FBI Arrests Thomas Markle, Meghan Markle's Father, in Florida

FBI agents arrested Thomas Markle Sr., the 82-year-old estranged father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, at a Florida care home on Friday in connection with the alleged possession of child sexual abuse material.

Agents arrived at the Maravida Senior Living facility to apprehend him. He strongly denies the allegations against him.

No charges had been made public or filed in court by Friday afternoon. The Associated Press, citing people familiar with the matter, said he was arrested on charges related to child sexual abuse material.

"I'm not a paedophile. I've never done anything bad to a child. Never," Markle told the Mail on Sunday. He dismissed the allegations as a "bunch of lies" and suggested he was being framed.

Meghan's representatives declined to comment on the arrest.

No charges made public in any country

The case against Markle spans at least three countries, and as of Nov. 6 no charges against him had been made public in any of them. Investigators in the Philippines are examining his digital devices. Mexican authorities are holding items seized from a storage locker in Baja California.

The FBI had not confirmed the arrest by Friday afternoon.

Four boxes left behind in Cebu

Thomas Markle Jr., 60, Meghan's half-brother, handed boxes of his father's stored belongings to authorities in Cebu in October. Cebu Regional Prosecutor Graeme Elmido told the BBC that Markle Jr. believed his father "has to answer for it."

Markle Jr. told The Sun he found what he described as hundreds, possibly thousands, of child sexual abuse images and videos.

The Sun first reported the discovery in October, setting off the Philippine inquiry.

Father and son relocated from Rosarito to Cebu in early 2025. By May 2026, Markle Sr. had returned to the United States for ongoing medical care, leaving four boxes of belongings at the Cebu property. Those are the same boxes his son later delivered to prosecutors.

Until October, Markle Jr. had been among his father's most outspoken public supporters.

Three memory cards and a cell phone

The Philippine National Police told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday, Nov. 4, that three memory cards and a cell phone turned over by Markle's son contained child sexual abuse material. The week before, police said they were investigating a laptop found alongside images of child abuse at an alleged former residence of Markle's.

Police chief Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. cautioned against jumping ahead of the forensic work. "It is not enough to simply come across some materials and immediately draw conclusions," he said in a statement. "We have to establish where these came from, who may be responsible, and whether Philippine laws were violated."

Interior minister Jonvic Remulla said the country planned to take "appropriate legal actions" if sufficient evidence was found.

A court in Cebu issued a warrant authorizing investigators to open and examine any electronic devices. The anti-cybercrime unit in Cebu forwarded the digital items to its national office because of the forensic complexity of the materials. On Oct. 27, police said they could not rule out that some of the victims were Filipinos; on Nov. 3 they said initial findings showed none.

A midnight search of Unit 22 in Rosarito

Officers from Mexico's Guardia Nacional executed a court-authorized search just after midnight on Saturday, Oct. 31, at Baja Storage in Rosarito, working through Unit 22 and seizing a computer, thumb drives, VHS tapes and printed magazines. The gated facility sits roughly 10 miles south of the U.S. border and three miles from Markle's former Rosarito residence.

After the sweep, officers sealed the unit with "Aseguramiento de Inmuebles" tape, a formal notice that Mexican authorities had taken possession of the contents. Rental receipts obtained by the Daily Mail trace the locker back to Markle, with records showing it was first rented as far back as 2017.

The prosecutor's office of Baja California state said it had received an anonymous tip about the existence of child sex abuse material in a storage unit rented by Markle. The owner of the facility reported that Markle stopped paying rent in 2024 but that his possessions remained secured inside.

Authorities reported finding "magazines from Asia" dating back 20 years, without giving further details, along with computer equipment taken in for further examination.

A Daily Mail journalist had gained access to the unit during an investigation into Markle's years in Rosarito. The outlet said it found magazines depicting child sexual abuse images, voyeuristic photographs of minors taken at a beach setting, and books with titles related to pedophilia. The newspaper said it reported Markle to the FBI, and Mexican officers searched the unit hours after its account was published.

How the FBI got involved

Philippine National Police spokesman Col. Allen Rae Co said on Oct. 27 that the FBI had reached out to Philippine investigators about the images found on Markle's gadgets. "The FBI expressed readiness to extend assistance if we need its support in the course of the investigation," Co told reporters in a message on Viber.

"We welcome this expression of cooperation and will coordinate with the FBI through proper legal and diplomatic channels as the investigation progresses," Co said. Markle's mobile phones and computers were turned over to the Women and Children Protection Center for forensic examination.

Melvin Matibag, director of the Philippines' National Bureau of Investigation, told the Associated Press that the FBI had sought the bureau's assistance.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 3, Maj. Gen. Wilson Asueta, the Philippine National Police's assistant director for investigation and detective management, said U.S. authorities had contacted the Women and Children Protection Center and were conducting their own inquiries while coordinating with local investigators. "The investigation is going in the right direction," he said, adding that a case would be filed if there was sufficient evidence. He added that British authorities had not contacted local police.

Markle calls it a bunch of lies

Markle has denied the accusations in blunt terms since they surfaced. "I'm shocked, I'm hurt and I'm very upset that my son is making these accusations against me. I could never do what I'm being accused of," he told the Daily Mail.

He also told the newspaper he was unaware of any storage unit in Rosarito and described the allegations as "sick lies."

His daughter Samantha Markle has publicly dismissed the claims against her father and accused her brother of acting out of revenge.

Meghan says she blocked contact with her children

Meghan has said she was "deeply distressed" by the accusations that her father possessed images of child abuse. She said she had blocked contact between him and her children over previous "troubling and disturbing" allegations.

She also said she had previously received a letter containing troubling claims about her father.

She has been estranged from Markle since the weeks leading up to her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry. She has not commented on the current allegations beyond that statement.

A 2019 letter that went to Harry and Meghan's office

Britain's Metropolitan Police confirmed it received a letter in January 2019 containing serious allegations of offending outside the UK related to Thomas Markle Sr. The force acknowledged it had not passed that information to overseas law enforcement agencies. The letter was instead forwarded to the office of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Following a self-referral from the Met, the UK's Independent Office for Police Conduct said it would open an independent investigation into how the force handled the allegations on Oct. 30.

Where the case stands

Mexican authorities hold the computer, thumb drives, VHS tapes and other items taken from the Rosarito locker. Philippine investigators are working through Markle's digital devices in Cebu, with the national cybercrime office handling the forensic analysis.

Markle was arrested in Florida on Friday. No charges against him have been made public in the United States, Mexico or the Philippines, and he denies any wrongdoing.