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A week after Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, said she had been left “deeply distressed” by allegations made against her father, she has reportedly left the UK to holiday with her husband Prince Harry and children.
The family are reportedly receiving updates on the matter involving Thomas Markle Snr, as they take a break, with close family and friends, for Archie and Lilibet’s half term.
“He and Meghan simply had to get away. She’s very distressed right now and needs to see her mum,” a source tells Woman’s Day of Meghan’s state of mind after her brother, Thomas Markle, accused their father of hoarding child sex abuse images in his Philippines home.
“She’s been brutally criticised for cutting her dad out of her life, but this is not something she wanted to ‘be right about’.”
Markle Snr has vehemently denied the allegations, saying he is “shocked” and “very upset” that his son has made the claims.
“Harry and Meghan had planned to get away during this short school break, but since the news exploded in the press, Harry knew he had to get her somewhere she felt safe,” the insider shares.
“Meghan’s a wreck. She was so excited about the next chapter in her life and it’s all been overshadowed in the most despicable way.”
However, a friend of the Duchess told People that Meghan is also feeling “a slight sense of relief” that the news had finally come out, as she hoped a “proper investigation” into her father’s actions can take place.
Indeed, Meghan herself has said she was told of allegations made against her father well before The Sun published news of the bombshell development.
She said she was made aware of a letter sent to Britain’s Metropolitan Police several years ago and was assured the claims made within it would be investigated.
Police have since confirmed they received a letter – subsequently reported to have been penned by Markle Snr’s ex-wife Robyn Loveless – in 2019.
The force is now facing questions over why it did not act on its contents -and Meghan is facing questions of her own.
Australian journalist Amanda Platell, in a recent column for the Daily Mail, raised a point about the timeline of events, admitting it had given her “pause for thought”.
“So how then does it stack up that, in [Meghan’s] hit Netflix series in 2022, she gushed about her father and all he had done helping her in her fledgling acting career, claiming, ‘I’ve been a Daddy’s Girl my whole life’?” Platell asked.
“Or that her husband Harry wrote in his memoir – four years after Meghan saw Loveless’s letter – that his father-in-law was ‘complicated’ but said that Meghan ‘still, even in her 30s, called him Daddy. She loved him, worried about him – his health, his habits – and often relied upon him’.
“Meghan only appears to have categorically cut her dad out of her life late last year, when Mr Markle Sr was gravely ill in hospital in the Philippines having had one leg amputated below the knee,” Platell wrote.
“Now, I’ve never been in such a situation, but how could Meghan, knowing of the allegations against her father, tell the world via Netflix, that she was a ‘Daddy’s Girl’?”
Writing on The Royalist substack, royal expert Tom Sykes claimed that the sympathy towards Meghan that had initially flowed after the news about her father broke had “swiftly flowed away again”.
“Largely because, once again, people perceive that the Sussexes’ first priority appears to be manipulating the media to protect their own image,” he wrote.
Amid the fallout, Buckingham Palace has distanced itself from developments, with a spokesman saying it was “a matter for the Sussex Household”.
“Harry and Charles have limited contact and it isn’t direct, with the King taking most of his correspondence via his secretary,” a source tells Woman’s Day. “But word is that Harry has left an update with his dad’s office before they flew out, should he want to speak to them.”
However, with Charles on a tour of the Caribbean, the insider acknowledges that “it’s difficult to have a serious discussion about something so sensitive”.
“Harry’s desperate for an ally in the Palace,” the source goes on. “He’s frightened by these claims and is hoping to share information about the investigation with his dad.”
