and their role in all this. What did you do when you got this letter? What did you all know? And did you have an investigation?
00:06:32
Speaker 2: Right. So London's Metropolitan Police quickly went into CYA mode and they said, you know what? We're going to actually independently investigate ourselves as to why it's true. We never passed this information on to any other police organization. Their justification for that, their defense for that was that it was out of their jurisdiction that all of the allegations that were being made reportedly, allegedly happened outside of the United Kingdom, and therefore they would have no jurisdiction. But obviously they need to answer questions as to why they didn't alert Filipino authorities. Or maybe there are even allegations that something could have occurred in Mexico as well, because we heard from Thomas Markle Jr. saying that he recognized the background in a couple of the photos of what he claimed to be illegal activity in depicting his father with an underage girl was from a shared home in Mexico. So it does appear like any of these allegations that were depicted in some of these images, it had been going on for quite some time. So where were the authorities? Who was supposed to be investigating?
00:07:43
Speaker 1: And we should say he has claimed along the way, Robes. He has done some interviews. He's done some press. And he has denied these allegations. Even suggested, did he not, that Maybe it was his son's stuff.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: Yes, he said that, I mean, he categorically denied that he had anything to do with anything illegal. And yes, he said, I don't know what's happened to some of the boxes that I left behind in the Philippines. My son and his friends have been in those boxes and been in my belongings. How could you possibly say they're mine? Those are disgusting. And yes, said, wasn't me, would never do something that horrific.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, but here we are. Robes, that has now caused the FBI. It sounds like, Robes, what they described. You have the FBI statement in front of you?
00:08:33
Speaker 2: I do.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: Okay, so it sounds like, Robes, they were essentially tipped off. They said, oh, he has a storage facility here, too. And they went and found this stuff. Now, I don't have an indication, maybe you do, of how old this stuff appears to be.
00:08:50
Speaker 2: No, I do not know that, but it does appear that he rented this, and it wasn't just one. I believe there were a couple of storage units, two storage units, that Thomas Markle Sr. had owned for nearly two decades, and they made a point to say he made. He just recently made the last payment, I believe October 30th, for these storage units. So he was actively paying for them. They came from him. to the storage unit facility. So there's no question that he was the owner and he was paying for that storage unit. So when we come back, we are going to read for you what the FBI has just released and what the charges are and what is next for Thomas Markle Sr. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Some breaking news for you this afternoon. Thomas Markle Sr., of course, that is Meghan Markle's estranged father, has been arrested in Florida. He was literally arrested at a retirement facility. He is recovering. still from having a leg amputated, suffering complications from a stroke. And now he is in federal custody. The FBI releasing a statement today. And look, he's expected to be in court in a couple of hours as well. So we may be getting even more information about what the feds have on this man.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: I don't know how much more I want to hear about this story. Robe, this is an 82-year-old man. As soon as, I mean, a lot of people thought that, but I just remember you saying to me after they found all this stuff, he didn't just start up recently. He's got, Robe, you're talking about two different countries across the world from each other. He has stored this material. It's piled up over how many years?
00:10:49
Speaker 2: It's really gross. I think about what I would think about a serial killer, much like I would someone who is a serial pedophile.
00:10:57
Speaker 1: Pedophile.
00:10:57
Speaker 2: And that's actually weird to even say a serial pedophile because I feel like that's redundant. Right. Because we know a lot about pedophiles and this isn't something as, yes, you just referenced, that starts later in life. This is a sexual deviance that is incurable by almost all accounts. And you don't have one victim, unfortunately. And if you've gone this long in life, 82 years old, without being detected until now, I shudder to think about the victims in his wake, literally.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: Innocent till proven guilty but robes there's a suggestion a suggestion you just have to it's okay to ask the question why did an 82 year old single white man move to the philippines where he has no job no connections no family no nothing.
00:11:47
Speaker 2: Babe This is so disturbing. So the FBI released a statement and they had even Kash Patel behind much of this. But it starts with Mr. Markle is accused of possessing child sexual abuse material, including photographs depicting himself with minor girls. These allegations are extremely serious and we will prosecute Mr. Markle to the fullest extent of federal law. Kash Patel went on to say the FBI and our partners have arrested Thomas Markle Sr. after an FBI investigation revealed, yes, he was in possession of child sexual abuse material. Mr. Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions. Working with our Justice Department partners, our agents moved quickly, identified and located the explicit material and arrested Mr. Markle in Florida. This FBI will use every single resource at our disposal to protect innocent kids. Any predator who targets children will have zero safe haven in this country or anywhere they try to hide. Thank you to FBI Los Angeles, FBI Tampa, our Mexico, Manila, and Marshall Islands law enforcement attaches, and our partners who executed quickly in this case. This case highlights the importance of the involvement of the public even if it's a family member or close friend, to be vigilant and speak up if they have information on individuals they suspect may be preying on and exploiting our children. I think that's an interesting part because obviously that is a nod to Thomas Markle Jr. for alerting authorities.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: You'd still wonder though, Robes, you wonder, you have the question. He moved to the Philippines. He was staying with his dad. He was living with his dad. And we talk about, The name suggests a little boy, right? You hear Thomas Markle Jr. This is a 60-year-old man. He was living with his 82-year-old father in the Philippines. They've done this over all this time. They've been together all this time. What did he... Did he really not suspect anything? Meghan Markle was shown a letter all those years ago. She had an idea of this. How could the person right next to him and living with him not know anything about And all about this. Meghan Markle, it came out after the initial story, came out, she sent him a letter. What was that, the end of last year?
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what's disturbing about that is she sent him a letter, right? I know you've abused young girls, I believe she said, or I know you've abused children. You will never have a relationship with my children or your grandchildren. But if she had written that same letter to police... What could have happened a year earlier? I guess that will be the question because, yes, Thomas Markle Jr. set this in motion, but it's just disturbing to think how many people knew about this for how long and why was nothing done before now?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: That's the question. How did he operate? We're talking... Potentially what?
00:14:56
Speaker 2: Decades? Babe, if there were allegations like this, and he has storage units around the country, and two in L.A. alone, this could have been easily uncovered. And he could have been stopped a long time ago. That's incredibly sad. That's incredibly tragic.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: And there was a line, was it not, in Meghan Markle's first statement, that got a lot of attention. And maybe she got some criticism for Robes. By saying that, yes, I made the decision. People didn't get it at the time, but I made this decision to protect my children.
00:15:32
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:15:34
Speaker 1: That's that next question. But why didn't you make any moves to protect so many other children out there who now appear to have been victims of this guy? And yes, even if he wasn't physically in the same room with a kid, the possession of this material... makes every single one of these kids a victim.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: Yes, but it does appear he was in the same room with at least two of them and perhaps more. This is, again, just what the FBI uncovered in the storage units in Los Angeles. We know, obviously, about the cache of evidence that's been taken out of his Philippine home. And I don't know if there's anything left in this Mexican home or if that's what was in the L.A. storage units. It's unclear, but this is just the beginning. He's got several court appearances. We're going to be learning a lot more about this and likely getting a lot of reaction about all of the questions and fair questions that are being asked now that we know what may have been going on for decades.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: And we should mention no comment. They're asking, but so far, no comment from Meghan Markle. They have been asking, but so far, no comment, at least as of this recording.
00:16:44
Speaker 2: All right, and we will continue to monitor the events online obviously going on with this case. But in the meantime, thank you so much, everyone, for listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, November 6th, and a breaking story on this Friday afternoon. The father of Meghan Markle has been arrested in Florida on child pornography charges. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, where these are very serious, sick allegations. And when this came down, look, this story has been bubbling up for the past couple of weeks. This came down today. And I know there are victims out there. I just first, about Meghan Markle, I said, this girl can't catch a break. This story has now, Robes, turned into what they call him in the Philippines, possibly a monster of the grossest kind.
00:00:47
Speaker 2: Yes. Yes, exactly. And so when we first got word that... Thomas Markle Sr. was being arrested, I thought, I think a lot of folks might have thought, okay, the Philippines, they've got their ducks in a row. They've conducted their investigation. They're arresting Thomas Markle Sr. No, it's the FBI, the Department of Justice. Kash Patel actually sent out an announcement, made a statement. Yes, they went in and seized a total of 78 items of from Thomas Markle Sr. 's storage unit. It was in Los Angeles. He's had it for quite some time. And they were alerted about this storage unit from his son, the very son, who alerted Philippine officials about what he found in his father's home.
00:01:34
Speaker 1: So, yes, the investigation that started this story, really, that started in the Philippines has made its way to the U.S., investigators, yes, like you said, Roe picked up the trail, which has led to charges here. Now, we should say, first, we don't know what's coming, but there are no, excuse me, I shouldn't say allegations. There's no evidence, and the charges right now don't have to do with potential victims in the U.S. right now, but Roe's, some of the materials they describe suggest that You damn sure better believe there are victims of his out there.
00:02:12
Speaker 2: Yes, because reportedly he is depicted alongside what appears to be prepubescent girls in some of these images. So the FBI seized slides, film negatives, books, and they said they were able to digitize some of those negatives. And they say they have found 18 images that appeared... To constitute, this is the language, child sexual abuse material. And yes, in two of them, Thomas Markle Sr. is with a naked, underaged girl.
00:02:49
Speaker 1: Okay, so this story, of course, first of all, rose end of last month, end of October, got going. Because word came from Thomas Markle Jr., right turned in his dad in the philippines these two were living in the philippines we'll get into why maybe here in a second but they're living in the philippines dad has a stroke has to come back to the u.s thomas markel senior comes back to the u.s for treatment he's in florida now at a senior facility where he's supposed to be undergoing some rehabilitation the center where ropes he has had a leg amputated this is apparently by all accounts an 82 year old man is not in good health correct um That gets this story going, at least there in the Philippines. Rose, we see the investigation start there. And we were struck by how much the son was describing was found in the house. And then the pictures we saw of people, authorities taking stuff out of the house was pretty remarkable.
00:03:49
Speaker 2: That's right. So Thomas Markle Jr., said, yeah, that he was horrified, described his own father, yes, as a monster he didn't, he said he didn't realize he was living with, protecting, and actually choosing sides with, against his half-sister Megan, but he said that he found hundreds, if not thousands, of shocking, disturbing, and yes, illegal images, and yes, we saw those photos of Philippine officials taking out massive like extra large, like two people have to lift a box kind of boxes out of his home into police evidence.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: So when this first comes out, the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, does put out a statement. She does put out a statement, Robes, saying that she is distressed, that was the word she used, by what was found. But she also, Robes gave us more and gave us more questions about, about potentially what she knew and for how long she knew.
00:05:02
Speaker 2: Uh, that's right. She said that she was deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours. So she did seem to indicate that more information than she was aware of came to light, but she did say back in 2018 that, that London's Metropolitan Police gave her a letter basically showing her there were troubling and disturbing allegations against her father, but that she was given assurances that those allegations were being investigated. So she was explaining to folks, I hope now it can be understood, she wrote, 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. And then she went on to say the issue was her understanding that police authorities were doing what they needed to do to protect other people's children.
00:06:00
Speaker 1: So at that point, a lot of people... thought, the suggestion was that this was kind of a, see, I told you, to the public and to the press who thought she was being mean to her dad by not reaching out when he was having difficulty, when he was having health issues. So that, though, Roe, sparked all kinds of conversations and questions about authorities and their role in all this. What did you do when you got this letter? What did you all know? And did you have an investigation?
00:06:32
Speaker 2: Right. So London's Metropolitan Police quickly went into CYA mode and they said, you know what? We're going to actually independently investigate ourselves as to why it's true. We never passed this information on to any other police organization. Their justification for that, their defense for that was that it was out of their jurisdiction that all of the allegations that were being made reportedly, allegedly happened outside of the United Kingdom, and therefore they would have no jurisdiction. But obviously they need to answer questions as to why they didn't alert Filipino authorities. Or maybe there are even allegations that something could have occurred in Mexico as well, because we heard from Thomas Markle Jr. saying that he recognized the background in a couple of the photos of what he claimed to be illegal activity in depicting his father with an underage girl was from a shared home in Mexico. So it does appear like any of these allegations that were depicted in some of these images, it had been going on for quite some time. So where were the authorities? Who was supposed to be investigating?
00:07:43
Speaker 1: And we should say he has claimed along the way, Robes. He has done some interviews. He's done some press. And he has denied these allegations. Even suggested, did he not, that Maybe it was his son's stuff.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: Yes, he said that, I mean, he categorically denied that he had anything to do with anything illegal. And yes, he said, I don't know what's happened to some of the boxes that I left behind in the Philippines. My son and his friends have been in those boxes and been in my belongings. How could you possibly say they're mine? Those are disgusting. And yes, said, wasn't me, would never do something that horrific.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, but here we are. Robes, that has now caused the FBI. It sounds like, Robes, what they described. You have the FBI statement in front of you?
00:08:33
Speaker 2: I do.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: Okay, so it sounds like, Robes, they were essentially tipped off. They said, oh, he has a storage facility here, too. And they went and found this stuff. Now, I don't have an indication, maybe you do, of how old this stuff appears to be.
00:08:50
Speaker 2: No, I do not know that, but it does appear that he rented this, and it wasn't just one. I believe there were a couple of storage units, two storage units, that Thomas Markle Sr. had owned for nearly two decades, and they made a point to say he made. He just recently made the last payment, I believe October 30th, for these storage units. So he was actively paying for them. They came from him. to the storage unit facility. So there's no question that he was the owner and he was paying for that storage unit. So when we come back, we are going to read for you what the FBI has just released and what the charges are and what is next for Thomas Markle Sr. Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. Some breaking news for you this afternoon. Thomas Markle Sr., of course, that is Meghan Markle's estranged father, has been arrested in Florida. He was literally arrested at a retirement facility. He is recovering. still from having a leg amputated, suffering complications from a stroke. And now he is in federal custody. The FBI releasing a statement today. And look, he's expected to be in court in a couple of hours as well. So we may be getting even more information about what the feds have on this man.
00:10:19
Speaker 1: I don't know how much more I want to hear about this story. Robe, this is an 82-year-old man. As soon as, I mean, a lot of people thought that, but I just remember you saying to me after they found all this stuff, he didn't just start up recently. He's got, Robe, you're talking about two different countries across the world from each other. He has stored this material. It's piled up over how many years?
00:10:49
Speaker 2: It's really gross. I think about what I would think about a serial killer, much like I would someone who is a serial pedophile.
00:10:57
Speaker 1: Pedophile.
00:10:57
Speaker 2: And that's actually weird to even say a serial pedophile because I feel like that's redundant. Right. Because we know a lot about pedophiles and this isn't something as, yes, you just referenced, that starts later in life. This is a sexual deviance that is incurable by almost all accounts. And you don't have one victim, unfortunately. And if you've gone this long in life, 82 years old, without being detected until now, I shudder to think about the victims in his wake, literally.
00:11:26
Speaker 1: Innocent till proven guilty but robes there's a suggestion a suggestion you just have to it's okay to ask the question why did an 82 year old single white man move to the philippines where he has no job no connections no family no nothing.
00:11:47
Speaker 2: Babe This is so disturbing. So the FBI released a statement and they had even Kash Patel behind much of this. But it starts with Mr. Markle is accused of possessing child sexual abuse material, including photographs depicting himself with minor girls. These allegations are extremely serious and we will prosecute Mr. Markle to the fullest extent of federal law. Kash Patel went on to say the FBI and our partners have arrested Thomas Markle Sr. after an FBI investigation revealed, yes, he was in possession of child sexual abuse material. Mr. Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions. Working with our Justice Department partners, our agents moved quickly, identified and located the explicit material and arrested Mr. Markle in Florida. This FBI will use every single resource at our disposal to protect innocent kids. Any predator who targets children will have zero safe haven in this country or anywhere they try to hide. Thank you to FBI Los Angeles, FBI Tampa, our Mexico, Manila, and Marshall Islands law enforcement attaches, and our partners who executed quickly in this case. This case highlights the importance of the involvement of the public even if it's a family member or close friend, to be vigilant and speak up if they have information on individuals they suspect may be preying on and exploiting our children. I think that's an interesting part because obviously that is a nod to Thomas Markle Jr. for alerting authorities.
00:13:33
Speaker 1: You'd still wonder though, Robes, you wonder, you have the question. He moved to the Philippines. He was staying with his dad. He was living with his dad. And we talk about, The name suggests a little boy, right? You hear Thomas Markle Jr. This is a 60-year-old man. He was living with his 82-year-old father in the Philippines. They've done this over all this time. They've been together all this time. What did he... Did he really not suspect anything? Meghan Markle was shown a letter all those years ago. She had an idea of this. How could the person right next to him and living with him not know anything about And all about this. Meghan Markle, it came out after the initial story, came out, she sent him a letter. What was that, the end of last year?
00:14:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and what's disturbing about that is she sent him a letter, right? I know you've abused young girls, I believe she said, or I know you've abused children. You will never have a relationship with my children or your grandchildren. But if she had written that same letter to police... What could have happened a year earlier? I guess that will be the question because, yes, Thomas Markle Jr. set this in motion, but it's just disturbing to think how many people knew about this for how long and why was nothing done before now?
00:14:50
Speaker 1: That's the question. How did he operate? We're talking... Potentially what?
00:14:56
Speaker 2: Decades? Babe, if there were allegations like this, and he has storage units around the country, and two in L.A. alone, this could have been easily uncovered. And he could have been stopped a long time ago. That's incredibly sad. That's incredibly tragic.
00:15:15
Speaker 1: And there was a line, was it not, in Meghan Markle's first statement, that got a lot of attention. And maybe she got some criticism for Robes. By saying that, yes, I made the decision. People didn't get it at the time, but I made this decision to protect my children.
00:15:32
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:15:34
Speaker 1: That's that next question. But why didn't you make any moves to protect so many other children out there who now appear to have been victims of this guy? And yes, even if he wasn't physically in the same room with a kid, the possession of this material... makes every single one of these kids a victim.
00:15:54
Speaker 2: Yes, but it does appear he was in the same room with at least two of them and perhaps more. This is, again, just what the FBI uncovered in the storage units in Los Angeles. We know, obviously, about the cache of evidence that's been taken out of his Philippine home. And I don't know if there's anything left in this Mexican home or if that's what was in the L.A. storage units. It's unclear, but this is just the beginning. He's got several court appearances. We're going to be learning a lot more about this and likely getting a lot of reaction about all of the questions and fair questions that are being asked now that we know what may have been going on for decades.
00:16:36
Speaker 1: And we should mention no comment. They're asking, but so far, no comment from Meghan Markle. They have been asking, but so far, no comment, at least as of this recording.
00:16:44
Speaker 2: All right, and we will continue to monitor the events online obviously going on with this case. But in the meantime, thank you so much, everyone, for listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We'll talk soon.