Meghan Markle Responds After Met Police Findings Reveal Date Discrepancy in Her Statement About Father
Met's internal enquiry into the letter revealed a date mismatch in Meghan Markle's claims.
Trigger Warning: This article contains themes of child abuse and potentially distressing material that some readers may find distressing.
It has been a gut-wrenching week for Meghan Markle. Shortly after her half-brother went to the authorities following the discovery of disturbing images in their father, Thomas Markle’s, former Philippines home, the Duchess of Sussex released a statement making shocking revelations. The claims prompted an internal enquiry from the Met Police, and their recent findings have further complicated matters.
In her statement, Markle claimed that in 2018 a letter was sent to the Met's Royalty and Specialist Protection Command detailing the “troubling” allegations against her father. The letter was further shared with her, and she was reportedly assured that it was being investigated. Following her statement, the Met Police stated that they never investigated Thomas and were not doing so at present either, likely because he had not travelled to the UK. However, the force had launched an internal enquiry into the passing on of the letter.
On Saturday, it was reported that there was a date discrepancy between when the Met Police received the letter and what was claimed by Markle. The Met spokesperson said, “Following a thorough review of Met Police systems and records, we have confirmed that in January 2019, we received a letter containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom.” The letter was sent to “MPS Protection Command to raise concerns in relation to the security” of Markle, and after review it was subsequently shared with the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex for their “awareness.” There is a gap of at least a few months between the two timelines presented by Markle and the Met Police.
The Sussexes’ spokesperson promptly responded to the statement, claiming that the Duchess may have been “mistaken” given that the events happened several years ago and weren’t recorded. “In recalling events from more than seven years ago, without the benefit of a diary entry or contemporaneous record, it is understandable that she may have been mistaken by a few months,” the spokesperson said. They further clarified that if the Met Police has a “time-stamped record confirming that the letter was reviewed in 2019,” it should be considered an “accurate reference point” for when the letter was received and shared with Markle.
The spokesperson further stated that it was “reasonable to recognize” that the Duchess was “doing her best to recall the precise timing of events” which were not “diarised at the time”. They added, “Any discrepancy of a few months is an understandable consequence of that passage of time.”
In their statement, the Met Police said the “details of the allegations” were not shared with other law enforcement agencies. "The MPS is reviewing the handling of this matter in 2019 and considering whether a referral to the IOPC is necessary to review our approach,” the statement added.
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