Meghan statement offers answers after years of questions about her relationship with father

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has claimed a form of vindication over her long estrangement from her father, saying her decision to keep distance from Thomas Markle and to deny him contact with her children was made "to protect them".

"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," she wrote in a statement reported by the BBC.

The statement follows reports that police informed Meghan in 2018 of disturbing allegations concerning her father. According to the BBC, the duchess said she was "deeply distressed" after reports that images of child sexual abuse allegedly belonging to her father Thomas Markle Snr were found at his former home in the Philippines. The allegations were first reported in the Sun newspaper. The allegations have been denied by Thomas Markle.

BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond said the statement finally answered years of questions about the estrangement. Once close, the pair drifted after her engagement was announced in 2017; Thomas Markle spoke freely to the media before and after the 2018 wedding, withdrew from the wedding days beforehand as he underwent heart surgery, and repeatedly complained in interviews that he had no contact with Meghan, Harry or, later, his grandchildren.

Meghan says she learned of the allegations back in 2018, understood to be after her marriage to Harry in May that year. Since then, she said, contact has been very limited - though she wrote to her father after he underwent surgery in the Philippines late last year.