Thomas Markle's alcoholic ex-wife, the wayward son he 'cut off financially' - and how the grubbiest royal scandal in history unfolded: GUY ADAMS

Shortly after his daughter Meghan married Prince Harry, Thomas Markle was the subject of a cover story on America's most notorious supermarket tabloid, The National Enquirer.

Published in October 2018, it gave a compelling insight into why his absence from that summer's royal wedding might, in the great scheme of things, turn out to have been a blessing in disguise.

The article was based on a tape recording of the retired TV lighting director discussing his time in Hollywood, where he'd won three Emmy awards.

Two excerpts stood out. In one, Markle brazenly talked about having dabbled in Class A drugs, confessing: 'In the industry I worked in back in the 70s and 80s there was cocaine around a lot. And I'm sure that I had an occasional sniff of cocaine.'

In the second, he gave a bizarrely equivocal answer when asked if he'd ever consorted with prostitutes in South-East Asia, where he'd holidayed on a number of occasions.

'Have I ever paid for a sex worker? Uh, there was a Playboy Club in the top floor of a hotel in the Philippines [but] I never paid for sex. I would go upstairs and enjoy myself in the Playboy Club, but… not for sex. I didn't get sex out of it,' Markle said.

But at the weekend he admitted to The Mail on Sunday that he had paid for sex in the Philippines.

The tape recording turned out to have been secretly made by Markle's son, Thomas Jr.

The Duchess of Sussex has been estranged from her father, Thomas Markle Sr, 82, since 2018. Pictured: The couple together on the day of Meghan's marriage to film producer Trevor Engelson in 2011

Roslyn Loveless, the first wife of Meghan Markle's estranged father Thomas, pictured outside her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico

Meghan Markle's half-brother Thomas Markle Jnr pictured hand-in-hand with a woman outside the apartment building where he lived with his father in the Philippines on May 10, 2025

In a separate interview, around the same time, he discussed his father's love life, claiming that in between divorcing his mother, Roslyn Loveless, in 1975, and marrying Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, in 1979, he'd enjoyed a lengthy relationship with a lady from the Philippines named Marty.

'There's a certain type of woman he likes. He likes Asian women a lot,' said Thomas Jr, before adding enigmatically: 'He likes to go on vacation to Thailand, Vietnam. He likes their culture a lot.'

Fast-forward eight years and Meghan's father, now 82, is once more the subject of a toe-curling sex scandal. The principal setting is, again, the Philippines.

And the most explosive details are, as previously, being made public by Thomas Jr, one of two children from whom he appears to be irreparably estranged.

The whole thing kicked off at exactly 10.04pm on Thursday, when it emerged that Filipino police were investigating Thomas Sr over a huge stash of child sex images that had allegedly been found at his home in Cebu, a tourist island some 350 miles south-east of the capital Manila.

It had purportedly been discovered by Thomas Jr, who told The Sun newspaper that he'd found 'hundreds if not thousands' of images in four cardboard boxes that had been shipped there from Rosarito in Mexico, where father and son had lived before moving out to the Philippines for a 'fresh start' in January 2025. 'When I found this material, I was horrified and I had no option but to report my dad,' he said.

'I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years – but that stops now. I won't speak to my father ever again unless I'm called to give evidence against him.'

Thomas Jr, 60, claims to have come across the material in July, while searching for a mobile phone handset he could give to the father of his fiancée, a 28-year-old Filipino woman named Rose.

Mr Markle faces child sex allegations which he denies and told The Mail on Sunday he was 'not buying' the idea that his first wife, who died two years ago, wrote the letter to the Met Police in early 2019

He says he charged up an old LG device, which had previously belonged to his Dad, only for explicit video of 'naked young girls' to flash up on the screen.

Other images, of what The Sun described as 'victims appearing to be aged no older than ten or 11', were discovered on a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop.

There were also alleged to be explicit DVDs and photographs, some of them secreted in the pages of a couple of coffee table books that belonged to Thomas Sr. One was called Lewis Carroll Photographs Of Children: Four Nude Studies, the other Hollywood Lolitas: The Nymphet Syndrome In The Movies.

According to Thomas Jr, he promptly reported the discovery of the material to the FBI, hoping they would launch an investigation into his father.

Thomas Sr had moved back to the US in May after suffering serious health difficulties, including a stroke and a blood clot, which resulted in the amputation of his left leg below the knee.

Yet three months passed, without an FBI probe ensuing. So Thomas Jr instead decided to report the matter to police in the Philippines.

On Friday morning, he transported the four cardboard boxes to the police headquarters in Cebu City in a Toyota HiAce people-carrier under the watchful eyes of a Sun reporter.

Thomas Jr, who had until now sided with his father in various public spats with Meghan, then used the newspaper to issue a mea culpa to his estranged half-sister, saying yesterday: 'I'm so, so sorry… I now know I have been protecting the wrong person for the past nine years.'

The Duchess of Sussex had by then set a second hare running. On Friday, she issued a statement declaring herself 'deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours'.

Thomas Sr recovering in a hospital bed after surgery in the Philippines last December

Meghan added that in 2018, the Metropolitan Police had shared with her details of a letter which 'made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father'.

She was 'given assurances that these were being investigated', and subsequently decided to prevent her children from having contact with their grandfather, in order 'to protect them'.

It later emerged, the letter had in fact been sent in early 2019, shortly after The National Enquirer's revelations about Thomas Sr's previous exploits in an 'X-rated jiggle joint' in the Philippines. The letter's author was Thomas Sr's alcoholic ex-wife Roslyn Loveless, who died in 2024.

She alleged that he had admitted going to the Philippines and Thailand to abuse children, according to sources who have seen the letter's contents.

The Met is now 'reviewing its handling of the matter' and may yet refer itself to the police watchdog.

One odd wrinkle is that the letter seems to have ended up not with officers specialising in child sex abuse but with the Force's 'Fixated Threat Assessment Centre', a unit frequently referred to as its 'stalker and obsessive unit', which deals with people who threaten royals, celebrities and other public figures.

It's unclear whether this means officers concluded that claims made by Ms Loveless suggested she was a potential threat to Meghan, or whether they were instead concerned about Thomas Sr. Either way, an informed source said last night that the Met would almost certainly have had no jurisdiction to carry out further inquiries since Mr Markle was not in the UK and neither was his alleged offending nor the purported victims.

Another tricky factor for the law enforcement agencies might be the fact that the age of consent in the Philippines was only upgraded to 16 in 2022. Prior to that point it was just 12.

Quite how seriously the Duchess of Sussex took the 2019 letter from Ms Loveless is, at this stage, unclear. In February 2019, shortly after it arrived, Meghan authorised five friends to brief her favourite outlet, People magazine, about her estrangement from Thomas Sr. The resulting article suggested the Duchess wished to repair the relationship.

Later, in a 2022 Netflix documentary, Meghan declared that she had been 'a daddy's girl my whole life'. She only appears to have categorically cut him off in late 2025, when Thomas Sr was gravely ill in hospital in the Philippines.

At that point, a representative was dispatched to hand-deliver a letter in a scene witnessed by the Mail's Caroline Graham.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at The Community Recording Studio in Nottingham earlier this month, their first official engagement since returning to the UK

None of which is, of course, to suggest that the Duchess is anything but a victim of this week's appalling developments. One might argue, in fact, she is the only member of her troubled American family who emerges from recent developments with her reputation enhanced.

Thomas Jr's motives are, to this end, very much open to question.

A twice-divorced window-fitter, with two grown-up sons (one is a marijuana farmer in Oregon, where the activity is legal), his chaotic personal CV includes an arrest for allegedly putting a gun to a girlfriend's head during a drunken row (charges were filed in 2017 but later dismissed after they reconciled) and a court appearance for drink-driving.

He also appeared on Australia's version of Celebrity Big Brother in 2022, alleging that he and Meghan had once been close, but that 'money changed her' after she achieved fame.

In recent years, the 60-year-old has been almost entirely financially supported by his father. The duo moved out to the Philippines together in January 2025, and Thomas Jr remains there.

Thomas Sr, for his part, returned to the US in May to recuperate from the health crisis that saw his leg amputated.

He left behind his most recent girlfriend Rio Canedo, a local nurse who he'd met when she treated him in hospital.

At 46, she is three and a half decades his junior.

Meghan's father initially spent time in Pennsylvania but has lately been in a nursing home in Lakeland, Florida, where he is being supported by Samantha Markle, the Duchess's somewhat outspoken second half‑sibling, who is the eldest child of Ms Loveless.

Samantha, a former actress and model who has given a number of unflattering interviews about Meghan over the years, remains very much in her father's camp.

She told the Daily Mail at the weekend that her brother's allegations about their father are 'disgusting', saying they have 'no merit in them whatsoever'.

She described Thomas Jr as a 'liar' who is fabricating the claims to make cash.

Furthermore, she has alleged that his original complaint to the FBI in July followed a family row over money: shortly after returning to the US in May, Thomas Sr changed passwords to a bank account his son had access to.

'My brother first came out with these lies days after the cash from my Dad was cut off. He has used Dad as a cash cow for years, and once the money stopped he made up the most outrageous lies he could to make money from the media,' was how Samantha put it.

She further described her brother as a 'delusional alcoholic' and said the devices said to contain illicit material had been untouched by her father since he'd arrived in the Philippines, where they had been kept in storage.

'Dad had no access to those computers for two years. Who knows who could have had access to them? Anyone could have set Dad up. There is no merit in these disgusting allegations whatsoever and my brother is disgusting for making them up.'

In remarks which may do little to improve her father's reputation in the court of public opinion, Samantha added that one of the photographs at the centre of the investigation, which purportedly shows her father on a bed with a young-looking Asian woman, 'may be one of his girlfriends'.

She went on: 'Dad dated a wonderful Japanese woman called Carolyn who I loved. She was in her 30s but she looked like a teenager. Asian women have great skin and are small and petite. They look much younger than they are.

'Dad had another girlfriend called Gail. She was Asian and gorgeous but looked very young.'

And what of Thomas Sr? He is purportedly in severe ill health, but has declared himself prepared to do 'whatever it takes' to clear his name, saying that the computers and phones at the centre of this week's events haven't been in his possession for more than two years so: 'If there is anything bad on there it was put there by someone else.'

As we have seen in an interview with The Mail on Sunday, he admitted that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and 'slept with prostitutes', adding, perhaps ill-advisedly, that: 'I like Asian women but that is not a crime.'

And so, the case continues.

Thomas Markle had only just managed to sit upright in his hospital bed for the first time since having his leg amputated when there was a knock at the door.

Two women walked in. One was clutching a white envelope bearing Mr Markle's name.

It was December last year and this was the moment he discovered that his estranged daughter, Meghan, had sent him a letter.

What neither of us could have imagined was that the envelope would become the focus of a fresh and deeply troubling chapter in the extraordinary saga of the fractured Markle family.

It has now emerged that, according to The Sun, Meghan's letter contained the sensational allegation that she 'knew her father had abused young girls' and that she wrote he would never meet his grandchildren, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five.

I had absolutely no inkling that the innocuous-looking white envelope contained such a bombshell.

Out of respect for Meghan's privacy, I never asked Mr Markle what the letter said.

But I vividly remember the bizarre circumstances in which it was delivered because it was a scene so surreal it has stayed with me ever since.

The moment in December last year that Thomas Markle discovered that his estranged daughter, Meghan, had sent him a letter

It has now emerged that, according to The Sun, Meghan's letter contained the sensational allegation that she 'knew her father had abused young girls'

I flew to the Philippines last December at Mr Markle's urging. We became friends in 2018 and he asked me to come after doctors discovered a massive blood clot that meant his left leg would have to be amputated below the knee.

By the time I arrived in Cebu – the city to which he and his son Tom Jr had moved in January 2025 in search of a 'fresh start' – Mr Markle was in intensive care.

It was in Cebu that Tom Jr allegedly discovered a stash of child sex images on his father's computer, phone and hard drives, claims Mr Markle has vehemently denied.

But back to the letter.

A few days after my arrival, Mr Markle was transferred to a private room at the University of Cebu Medical Centre.

For a then 81-year-old man who had already suffered two heart attacks and a stroke, his recovery was remarkable.

I remember a physiotherapist entering the room and announcing: 'OK, Mr Tom, it's time for you to get moving.'

He manoeuvred him from a prone position into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. We were smiling at this small but significant milestone when there was a knock at the door.

In walked two women who introduced themselves as a lawyer and the hospital's president.

There had been no warning of their arrival.

Mr Markle was sitting on the bed with the stump of his leg exposed, still wrapped in a bloodied bandage. Instinctively I reached for a sheet to cover it and preserve his dignity.

The lawyer was carrying a clutch of legal documents. The women explained that they had come to deliver a letter from his daughter Meghan and that Mr Markle would have to sign paperwork authorising them to film the encounter so that footage could be sent to Meghan's office as proof that the sealed letter had been handed to him.

I immediately offered to leave the room but Mr Markle asked me to stay.

Thomas Markle and Filipino nurse Rio Canedo, 46, at the rehab centre in Cebu, Philippines

'If you are going to video this, then I would like Caroline to video it too,' he told the lawyer.

The whole thing felt utterly surreal.

Here was an elderly man, seriously ill and heavily medicated with powerful painkillers, being asked to sign legal documents before receiving a letter from his own daughter.

Mr Markle duly signed the papers.

The hospital's president performatively handed him the envelope bowing slightly as she said: 'Mr Markle, I have been asked to hand you this personally by your daughter Meghan. It is sealed. I need to make sure you know it is sealed.'

There was a nod towards the iPhone camera being held by the lawyer.

Once they knew the encounter had been successfully captured on tape the two women left as quickly as they had arrived, leaving Mr Markle and I alone with the glaringly white envelope lying on his hospital bed.

He began to tremble.

He told me he was not ready to read Meghan's letter and asked me to move it out of his sight. I put it on a plastic table next to his uneaten lunch.

For the next four hours he fretted about opening it. He told me he was 'scared' it would 'contain bad news'.

Eventually he decided he could put it off no longer.

'I better get this over with,' he said.

He asked me to hand him the envelope. Once again, I offered to leave the room while he read it.

He read the letter in silence, saying nothing. He shook his head several times. Then he folded the letter up, slipped it back into its envelope and asked me to put it in the wardrobe.

And that was that. He told me nothing about its contents. I asked no questions.

Tom Jr, Meghan's brother, claimed to have found the child-abuse material packed up in boxes at his father's Philippines home

The letter went into his bag in the wardrobe containing the dirty clothes he'd arrived at the hospital in and we never discussed it again. Until now.

Following The Sun's revelations about the letter on Sunday, I telephoned Mr Markle, who is now living in a rehabilitation centre in Florida after returning to the US in May to continue his medical treatment.

He told me he has 'a vague memory' of receiving the letter but cannot recall what it said.

Mr Markle has since been diagnosed with dementia, a condition he has authorised the Daily Mail to report.

He also gave permission for us to share the video of the extraordinary hospital encounter.

'I remember getting the letter but I don't remember anything else about it,' he said. 'I'm happy for people to see the video. I have nothing to hide.'

I asked him about The Sun's report that Meghan said in the letter that she knew of allegations he was a child sex abuser: 'I'm not a paedophile. I've never done anything bad to a child. Never.

'If Meghan says that's what she wrote, then she's probably right. I was very sick. I have memory issues. I know there was a letter, but I don't remember what it said.'

He has no idea where the letter is now.

Mr Markle left the Philippines in May, leaving most of his possessions behind. He intended to return later this year once he had learned to walk using a prosthetic limb.

He has strenuously denied his son's allegations about the child sex abuse images, describing the claims as 'terrible lies'.

He maintains the computers said to contain the material were out of his control for nearly two years following their move to Cebu.

'The stuff was boxed up in Mexico and put on a container ship. I kept asking Tom for my computers, but he said they were in storage.'

Meanwhile, Tom Jr, a man I also have known for years, insists his father is in 'denial' and claims he acted because the material he found was so horrific he had to report it.

Authorities in the Philippines have launched an enquiry and the FBI in the US is likely to follow suit this week.

Mr Markle has said he will fully co-operate with authorities to clear his name and has even offered to take a lie detector test.

For now the letter that arrived under such weird circumstances in that Filipino hospital room remains missing its contents, beyond what has been reported by The Sun, unconfirmed by Mr Markle himself or, as of now, the Duchess of Sussex.

Mr Markle claims he remembers nothing of the letter's contents but I will never forget the dramatic, and frankly weird, way it was delivered.