Thomas Markle, the father of Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has reportedly been arrested in Florida over allegations involving possession of child sexual abuse material.
According to reports by the Daily Mail and the New York Post, the 82-year-old was taken into custody by FBI agents on Friday at the retirement facility where he resides in Florida.
The reported arrest comes amid investigations spanning the Philippines and Mexico, where authorities have been examining suspected child sexual abuse material allegedly recovered from properties previously linked to Markle.
Philippine police told AFP that investigators found suspected child sexual abuse material on three memory cards and a mobile phone recovered during the inquiry.
The devices were reportedly among belongings handed over to authorities by Markle’s son, Thomas Markle Jr, last Wednesday, prompting further investigations by the Philippine National Police.
However, police chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr urged the public not to draw premature conclusions, saying investigators must first establish the source of the material and determine who was responsible.
He emphasised that the discovery of the material alone was insufficient to establish criminal responsibility or determine whether any Philippine laws had been violated.
The investigation also extended to Baja California, Mexico, where authorities searched a storage facility previously rented by Markle following an anonymous tip about suspected child sexual abuse material.
According to the state’s prosecutor’s office, investigators discovered that Markle had stopped paying rent for the unit in 2024, although his belongings had remained inside.
During the search, authorities reportedly recovered Asian magazines believed to be approximately two decades old, as well as computer equipment that was seized for forensic examination.
The allegations first came to public attention last month after The Sun reported that Thomas Markle Jr had allegedly discovered the material while sorting through boxes at his father’s former residence in the Philippines. Markle had been residing in Cebu before reportedly returning to the United States earlier this year.
His daughter, Meghan, has previously expressed deep distress over the allegations concerning her father. She also revealed that she had severed contact between him and her children following what she described as earlier troubling and disturbing allegations.
The investigations are ongoing, and the allegations have not, based on the information provided, been established in court.
