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Before Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s royal wedding in 2018, the Suits alum’s father, Thomas Markle Sr., staged paparazzi photos. These staged pictures, combined with his health struggles, kept him from attending his daughter’s big day. Now, Thomas is facing a very serious crisis as he is being investigated for child po********* possession.

On October 22, Meghan Markle broke her silence after The Sun reported that her estranged father was under investigation.

According to a statement shared with People, the Duchess of Sussex said that she was “deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours.”

According to The New York Times, the reports also indicated that Thomas’s son, Meghan’s half-brother, found “hundreds, if not thousands” of explicit images involving children at his father’s home in the Philippines, after which the Philippines Department of Justice opened an investigation with backing from the FBI. “My thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed,” Meghan wrote.

She also added that a warning letter was sent back in 2018. “In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father, and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” Meghan revealed.

Meghan explained why she kept her father away. “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice not to allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them,” she continued.

For the unversed, Meghan has stayed estranged from her father since before her May 19, 2018 wedding. Before their wedding at St George’s Chapel, pictures of Thomas prepping for the big day were published. In the pictures, he was seen getting a suit fitting, working out, and browsing a book titled Images of Britain at an internet café in Mexico.

Back then, Thomas was supposed to walk his daughter down the aisle.

However, security footage later proved that the shoot was staged with photographer Jeff Rayner. Video showed Thomas entering the café, posing, and getting paid by Rayner at the end. According to ABC News, the paparazzi agency sold the photos for nearly $140,000.

On being caught, Thomas told TMZ that he agreed to the deal because old photos made him look bad, disheveled, and reclusive. “He’s especially upset that they made him look like a lush,” the outlet noted. “Thomas says he doesn’t even drink beer … he was buying it for the guards at the place where he lives. “Thomas also said that he would skip the wedding to avoid letting down “the Royal Family or his daughter.”

According to The Independent, before Meghan made any official statement, news started surfacing that Thomas had suffered two heart attacks and had three heart stents put in. Because of his health and the photo scandal, he could not make it. “Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding,” Meghan announced at the time.

Moreover, on the wedding day, Meghan walked part of the aisle alone before taking King Charles’s arm. “Harry’s dad is very charming, and I said to him, ‘I’ve lost my dad in this,’” Meghan shared in their Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan. “So him as my father-in-law is very important to me. So I asked him to walk me down the aisle, and he said ‘yes.’”

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