The Duchess of Sussex has said she is “deeply distressed” over “disturbing allegations” made against her father in 2018, which she said were passed to the Metropolitan Police.

Meghan issued the extraordinary statement after it was reported that Thomas Markle, who she has been estranged from since her marriage to Prince Harry the same year, was being investigated over claims he kept child sex abuse images at his former home in the Philippines.

The duchess said a letter, sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection in 2018, was shared with her and she was “given assurances that these were being investigated”.

Referencing the latest allegations, she said her thoughts were with “any children who may have been harmed” and revealed that she had not allowed her 82-year-old father to meet the couple’s two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, to “protect them”.

Hitting back at the claims in an interview with the Mr Markle denied possessing child sex images, calling the accusations made against him as “sick lies”.

It is understood the Metropolitan Police has not and is not currently investigating Mr Markle, and officers are carrying out an internal inquiry to confirm the royal protection unit passed on a letter to the duchess which made allegations against her father.

In her statement, Meghan said: “I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.

“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.

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

“I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.

“Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.”

The duchess has been estranged from her former TV lighting director father since the weeks before her wedding in 2018, after he staged and sold photographs to the paparazzi.

It is not clear if she received the letter from Scotland Yard before or after the nuptials at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in May of that year.

Meghan’s half-brother Thomas Jr told that their father was being investigated, claiming he had found “hundreds” of child sex images on computers and a cellphone, which were left behind at his home on Cebu when his father moved from the Philippines earlier this year.

Mr Markle Jnr said he submitted a statement to police in the Philippines and told : “When I found this material I was horrified and I had no option but to report my dad.

“I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years – but that stops now. I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.”

The newspaper reported that Mr Markle Jnr was searching for a phone for his girlfriend’s father in boxes of his own father’s belongings, which led him to discover the images and videos.

He is said to have reported his discovery to the FBI Hotline and to the state police in Pennsylvania, as well as the US-based National Centre for Exploited and Missing Children in July.

In response to the accusations, Mr Markle said: “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. It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.

“This is bulls***. It’s just a bunch of lies. It’s sick. I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these lies.”

Thomas Sr’s eldest daughter Samantha Markle defended her father and accused Thomas Jr of “making up lies” to make money.

She told the: “There is no merit in these disgusting allegations whatsoever, and my brother is disgusting for making them up. He wants to destroy our dad. Shame on him.

“My brother first came out with these lies days after the cash from my dad was cut off. He has used Dad as a cash cow for years, and once the money stopped, he made up the most outrageous lies he could to make money from the media.

“Those computers were out of Dad’s possession for two years. That leaves a lot of room for tampering. These are unsubstantiated allegations. Anyone could have been in contact with those computers over the past couple of years.

“Dad did not have access to these computers. Anyone could have set Dad up.”

Mr Markle did not attend the royal wedding, leaving the King to accompany Meghan down the aisle and meaning the only member of her family present was her mother, Doria Ragland.

In 2021, Meghan won a High Court privacy and copyright claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) over articles that reproduced parts of a “personal and private” handwritten letter she wrote to her father in a bid to get him to stop talking to the press.

She penned the emotional five-page letter to him in August 2018 after taking advice from two unnamed senior royals.

Meghan was the only child of Mr Markle’s marriage to Ms Ragland, though he has two other children – Samantha Markle and Thomas Jr – from an earlier marriage.

Mr Markle had been living in Cebu but was forced to return to the US after suffering a stroke and a blood clot, which led to the amputation of his left leg.

Last December, Meghan’s spokesperson confirmed she had been able to send him a letter while he was being treated in hospital, after he said he did not want to die while estranged from his daughter.

He is reportedly now living in a rehab centre in Florida, where he is learning to walk again.

Harry and Meghan returned to live in the UK in August, six years after stepping down as working members of the royal family and relocating to the US.

The Metropolitan Police has been contacted for comment.