Meghan Markle: the allegations against her father

The media appears to owe the Duchess of Sussex an apology, said Sophie Heawood in The Independent. For years, critics have described Meghan as heartless for shunning her father in his declining years, but her estrangement from Thomas Markle Sr now makes a lot more sense.

Grim story

Last week, The Sun revealed that the 82-year-old had been reported to the Filipino police by his own son, Thomas Jr, who had allegedly found a “huge stash” of child sex abuse images at his father’s home in the Philippines. In a subsequent statement, Meghan revealed that she had already been aware of disturbing allegations against her father. In 2019, the Metropolitan Police had shared with her details of a letter from Thomas Sr’s ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, who claimed that he had admitted abusing children. Meghan had apparently been assured that the matter was under investigation and advised to remain silent to avoid compromising the case.

What a grim story, said Polly Vernon in The Times. You have to feel for Meghan. Having to process such horrendous allegations “in private while simultaneously becoming one of the most famous people on the planet” must have been awful. It casts a new light on her efforts to project an image of family perfection. What “seemed like smugness” may have been more of a coping technique, an attempt to “repair a horribly damaged idea of family”.

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Lamentable record

It’s important to note that none of the claims against Thomas Sr have been proven, said A.N. Wilson in the Daily Mail. He has called them “sick lies”, saying that, while he has in the past paid for sex, none of the women were underage. Meghan’s half-sister Samantha has defended him, dismissing the claims of her mother and Thomas Jr as vindictive fictions. The sooner the truth is established, the better. In the meantime, the Met has questions to answer about why it didn’t follow up on Loveless’ 2019 letter. If it thought the contents were serious enough to pass on to Meghan, why didn’t it share the information with overseas authorities?

I’d love to say I’m surprised by this lapse, said Victoria Richards in The Independent. But given the Met’s lamentable recent record of protecting women and girls, it will have come as a shock to no one that the force “did absolutely nothing”.