The Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father, Thomas Markle Sr, has been released on house arrest after the FBI uncovered an alleged stash of child pornography – including sexually explicit photos of himself allegedly abusing minor girls – inside his Los Angeles storage units.
The 82-year-old was taken into custody when federal agents swooped in on his Maravida Senior Living care home in Lakeland, Florida, on Friday morning after the alleged materials were discovered in two units he had been renting for nearly two decades.
The former Hollywood lighting director, whose arrest was first reported by the Daily Mail, was charged with one count of possession of child pornography.
Markle, who didn’t enter a plea during an initial court hearing, was released on bond on Friday afternoon and ordered to live under house arrest at his care home.
Exclusive Daily Mail photos captured the moment Markle, who is wheelchair-bound after having his leg amputated in the Philippines last year, was escorted from the care home in handcuffs shortly after 9am after the feds surrounded the property.
Cutting a desperate figure, Markle scowled and stared around in disbelief as agents loaded him into a waiting ambulance.
When a Daily Mail reporter asked him if he was a pedophile, Markle responded in a weak voice: ‘No.’ He remained silent when asked if he had ever collected child pornography.
The silver-haired retiree was still wearing the same scruffy t-shirt and black sweatpants when he was wheeled into court with his hands visibly trembling on Friday afternoon for his initial hearing.
He listened on as Judge Lindsay Griffin summarized the allegations leveled against him and described how the criminal complaint alleged he was depicted in two of the images.
Asked if he understood, Markle winced and said ‘yes’ in a low voice.
The Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father Thomas Markle, 82, was arrested by the FBI in Florida on Friday for allegedly possessing child porn
Markle was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a source told the Daily Mail. Federal agents swooped in on the 82-year-old’s Maravida Senior Living care home in Lakeland, Florida early Friday
Markle, who is wheelchair-bound after having his leg amputated in the Philippines last year, was escorted from the care home in handcuffs shortly after 9am and loaded into an ambulance
The bombshell arrest on US soil comes just days after the Daily Mail alerted the feds to a cache of child porn found inside a storage unit Markle had rented near his former home in Rosarito, Mexico.
Separately, police in the Philippines are also said to be ‘very close’ to bringing formal charges against Markle after child abuse images were also allegedly found at his former home there last month.
‘Mr Markle allegedly targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions,’ FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
‘Working with our Justice Department partners, our agents moved quickly, identified and located the explicit material, and arrested Mr Markle in Florida.’
After years living abroad, Markle moved to the Sunshine State in the spring. He had recently relocated to a senior-living home specializing in dementia care, which costs an estimated $3,900 per month, in the lead up to his arrest.
The multinational criminal investigation into Meghan Markle’s dad has been underway ever since child porn materials were allegedly uncovered in the two locations where he has spent much of his retirement.
Markle’s son, Thomas Markle Jr, 60, allegedly discovered one hoard at the home they formerly shared in Cebu, Philippines.
He claimed to have later told the FBI about the location of the two Los Angeles storage units where further material was allegedly uncovered.
During the California raid, FBI agents seized approximately 78 items from the two units – including slides, film negatives and books that contained suspected child porn, court documents state.
Among the negatives developed by investigators were photos, which seemed to have been taken several decades ago, of Markle sexually abusing young girls at a Philippines motel, according to court papers.
Others allegedly showed Markle with children in various stages of undress in what the FBI now believes to be the Anahaw Lodge motel, the complaint states.
Markle had been renting the LA storage units since 2008 and made an autopay payment as recently as last month, according to a criminal complaint.
‘These allegations are extremely serious, and we will prosecute Mr Markle to the fullest extent of federal law,’ First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli said.
When a Daily Mail reporter asked him if he was a pedophile, Markle responded in a weak voice: ‘No.’ He remained silent when asked if he had ever collected child pornography
Cutting a desperate figure, Markle scowled and stared around in disbelief as agents loaded him into a waiting ambulance
Exclusive Daily Mail photos captured the moment Markle, who is wheelchair-bound after having his leg amputated in the Philippines last year, was escorted from the care home in handcuffs
The former Hollywood lighting director was arrested for possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), a source told the Daily Mail
Markle, pictured arriving at court, is expected to make his initial appearance today in United States District Court in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa
FBI agents swarmed the 82-year-old’s Maravida Senior Living care home in Lakeland, Florida, on Friday morning
The former Hollywood lighting director, whose arrest was first reported by the Daily Mail, has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography
News of the raid in Los Angeles comes after Mexican police also raided a storage space in Rosarito last weekend – just one day after the Daily Mail alerted the FBI to the find.
In that instance, Guardia Nacional officers who identified themselves as state sex crimes investigators were spotted entering the 5ft by 10ft vault, three miles from Markle’s former home in the Mexican beach resort town.
The team – comprising forensic computing experts, a crime scene investigator and officials from the Baja state attorney general’s office – could be seen peering in with a flashlight and rummaging through the scruffy boxes.
One agent visibly recoiled and declared ‘Ay cabron’ – a Spanish phrase that can mean ‘holy crap’ or ‘oh, damn’ – while viewing the material, according to an onlooker.
A copy of the search warrant obtained by the Daily Mail revealed investigators were authorized by a judge to look for ‘evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material’ and ‘the alleged commission of the crime of human trafficking in its aggravated form.’
They itemized and seized material including a computer, thumb drives, VHS tapes and a stack of magazines before closing up and sealing the unit with an official seizure notice, a source said.
The raid on Baja Storage, a gated storage depot 10 miles south of the US border, came after the Daily Mail discovered photos of naked Asian females and magazines showing children being sexually abused stashed inside Unit 22.
In the aftermath of the raid, Markle’s unit was locked and plastered with Mexican Guardia Nacional signs reading ‘Aseguramiento de inmuebles’ – ‘seizure of property’ – indicating that the items within had been seized.
His arrest comes just days after the Daily Mail alerted the feds to a stash of child porn inside a storage unit he’d rented near his former home in Rosarito, Mexico
The Duchess of Sussex said she was ‘deeply distressed’ by the allegations engulfing her father in the Philippines. She has not commented on the developments in Mexico since they surfaced last week
Mexican police raided the unit in Rosarito just one day after the Daily Mail alerted the FBI. Guardia Nacional officers who identified themselves as state sex crimes investigators entered the 5ft by 10ft vault just after midnight
Mexican Guardia Nacional sex crimes investigators are seen raiding Thomas Markle Sr’s storage locker in Rosarito on Saturday morning, hours after the Daily Mail reported that it contained child pornography
Our reporting team came across the storage space while investigating Markle’s former life in the gated ex-pat community of San Antonio del Mar.
Unit 22 had been rented to the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father back in 2017 but he fell behind on the payments two years ago and moved to the Philippines in early 2025 without emptying it.
The business’s staff and owner say they knew nothing about the cache and were disgusted by its discovery.
Markle, for his part, has vehemently denied wrongdoing after news of his alleged child-porn cache first exploded into public view, telling the Daily Mail on Saturday: ‘I had no storage units in Rosarito!’
In addition to innocent family mementoes, letters and photos found inside the unit, there were black-and-white prints of naked Asian females – some who appear to be conspicuously young – as well as books and magazines sexualizing children as ‘Lolitas.’
There were also strips of 35mm negatives depicting voyeuristic images of kids on a beach and dusty VHS tapes with titles including ‘Boys – Brother and Sister – Russian XX’ and ‘Manila Nites.’
Around 20 boxes were found in the storage unit near Rosarito – including some containing books about pedophilia and magazines showing children being sexually abused
Among the photos in the unit is an undated image of Markle on a bed and with his arm wrapped around a young Asian female, both fully clothed. She appears, alone and naked, in several other pictures as well
The lockup also contained old computers, hard drives and a paper plate with the words ‘DARK WEB’ scribbled in red ink alongside various URLs. It is not known what is on the hard drives or video tapes.
The Daily Mail’s tip-off prompted an immediate investigation involving US and Mexican officials.
Also working the case are Southern California-based FBI officials whose job it is to coordinate law enforcement activity with their counterparts south of the border.
According to the search warrant obtained by the Daily Mail, Mexican state prosecutors had asked Judge Estefany Moreno Gutierrez of the Judicial Branch of Baja California to sign off on a search warrant at a closed-door court hearing on October 30.
‘The search shall be conducted exclusively for the purpose of searching for, locating and securing evidence consisting of child sexual abuse material that may be in printed form, as well as USB memory devices and memory cards for photographic cameras and cellular telephones,’ the document stated.
‘The search shall also seek to locate all communication devices, including cellular telephones, laptops, computers, tablets or any other electronic devices on which videos containing explicit sexual content may be stored.’
The former Hollywood lighting director moved to Rosarito – a quiet coastal enclave popular with American retirees – back in 2011.
A paper plate with the words ‘DARK WEB’ scribbled in red ink alongside various URLs was seen inside Thomas Markle’s rented storage unit in Rosarito, Mexico
General views of Markle’s former home in Rosarito, Mexico, just ten miles south of the US-Mexico border
It was while he was living there that his relationship with his daughter Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, fell apart.
Markle relocated again to the Philippines in early 2025.
A separate investigation is currently underway in the Southeast Asian country after his own son reportedly claimed to have found ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ of child sex images in boxes his dad had shipped over.
Detectives in the city of Cebu confirmed later that they had found ‘explicit content’ – including footage of ‘male and female minors’ – on digital devices found among the contents.
Markle, for his part, has said the reports of the cache of alleged child porn linked to him in the Philippines were ‘sick lies’ manufactured by his son.
He has admitted to paying for sex in that country, but was adamant it was never with anyone under the age of 18.
‘I never had sex with anyone under the age of 18,’ he told the Daily Mail last week. ‘I like Asian women, but that is not a crime.’
In the wake of the charges, a close friend of the Duchess of Sussex told The Sun: ‘It is her sincerest hope that a full and thorough investigation will now help deliver justice for the victims.’
Following the allegations, she had said she was ‘deeply distressed at the news that has come to light’ and that her ‘thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed’ amid the probe in the Philippines.
Prince Harry’s wife first learned of the accusations about her father when she was sent a letter via London’s Metropolitan Police in 2019.
The explosive note, allegedly sent by Roslyn Loveless – Markle’s late first wife – claimed he had admitted travelling to the Far East to have sex with young girls.
Loveless reportedly wrote: ‘I questioned Thomas Sr. He denied accusation but stated that he went to the Philippines and Thailand because 12-year-olds are legal there.’
