Oct. 23, 2026
NEW: Meghan Markle “Deeply Distressed”; Issues Statement Over Allegations Her Father Possessed Boxes Of Child Sexual Abuse Images
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RSS Feed The Duchess of Sussex wasted no time releasing a statement following news that her estranged father, 82-year-old Thomas Markle, Sr. was in possession of hundreds, if not thousands, of photos and videos of young girls being sexually abused. In her statement, Meghan Markle says she was informed by police of “disturbing allegations” against him in 2018 and that explains why she kept her distance from her father as well as her choice to not allow him to have contact with her children. Markle claims she was given assurances that authorities were investigating the allegations. It was Meghan’s half brother, Thomas Markle Jr. who alerted authorities, after he says he found the images while looking for innocent family mementos.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 23rd. And Meghan Markle has a lot going on these days. And we just got a long statement from her. And I bet you didn't have this on your bingo card. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and CJ Rope. She's got the new... The kids just came back. Everybody just moved back to the UK. Had to pull them out of the school. Got some security issues. Still trying to work out everything with Grandpa and the rest of the family. All of that. And now... her dad is being accused of some pretty heinous stuff.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned grandpa.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: You were talking about the King of England on the Prince Harry side of things. On the Meghan Markle side of things, her father is now being accused of possessing, I mean, hundreds, thousands of images of child sex porn.
00:00:55
Speaker 1: You see them used, thrown around the word hoard?
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: A hoard of materials.
00:01:00
Speaker 3: And his own son is the one who put this latest claim into play because apparently there have been.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: Speculation, there has been.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: Accusations that her father was engaged in some sort of illegal activity involving child porn for years now, and even Meghan Markle herself is admitting that she had knowledge of this.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: And that was the part that looked like a bizarre and a disturbing story in a lot of ways, and her statement immediately goes into her telling us all that she was aware, at least to some degree, Robes, of accusations like this. Now, when you told me this morning, we saw, no, we were doing our morning run this morning on our feed, our news show, and I saw the story earlier about her dad and skipped it. I'm like, ah, whatever, some family stuff. She's estranged from the guy anyway. Whatever's going on with him, we don't have to put it in our rundown. Robes, and then you say, yo, Megan just put a statement out. And it's long. And there's a lot. My mind went a particular place. You said she was talking about the victims. But Ro, she immediately, it sounded like she had some explaining to do.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: Well, yes.
00:02:15
Speaker 3: And I think a couple of things. I believe she is trying to defend... anyone maybe who came after her for being estranged from her own father, from keeping her children away from her father. And she wanted basically everyone to know that, yeah, there was a real reason, and I've been aware of this.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: You also thought that perhaps she.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: Was trying to explain that she expected the authorities to handle the investigation, and she didn't want to have anything to do with what was being said.
00:02:48
Speaker 1: And you know she's not necessarily going to get a fair shake with the British media. So in that regard, are they going to come at her for, wait a minute, you knew this about your dad all these years and you never said anything? You caused other people to be harmed? There's going to be that whole thing. I don't know if you've seen that drumbeat. It might be starting already. But just her tone and how she, in her statement, it felt like this was a woman, like she was the one Who was being defensive or being attacked when it's really, I don't hold anything against her for what her dad might be doing.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: She might be anticipating some of that. How long have you known? What did you do about it?
00:03:28
Speaker 3: Because it's her half brother who actually handed over what seems like a lot of evidence and. Look, I think it's that coupled with the fact that she may have always felt defensive about the fact that she didn't have a relationship with him or with that side of her family. That people, her half-sister, have certainly been very public about how they feel her role in her family was. So maybe she's saying, see everybody, see me. see what I've been dealing with, see what I've known all this time.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: It's a pretty immediate response by her.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: It's a quick response.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: It's really quick. But she's also.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: Probably learned not responding and not telling your side of things doesn't actually bode well either because then people speculate and fill in what they think she did or didn't do or should have done.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: Well, then in that case, thank you, Megan, for showing us the way because we blew that as well. So yes, maybe she has learned her lessons. And that's why she responded so quickly. But Thomas Markle, 82 years old now, has been living in the Philippines. Now, Robes, he is in the U.S. now because he had medical issues and he had to come back. I believe he's going through some treatment in Florida right now. But this is the guy that married Meghan Markle's mom in 1979. That relationship only lasted, that marriage at least, only eight years. But he was married to her mom. We're so familiar with her mom because of that wedding. And this sweet little lady from Compton doing her thing and hopping into the the Queen Bentley or whatever it was. It was just, she was such a part of that ceremony and us getting to know Meghan Markle. The dad kind of flew in the face of all of that. When you see him, when you hear about him and what he wasn't invited to the wedding, but he said something, it was some controversy about him right before the wedding. You remember he found some kind of way to make headlines of some kind, or maybe that was just the big thing. Is he going to attend or not? But ultimately he did not. So that tells you maybe everything you need to know, but Robes has started with the Sun newspaper, a British newspaper over in the, yeah, British newspaper, so you know where it is. It's British.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:05:31
Speaker 1: But they are the ones who kind of blew the lid on this, Robes, in revealing this damning story about her dad.
00:05:48
Speaker 3: Yes, and this all comes from, yes, as you mentioned, the Sun newspaper, but His own son, as we mentioned, so this is Thomas Markle Sr., Thomas Markle Jr., reported him and said he found child abuse materials stored in boxes at that home in the Philippines that he was living in, I believe, up until May. But he claims he found all of this and alerted authorities about it in July and said, yes, I believe it was hundreds, if not thousands, of child sex abuse images. And look, he immediately called the FBI. He alerted local authorities and then also alerted the FBI.
00:06:31
Speaker 1: He said it freaked him out, given what he found. Now, Robes, he said, first of all, at least according to The Sun's reporting, The Sun newspaper reporting, I should say, he was looking for something else. He was trying to find an old cell phone that he could actually give to a friend to use. So he knew this old cell phone was just thrown in there. Turns the thing on, Robes, and they are talking, Robes, what they describe are pictures and videos of girls young as 10 and under without clothes on and in some cases involved in sexual acts. Robes, they say he had to go he found the phone and then went back and saw some other stuff in the boxes. He had to take it to some professionals to go through some old disks and things and computers and VHS tapes. It is just a disgusting, overwhelming trove of stuff. They said it was in boxes, like four boxes of stuff. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, but good Lord, have mercy what they claim to have found there. Now, we should say that he is denying the allegations. He said that to another outlet. But the sunrobes, I think that says a lot. And the sun, we say Thomas Jr. In my mind, I think some teenage boy. And this is a 60-year-old man, by the way.
00:08:00
Speaker 2: Yes, yes. He is a grown adult. Yes, because, yeah, Megan's dad's 82. Junior is 60. And I believe... Thomas Markle Sr.
00:08:11
Speaker 3: Called the allegations against him, quote unquote, sick lies.
00:08:15
Speaker 2: But his son's quote to me really spoke volumes.
00:08:18
Speaker 3: He said, I won't speak to my father ever again unless I'm called to give evidence against him.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Bro, that's... I'm done immediately, instantly. I don't need to hear an explanation of any kind. My relationship with my dad that I've had for 60 years is over now. Done.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: Done.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: Robes, this is, he is, the dad is speaking publicly. Say it, it's all, like you said, Robes, but this is damning. But for him, but Robes, who was holding anything? Why would you immediately, how can you hold this against her, what her dad possibly was doing? But we're going to get into her statement here now. But Robes, why is anybody looking at this? There's no reason to think she's responsible for anything.
00:09:05
Speaker 3: No, and I think peopleâ I think there are a large number of people who are looking to say, oh, this explains a lot. This explains perhaps why she wanted nothing to do with him. This explains where he looks likeâ because, look, he had gone onâ television he was speaking to tabloids non-stop which was driving megan markle and prince harry crazy leading up to their wedding he was just basically saying she's you know she won't speak to us he even wrote her a letter last december and made it public that he's dying and he didn't want to die without with being estranged from his daughter so he's absolutely used her position or at least at that point her position with the royal family her newfound fame trying to get attention for himself.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: Okay, so, as you tell that story, then it would then, I guess, make some sense for her to, I assume, some critical... could have come. I don't know if she said much about her dad in the past, but if the whole world is watching and this guy seems to be dying and is. Putting his heart out there and wants a relationship and she's just ignoring him.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:10:12
Speaker 1: She seems like the meanie.
00:10:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, that she won't... She's unwilling to make amends with her dying father who had to fly back to the United States. He actually had his leg amputated because of blood clots and so... Yes, he, I think, was positioning himself as a pitiful victim in all of this and that Meghan's just this awful daughter who won't or is unwilling to find some sort of reconciliation with her own father. And so, yes, in that same Sun article, they had a source close to Meghan saying, now maybe people will finally understand why she had nothing to do with her father anymore. Since 2018, because it's 2018 and we'll get into her statement in a bit where she claims she first learned that her father was being investigated. I don't understand if it was, if this investigation was going on for that long, we're talking eight years. It took his son finding boxes and boxes and boxes of horrific, grotesque images for this to get actually blown wide open.
00:11:18
Speaker 2: The FBI reportedly now is investigating. So look, he's in Florida.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: So it looks like he may be facing some charges, some serious charges, even at the age of 82 with an amputated leg.
00:11:29
Speaker 1: And with an estranged daughter. Stay here. We will let you hear every word of Meghan Markle's statement. She did go into some detail about her relationship with her dad and says, yes, what you're seeing now explains a lot.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are hearing.
00:11:57
Speaker 3: Directly from the Duchess of Sussex, and she put out this statement within hours, I would say, of the news breaking that her father, Thomas Markle Sr., 82 years old, is being accused by his own son and now being investigated by Philippine authorities and, yes, the FBI for for having hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal, horrific images of young girls naked in sexual positions. I mean, just as awful as it gets. And so Megan didn't hesitate to put this statement out.
00:12:38
Speaker 1: I wonder how this could this have gone different if she was still a working royal. Like, what are you allowed to do on your own? Statements that go out. I wonder how this would have gone differently. But hey, she had every This was quick. She wanted to say something, and she got this out. When you said, Brobes, I don't know if I'd have blinked at this story until you told me that she put a statement out.
00:13:01
Speaker 2: She put this statement out and it reads as follows.
00:13:05
Speaker 3: 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. In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: That letter was subsequently shared with me.
00:13:23
Speaker 3: 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, although the breadth of what What do you make of that? I think she's just feeling validated and wants anyone who suggested that her estrangement from her father had anything to do with her being unwilling or being unreasonable to have a relationship with him. But instead she's saying, see this man, this man who I have refused contact with, who I have not allowed my children to see. Do you see what he now is being accused of? That's why people, that's why I steered clear. And look, I don't know if she'll get any flack for having known, but I do think it's a fair thing. It's a fair belief, I would imagine, that if you're getting notified about the possibility of something like this from authorities, that those same authorities would have followed through on an investigation and pursued any criminal charges, if any were deemed appropriate.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I don't know what responsibility she's supposed to have.
00:15:08
Speaker 2: Right?
00:15:09
Speaker 1: She could have said a lot in there without even addressing that part of it. It was brought to my attention, and I thought they were doing what they were doing. Some of it, again, I go back to that royal family mantra, don't complain and don't explain. And it seems like it's important to her to explain something in this moment, and it might be a matter of she feels, aha, see, I told you, and this explains it, but... That also suggests, Robes, that she was aware of this guy walking around as a threat. I know it's not her job to go arrest him, but is she going to be looked at now as protect families? You were aware your dad was a monster of this kind, and she just went about your day. Is that going to come her way?
00:16:00
Speaker 3: I don't know.
00:16:01
Speaker 1: I would assume it will, because she's done far, far less. Just walking outside and breathing, she gets criticized, so Comes with the territory for this young lady.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: Well, she's put out her statement. She's made it known.
00:16:12
Speaker 3: And I also think that many people looked down on her because her father wasn't at her wedding. Right. Do you remember that at the time? And so that all lines up 2018. That was when she got married. 2018 is when she claims this information was brought to her attention or at least a version of this information.
00:16:29
Speaker 2: Was brought to her attention.
00:16:31
Speaker 3: And that's why she didn't want him at her wedding, and that's why she didn't want him around her kids. And so she just, you know, I don't know if she'll get any flack for not getting specific about why she didn't want her kids around him.
00:16:44
Speaker 2: You're making a face.
00:16:45
Speaker 1: I made it because I just happened to go on, just happened to put Meghan Markle's name into Twitter. And the first top thing that popped up was from, yes, Meghan Markle, or from Piers Morgan about Meghan Markle. Why does she not go public to protect others?
00:17:03
Speaker 2: Yes, you protected your children from your father. What about all the others?
00:17:08
Speaker 1: That thing. And you know, he's a think what you want of him, but he's still a prominent voice in the UK. Yeah, I think it's just a natural question. I'm sitting on this. I know this guy is up to... What did that letter say? Are we ever going to see that?
00:17:22
Speaker 2: Maybe she'll be able.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: To provide it.
00:17:24
Speaker 3: And maybe it didn't get detailed, but we don't know. But you anticipated this before. You were like, that was where your head went first. She is going to face criticism for not going public. If she knew eight years ago her father was being accused of some sort of criminal activity involving minors, that it rose to a level enough where you have never let your children meet him. But you didn't feel the need to let anyone else know.
00:17:54
Speaker 1: Babe, when you read the statement, when you first, first saw the statement, I was like, hmm. It's just, we see so many statements, babe. And you can really break these things down. And to look at this, it seemed as if she was trying to immediately get the heat off of her before it might have even come. I didn't know about the letter in 2018. Robes, I didn't know this stuff. She's got it on my radar now to where I'm like, hmm. What the hell is she talking about? I trusted the authorities were doing the same for other families like I was doing for mine. I was protecting my... She wrote that line.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Look, yes, and that might not have been the best way to put it, but I think also, imagine if she hadn't acknowledged that she got this letter in 2018 and then it leaked.
00:18:37
Speaker 2: That would have looked even worse.
00:18:39
Speaker 3: So I at least have to give her credit for immediately acknowledging that she did.
00:18:44
Speaker 2: receive some.
00:18:45
Speaker 1: Sort of you're making the point you're making the point though she wants to immediately do it now she had years to do it is the argument i am not criticizing i don't know these dynamics i don't know what happened behind that's but when we talk about what she's been subjected to in media this statement came out and i immediately just scratched my head And now things are starting to piece together to where, oh, I see why maybe she had to do or felt she had to, baby. But she's putting it on the police. She's almost throwing them under the bus.
00:19:16
Speaker 3: She is. But may I also ask, what is the right thing to do?
00:19:22
Speaker 2: This is tough.
00:19:23
Speaker 3: If there are no charges, she didn't have any evidence. How would that have looked if she just went out with her platform and her voice and her exposure and told the world that she thought her father might be into child porn?
00:19:41
Speaker 1: You acknowledge, right? She's giving me the question. We've seen how people handle these things. You acknowledge and leave it alone. Heartbreak. for anybody who might have suffered at the hands of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Heartbreaks to see it. Couldn't imagine waiting to hear more. Let the authorities do their thing. Won't have any other comment at this time. You just, your heart breaks for what anybody might have gone through. You don't have to explain your relationship with your dad anymore in a letter in 2008 and 2018. And what did the cops do? I trusted they would protect kids. I was protecting mine. Like people don't appreciate that. I got mine. You better get yours. That's not the type of society we talk about. Just protecting ourselves, mine, nationalism, right? All kinds of things. We just stay in our little camps and no concern for everybody else. There's a theme. There's something there, baby. And the tone of this. I hate that. You know I am rooting for Meghan Markle. Leave this lady alone. They cannot catch a break. They can't. They cannot catch a break.
00:20:43
Speaker 2: Now, granted, some of it was self-imposed. I need to fully acknowledge that.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: I would say most of it publicly might have been.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Probably, yes. But this isn't going to go away anytime soon. This is just beginning.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: What was it? Even Harry the other day doing an interview saying he wants to make up with his brother. He had to come back and issue a clarification in some part of that.
00:21:06
Speaker 3: He wasn't implying that his brother or that his father or that anyone in the royal family didn't want to, and he did.
00:21:13
Speaker 2: He was just talking generally. I know.
00:21:15
Speaker 1: They can't get a break, man.
00:21:16
Speaker 2: Everything they say is scrutinized, and it is a difficult microscope to live under. That is true.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: For sure. It really does.
00:21:26
Speaker 2: It does.
00:21:26
Speaker 3: All right. We will stay on top of this developing story. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We will talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, October 23rd. And Meghan Markle has a lot going on these days. And we just got a long statement from her. And I bet you didn't have this on your bingo card. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and CJ Rope. She's got the new... The kids just came back. Everybody just moved back to the UK. Had to pull them out of the school. Got some security issues. Still trying to work out everything with Grandpa and the rest of the family. All of that. And now... her dad is being accused of some pretty heinous stuff.
00:00:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mentioned grandpa.
00:00:38
Speaker 3: You were talking about the King of England on the Prince Harry side of things. On the Meghan Markle side of things, her father is now being accused of possessing, I mean, hundreds, thousands of images of child sex porn.
00:00:55
Speaker 1: You see them used, thrown around the word hoard?
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:00:58
Speaker 1: A hoard of materials.
00:01:00
Speaker 3: And his own son is the one who put this latest claim into play because apparently there have been.
00:01:09
Speaker 2: Speculation, there has been.
00:01:11
Speaker 3: Accusations that her father was engaged in some sort of illegal activity involving child porn for years now, and even Meghan Markle herself is admitting that she had knowledge of this.
00:01:24
Speaker 1: And that was the part that looked like a bizarre and a disturbing story in a lot of ways, and her statement immediately goes into her telling us all that she was aware, at least to some degree, Robes, of accusations like this. Now, when you told me this morning, we saw, no, we were doing our morning run this morning on our feed, our news show, and I saw the story earlier about her dad and skipped it. I'm like, ah, whatever, some family stuff. She's estranged from the guy anyway. Whatever's going on with him, we don't have to put it in our rundown. Robes, and then you say, yo, Megan just put a statement out. And it's long. And there's a lot. My mind went a particular place. You said she was talking about the victims. But Ro, she immediately, it sounded like she had some explaining to do.
00:02:14
Speaker 2: Well, yes.
00:02:15
Speaker 3: And I think a couple of things. I believe she is trying to defend... anyone maybe who came after her for being estranged from her own father, from keeping her children away from her father. And she wanted basically everyone to know that, yeah, there was a real reason, and I've been aware of this.
00:02:35
Speaker 2: You also thought that perhaps she.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: Was trying to explain that she expected the authorities to handle the investigation, and she didn't want to have anything to do with what was being said.
00:02:48
Speaker 1: And you know she's not necessarily going to get a fair shake with the British media. So in that regard, are they going to come at her for, wait a minute, you knew this about your dad all these years and you never said anything? You caused other people to be harmed? There's going to be that whole thing. I don't know if you've seen that drumbeat. It might be starting already. But just her tone and how she, in her statement, it felt like this was a woman, like she was the one Who was being defensive or being attacked when it's really, I don't hold anything against her for what her dad might be doing.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: She might be anticipating some of that. How long have you known? What did you do about it?
00:03:28
Speaker 3: Because it's her half brother who actually handed over what seems like a lot of evidence and. Look, I think it's that coupled with the fact that she may have always felt defensive about the fact that she didn't have a relationship with him or with that side of her family. That people, her half-sister, have certainly been very public about how they feel her role in her family was. So maybe she's saying, see everybody, see me. see what I've been dealing with, see what I've known all this time.
00:03:58
Speaker 1: It's a pretty immediate response by her.
00:04:00
Speaker 2: It's a quick response.
00:04:01
Speaker 1: It's really quick. But she's also.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: Probably learned not responding and not telling your side of things doesn't actually bode well either because then people speculate and fill in what they think she did or didn't do or should have done.
00:04:15
Speaker 1: Well, then in that case, thank you, Megan, for showing us the way because we blew that as well. So yes, maybe she has learned her lessons. And that's why she responded so quickly. But Thomas Markle, 82 years old now, has been living in the Philippines. Now, Robes, he is in the U.S. now because he had medical issues and he had to come back. I believe he's going through some treatment in Florida right now. But this is the guy that married Meghan Markle's mom in 1979. That relationship only lasted, that marriage at least, only eight years. But he was married to her mom. We're so familiar with her mom because of that wedding. And this sweet little lady from Compton doing her thing and hopping into the the Queen Bentley or whatever it was. It was just, she was such a part of that ceremony and us getting to know Meghan Markle. The dad kind of flew in the face of all of that. When you see him, when you hear about him and what he wasn't invited to the wedding, but he said something, it was some controversy about him right before the wedding. You remember he found some kind of way to make headlines of some kind, or maybe that was just the big thing. Is he going to attend or not? But ultimately he did not. So that tells you maybe everything you need to know, but Robes has started with the Sun newspaper, a British newspaper over in the, yeah, British newspaper, so you know where it is. It's British.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:05:31
Speaker 1: But they are the ones who kind of blew the lid on this, Robes, in revealing this damning story about her dad.
00:05:48
Speaker 3: Yes, and this all comes from, yes, as you mentioned, the Sun newspaper, but His own son, as we mentioned, so this is Thomas Markle Sr., Thomas Markle Jr., reported him and said he found child abuse materials stored in boxes at that home in the Philippines that he was living in, I believe, up until May. But he claims he found all of this and alerted authorities about it in July and said, yes, I believe it was hundreds, if not thousands, of child sex abuse images. And look, he immediately called the FBI. He alerted local authorities and then also alerted the FBI.
00:06:31
Speaker 1: He said it freaked him out, given what he found. Now, Robes, he said, first of all, at least according to The Sun's reporting, The Sun newspaper reporting, I should say, he was looking for something else. He was trying to find an old cell phone that he could actually give to a friend to use. So he knew this old cell phone was just thrown in there. Turns the thing on, Robes, and they are talking, Robes, what they describe are pictures and videos of girls young as 10 and under without clothes on and in some cases involved in sexual acts. Robes, they say he had to go he found the phone and then went back and saw some other stuff in the boxes. He had to take it to some professionals to go through some old disks and things and computers and VHS tapes. It is just a disgusting, overwhelming trove of stuff. They said it was in boxes, like four boxes of stuff. Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, but good Lord, have mercy what they claim to have found there. Now, we should say that he is denying the allegations. He said that to another outlet. But the sunrobes, I think that says a lot. And the sun, we say Thomas Jr. In my mind, I think some teenage boy. And this is a 60-year-old man, by the way.
00:08:00
Speaker 2: Yes, yes. He is a grown adult. Yes, because, yeah, Megan's dad's 82. Junior is 60. And I believe... Thomas Markle Sr.
00:08:11
Speaker 3: Called the allegations against him, quote unquote, sick lies.
00:08:15
Speaker 2: But his son's quote to me really spoke volumes.
00:08:18
Speaker 3: He said, I won't speak to my father ever again unless I'm called to give evidence against him.
00:08:26
Speaker 1: Bro, that's... I'm done immediately, instantly. I don't need to hear an explanation of any kind. My relationship with my dad that I've had for 60 years is over now. Done.
00:08:39
Speaker 3: Done.
00:08:40
Speaker 1: Robes, this is, he is, the dad is speaking publicly. Say it, it's all, like you said, Robes, but this is damning. But for him, but Robes, who was holding anything? Why would you immediately, how can you hold this against her, what her dad possibly was doing? But we're going to get into her statement here now. But Robes, why is anybody looking at this? There's no reason to think she's responsible for anything.
00:09:05
Speaker 3: No, and I think peopleâ I think there are a large number of people who are looking to say, oh, this explains a lot. This explains perhaps why she wanted nothing to do with him. This explains where he looks likeâ because, look, he had gone onâ television he was speaking to tabloids non-stop which was driving megan markle and prince harry crazy leading up to their wedding he was just basically saying she's you know she won't speak to us he even wrote her a letter last december and made it public that he's dying and he didn't want to die without with being estranged from his daughter so he's absolutely used her position or at least at that point her position with the royal family her newfound fame trying to get attention for himself.
00:09:50
Speaker 1: Okay, so, as you tell that story, then it would then, I guess, make some sense for her to, I assume, some critical... could have come. I don't know if she said much about her dad in the past, but if the whole world is watching and this guy seems to be dying and is. Putting his heart out there and wants a relationship and she's just ignoring him.
00:10:11
Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:10:12
Speaker 1: She seems like the meanie.
00:10:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, that she won't... She's unwilling to make amends with her dying father who had to fly back to the United States. He actually had his leg amputated because of blood clots and so... Yes, he, I think, was positioning himself as a pitiful victim in all of this and that Meghan's just this awful daughter who won't or is unwilling to find some sort of reconciliation with her own father. And so, yes, in that same Sun article, they had a source close to Meghan saying, now maybe people will finally understand why she had nothing to do with her father anymore. Since 2018, because it's 2018 and we'll get into her statement in a bit where she claims she first learned that her father was being investigated. I don't understand if it was, if this investigation was going on for that long, we're talking eight years. It took his son finding boxes and boxes and boxes of horrific, grotesque images for this to get actually blown wide open.
00:11:18
Speaker 2: The FBI reportedly now is investigating. So look, he's in Florida.
00:11:21
Speaker 3: So it looks like he may be facing some charges, some serious charges, even at the age of 82 with an amputated leg.
00:11:29
Speaker 1: And with an estranged daughter. Stay here. We will let you hear every word of Meghan Markle's statement. She did go into some detail about her relationship with her dad and says, yes, what you're seeing now explains a lot.
00:11:53
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. We are hearing.
00:11:57
Speaker 3: Directly from the Duchess of Sussex, and she put out this statement within hours, I would say, of the news breaking that her father, Thomas Markle Sr., 82 years old, is being accused by his own son and now being investigated by Philippine authorities and, yes, the FBI for for having hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal, horrific images of young girls naked in sexual positions. I mean, just as awful as it gets. And so Megan didn't hesitate to put this statement out.
00:12:38
Speaker 1: I wonder how this could this have gone different if she was still a working royal. Like, what are you allowed to do on your own? Statements that go out. I wonder how this would have gone differently. But hey, she had every This was quick. She wanted to say something, and she got this out. When you said, Brobes, I don't know if I'd have blinked at this story until you told me that she put a statement out.
00:13:01
Speaker 2: She put this statement out and it reads as follows.
00:13:05
Speaker 3: 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. In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: That letter was subsequently shared with me.
00:13:23
Speaker 3: 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, although the breadth of what What do you make of that? I think she's just feeling validated and wants anyone who suggested that her estrangement from her father had anything to do with her being unwilling or being unreasonable to have a relationship with him. But instead she's saying, see this man, this man who I have refused contact with, who I have not allowed my children to see. Do you see what he now is being accused of? That's why people, that's why I steered clear. And look, I don't know if she'll get any flack for having known, but I do think it's a fair thing. It's a fair belief, I would imagine, that if you're getting notified about the possibility of something like this from authorities, that those same authorities would have followed through on an investigation and pursued any criminal charges, if any were deemed appropriate.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I don't know what responsibility she's supposed to have.
00:15:08
Speaker 2: Right?
00:15:09
Speaker 1: She could have said a lot in there without even addressing that part of it. It was brought to my attention, and I thought they were doing what they were doing. Some of it, again, I go back to that royal family mantra, don't complain and don't explain. And it seems like it's important to her to explain something in this moment, and it might be a matter of she feels, aha, see, I told you, and this explains it, but... That also suggests, Robes, that she was aware of this guy walking around as a threat. I know it's not her job to go arrest him, but is she going to be looked at now as protect families? You were aware your dad was a monster of this kind, and she just went about your day. Is that going to come her way?
00:16:00
Speaker 3: I don't know.
00:16:01
Speaker 1: I would assume it will, because she's done far, far less. Just walking outside and breathing, she gets criticized, so Comes with the territory for this young lady.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: Well, she's put out her statement. She's made it known.
00:16:12
Speaker 3: And I also think that many people looked down on her because her father wasn't at her wedding. Right. Do you remember that at the time? And so that all lines up 2018. That was when she got married. 2018 is when she claims this information was brought to her attention or at least a version of this information.
00:16:29
Speaker 2: Was brought to her attention.
00:16:31
Speaker 3: And that's why she didn't want him at her wedding, and that's why she didn't want him around her kids. And so she just, you know, I don't know if she'll get any flack for not getting specific about why she didn't want her kids around him.
00:16:44
Speaker 2: You're making a face.
00:16:45
Speaker 1: I made it because I just happened to go on, just happened to put Meghan Markle's name into Twitter. And the first top thing that popped up was from, yes, Meghan Markle, or from Piers Morgan about Meghan Markle. Why does she not go public to protect others?
00:17:03
Speaker 2: Yes, you protected your children from your father. What about all the others?
00:17:08
Speaker 1: That thing. And you know, he's a think what you want of him, but he's still a prominent voice in the UK. Yeah, I think it's just a natural question. I'm sitting on this. I know this guy is up to... What did that letter say? Are we ever going to see that?
00:17:22
Speaker 2: Maybe she'll be able.
00:17:23
Speaker 1: To provide it.
00:17:24
Speaker 3: And maybe it didn't get detailed, but we don't know. But you anticipated this before. You were like, that was where your head went first. She is going to face criticism for not going public. If she knew eight years ago her father was being accused of some sort of criminal activity involving minors, that it rose to a level enough where you have never let your children meet him. But you didn't feel the need to let anyone else know.
00:17:54
Speaker 1: Babe, when you read the statement, when you first, first saw the statement, I was like, hmm. It's just, we see so many statements, babe. And you can really break these things down. And to look at this, it seemed as if she was trying to immediately get the heat off of her before it might have even come. I didn't know about the letter in 2018. Robes, I didn't know this stuff. She's got it on my radar now to where I'm like, hmm. What the hell is she talking about? I trusted the authorities were doing the same for other families like I was doing for mine. I was protecting my... She wrote that line.
00:18:27
Speaker 3: Look, yes, and that might not have been the best way to put it, but I think also, imagine if she hadn't acknowledged that she got this letter in 2018 and then it leaked.
00:18:37
Speaker 2: That would have looked even worse.
00:18:39
Speaker 3: So I at least have to give her credit for immediately acknowledging that she did.
00:18:44
Speaker 2: receive some.
00:18:45
Speaker 1: Sort of you're making the point you're making the point though she wants to immediately do it now she had years to do it is the argument i am not criticizing i don't know these dynamics i don't know what happened behind that's but when we talk about what she's been subjected to in media this statement came out and i immediately just scratched my head And now things are starting to piece together to where, oh, I see why maybe she had to do or felt she had to, baby. But she's putting it on the police. She's almost throwing them under the bus.
00:19:16
Speaker 3: She is. But may I also ask, what is the right thing to do?
00:19:22
Speaker 2: This is tough.
00:19:23
Speaker 3: If there are no charges, she didn't have any evidence. How would that have looked if she just went out with her platform and her voice and her exposure and told the world that she thought her father might be into child porn?
00:19:41
Speaker 1: You acknowledge, right? She's giving me the question. We've seen how people handle these things. You acknowledge and leave it alone. Heartbreak. for anybody who might have suffered at the hands of blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Heartbreaks to see it. Couldn't imagine waiting to hear more. Let the authorities do their thing. Won't have any other comment at this time. You just, your heart breaks for what anybody might have gone through. You don't have to explain your relationship with your dad anymore in a letter in 2008 and 2018. And what did the cops do? I trusted they would protect kids. I was protecting mine. Like people don't appreciate that. I got mine. You better get yours. That's not the type of society we talk about. Just protecting ourselves, mine, nationalism, right? All kinds of things. We just stay in our little camps and no concern for everybody else. There's a theme. There's something there, baby. And the tone of this. I hate that. You know I am rooting for Meghan Markle. Leave this lady alone. They cannot catch a break. They can't. They cannot catch a break.
00:20:43
Speaker 2: Now, granted, some of it was self-imposed. I need to fully acknowledge that.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: I would say most of it publicly might have been.
00:20:49
Speaker 2: Probably, yes. But this isn't going to go away anytime soon. This is just beginning.
00:20:57
Speaker 1: What was it? Even Harry the other day doing an interview saying he wants to make up with his brother. He had to come back and issue a clarification in some part of that.
00:21:06
Speaker 3: He wasn't implying that his brother or that his father or that anyone in the royal family didn't want to, and he did.
00:21:13
Speaker 2: He was just talking generally. I know.
00:21:15
Speaker 1: They can't get a break, man.
00:21:16
Speaker 2: Everything they say is scrutinized, and it is a difficult microscope to live under. That is true.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: For sure. It really does.
00:21:26
Speaker 2: It does.
00:21:26
Speaker 3: All right. We will stay on top of this developing story. And with that, everyone, we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ Holmes. We will talk to you soon.