Meghan Markle’s complicated relationship with her father’s family, explained

In the aftermath of the Duchess of Sussex’s statement in reaction to allegations against her father, we unpack their complex relationship.

Since Meghan Markle was engaged to Prince Harry in 2017, her relationship with her father and her half-siblings has remained a fixture in the press. 

Leading up to her nuptials with Harry in 2018, there was, of course, the staged paparazzi photo scandal involving her father, Thomas Markle Sr., while her half-sister Samantha Markle publicly criticized her. Her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., even penned an open letter urging Harry to call off the wedding. Since then, much has been said about her estrangement from that side of the family, particularly her father, and things have only gotten more complicated. However, we may have just received some insight. 

On Friday, the Duchess of Sussex revealed in a statement that she was made aware of disturbing allegations against her father, Thomas Markle Sr., in 2018 and that part of their estrangement stems from a decision she made to keep him away from her children for their safety.

“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 began in the statement, per the Daily Mail. 

“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,” she continued. “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.”

She added, “Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.”

The statement arrive after her half-brother publicly accused their father on Thursday of possessing hundreds, if not thousands, of images depicting child sexual abuse, claims the Sr. Thomas has denied, but which provide a whole new context for a family rift that has played out through headlines, interviews, lawsuits, and public pleas for reconciliation for nearly a decade.

Before the Royal Family

Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1980s, Meghan split her childhood between her mother, Doria Ragland, a social worker and yoga instructor, and her father, an Emmy-winning television lighting director. Though her parents divorced when she was young, both remained involved in her upbringing, with Meghan even spending time on the set of “Married… with Children,” where her father worked.

She would even go on to credit her mother with nurturing her independence and her father with helping her navigate growing up biracial, once recalling how he customized a set of Barbie dolls to resemble their family when she couldn’t find one that looked like hers. Their relationship appeared to remain close well into her adulthood, with Meghan affectionately celebrating him in a 2016 Father’s Day tribute, just a year before her engagement to Harry.

The 2018 fallout

Things took a dramatic turn in the weeks leading up to Meghan’s May 2018 wedding when her father was caught staging paparazzi photos of himself getting fitted for a suit and reading up on the royal family, a scheme her half-sister later admitted she had encouraged in an effort to improve his public image. Of course, her half-brother’s open letter to Harry, published in In Touch, calling the marriage “the biggest mistake in royal wedding history” and accusing Meghan of abandoning their father, didn’t help matters.

What’s worse is her father went back and forth with TMZ about whether he would attend the wedding, ultimately bowing out at the last minute after reportedly undergoing heart surgery. Despite Meghan and Harry’s attempts to reach him, he was nowhere to be seen when his daughter walked down the aisle on May 19, leaving her to make part of the journey alone before then-Prince Charles escorted her the rest of the way. Her mother was the only member of her immediate family in attendance.

The tabloids, dueling interviews, and public appeals over the years

Over the next several years, Thomas became a regular fixture in the British tabloids, giving interviews about his strained relationship with Meghan, accusing her of shutting him out, and making increasingly public pleas for reconciliation, including one directed at Queen Elizabeth II. Even a deeply personal five-page letter Meghan sent him in August 2018, pleading with him to stop speaking to the press, eventually found its way into the pages of the Mail on Sunday in February 2019, setting off a privacy lawsuit she would go on to win in 2021. Her sister also attempted to sue her in 2022.

For her part, Meghan largely kept quiet about the situation until her explosive sit-down with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, when she opened up about feeling betrayed by her father after learning he had cooperated with the tabloids. She also questioned how he could have participated in the media frenzy surrounding her wedding when he knew firsthand the scrutiny she was facing.

Her father’s continued health struggles and possible hopes for reconciliation 

For a brief moment, it seemed she and her father might finally be moving toward some kind of reconciliation. After suffering a stroke in 2022, Thomas, who had spent years living in Mexico before relocating to the Philippines in 2025 to live with his son, faced yet another health setback last December when a blood clot led to the emergency amputation of his left leg. The news reportedly prompted Meghan to reach out to him for the first time in years via a handwritten note after several attempts to make contact.

Whether that exchange led to anything more remains unclear, though Thomas, who has since returned to the United States and was reportedly recovering at a rehabilitation facility in Florida before returning to the Philippines, has continued expressing his desire to reunite with his daughter and potentially meet his grandchildren.

Where things stand now

Now, eight years later, the family’s troubles have taken a far more serious turn, with authorities in the Philippines confirming they are investigating the allegations against Thomas, according to Reuters. The country’s Department of Justice has assigned its anti-trafficking and online child sexual exploitation task force to the case, while the FBI has also said it is aware of the allegations and will investigate any potential violations of U.S. law.

Meanwhile, Meghan’s statement has raised questions about what became of the allegations brought to British authorities in 2018. London’s Metropolitan Police has since confirmed it is conducting an internal inquiry to determine whether its Royalty and Specialist Protection Command received and passed along the letter she referenced, though it remains unclear whether those earlier allegations are connected to the ones now being investigated in the Philippines.

As for the possibility of reconciliation, it’s hard to say what the future may hold, but the thing is clear: the Duchess will do what makes sense for her own children, even if she hasn’t always had the best example.