“My choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.”

The Meghan We Didn’t Know

Disturbing allegations against the Duchess of Sussex’s father cast their estrangement—and the events leading up to Megxit—in a new light. Does the press owe her an apology?

By Ashley Baker

Talk about a stiff upper lip. While Meghan Markle was having children, starting over in America, hanging out with Oprah, and perfecting her jams, she was also living with disturbing allegations about her father—allegations she now says explain why she kept him away from Archie and Lilibet. Much of the press had settled on a simpler explanation: she was a snob who had married a prince and discarded her commoner father.

Meghan and Thomas Markle Sr. have been estranged since 2018. After her wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan received a copy of a letter her father’s first wife had sent to the Metropolitan Police. According to The Telegraph, the letter alleged that Markle Sr. had discussed traveling to the Philippines and Thailand because, he said, “12-year-olds are legal there.”