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The Thomas Markle story has taken its darkest turn yet. The Sun reports that Meghan’s estranged father is under investigation over claims he kept child sexual abuse images at his former home in the Philippines, allegations he flatly denies (he told the Daily Mail they are “sick lies”). The claim is said to have come from his own son, Thomas Markle Jnr, who alleges he found the material at the house his father left after moving there in 2025 following a series of strokes. Now the Duchess of Sussex has broken her silence, and her statement is extraordinary. Meghan says she is “deeply distressed” by what has emerged, but the real bombshell concerns 2018. According to Meghan, a letter was sent that year to the Metropolitan Police and to Royalty and Specialist Protection (the unit that guards the royal family) containing “troubling and disturbing allegations” against her father. That letter was later shared with her, and she says she was assured the claims were being investigated. It is understood she received it in the summer of 2018, in the months after her wedding to Prince Harry that May. That timeline matters. For eight years Meghan’s refusal to speak to her father, and her decision to keep him away from Archie and Lilibet, has been painted as cold, calculating, even cruel. Today she says there was only ever one reason: to protect her children. In this video I go through exactly what Meghan has said, what Thomas Markle has said in his own defence, and the questions this raises for the police, for royal protection officers, and for the palace. What was known in 2018, who knew it, and what, if anything, was done about it? Thomas Markle is now reportedly in a rehabilitation centre in Florida after having his left leg amputated last year. Meghan wrote to him in December after he said he did not want to die estranged from his daughter. Any hope of reconciliation now looks a very long way off. These remain allegations under investigation, not findings, and Thomas Markle denies them in the strongest terms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Emergency live. The Sun reports tonight that Thomas Markle Sr., the Duchess of Sussex’s estranged father, is under investigation by police in the Philippines over an alleged hoard of child sex abuse images, and that the person who reported him is his own son. Thomas Markle Jr., Meghan’s half-brother and until this week his father’s carer and most loyal defender, has lodged a sworn statement with specialist child abuse officers in Cebu. The Sun’s Nick Parker was with him as he did it. Thomas Jr. says he found “hundreds, if not thousands” of abuse images and videos in four boxes of his father’s belongings, left behind when Thomas Sr. was flown back to the United States in May after losing his leg. Old phones. Three hard drives. Photography books. Film negatives. He says he reported it to the FBI in July, heard nothing, and went back to the boxes himself. The Sun says a task force has been appointed, the boxes are going for forensic examination, and an FBI agent has asked for the Philippine investigators’ details. The police declined to comment. No charges have been brought. Thomas Sr., now in a Florida nursing home being looked after by Samantha, has not responded. And a source close to Meghan has already told The Sun: “Now maybe people will finally understand why she has had nothing to do with her father since 2018.” That quote needs explaining, because nothing in this story suggests Meghan knew anything about what her brother says he found. Which brings me to the part I think matters most. This whole story rests on the word of one Markle about another. Thomas Jr. has a gun arrest, a drunk-driving arrest, a father who once said he “has a serious problem,” a sister who said “he always drank,” and a YouTube rant from last December in which he encouraged people to throw excrement at Meghan. Thomas Sr. has admitted lying on television. Samantha sued her sister and lost. All three have spent eight years monetizing Meghan. None of that makes the allegation untrue. A sworn statement cannot be deleted in the morning, and if those boxes contain what he says they contain, the forensics will prove it. But tonight, nobody outside the Markle family has looked in them. Full write-up in tomorrow morning’s newsletter. Tell me what you make of it in the comments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The law firm at the heart of Prince Harry’s war on the British tabloids has gone bust. Thomson Heath Jenkins & Associates (the boutique London practice that acted for Harry, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and Sir Simon Hughes in their failed privacy claim against Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail) has reportedly shut its doors and called in insolvency practitioners. According to the Telegraph, the collapse came as a shock to staff. Just a week ago, the firm was still boasting on its website about its rankings in the Chambers & Partners 2027 guide. This was no bit-part player. Founded in 2009 by Cambridge graduate Mark Thomson, the firm built its reputation on phone hacking litigation and helped prove the generic case against Mirror Group Newspapers. Seven of its solicitors worked on the case against the Mail. But in July, after an eleven-week trial, Mr Justice Nicklin threw out every single one of the claimants’ allegations, ruling that suspicion is not proof. Harry and his co-claimants were then ordered to pay £9.5 million as a first instalment towards Associated’s legal costs, with the total bill for both sides estimated at £40 to £50 million. So where does this leave Harry? The claimants are pursuing an appeal, and they must now do so without the firm that ran their case, while staring down a potential multimillion-pound costs liability should they lose again. It is hard to imagine a more humiliating coda to what Harry called his “mission” to reform the British press. In this video, I explain what we know about the firm’s collapse, what it means for Harry’s appeal and his finances, and why the Duke’s long crusade against the tabloids is proving so ruinously expensive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I have just spent the entire day in Aberfan. I stood in the crowd, as a member of the public, in the freezing cold, for hours. I shook hands with the King, the Queen and Prince William, one after the other. And I talked to the people who were there, listened to them and watched them. This video is what I saw. Sixty years ago today a colliery spoil tip slid down the mountain and buried Pantglas Junior School. 144 people died, 116 of them children, killed at their desks in the first minutes of the school day. Today the King, the Queen and the Prince of Wales laid their tributes in the memorial garden on the site of the school, stood in silence beside Mair Morgan, the last surviving teacher, met the survivors and the bereaved families, and then walked a line of easily a thousand people and shook hands with every single one of them. Bottom line: they absolutely aced it. A textbook royal performance. I’ll introduce you to Bonita Smith, whose father Robert was one of the first firemen digging in the slurry that morning, and who stopped the King and told him her dad’s story. That is what the monarchy is, at its best. I’ll explain why being in the cheap seats with the public beats the royal rota every time. And I’ll tell you honestly how the King looks in person, because you’d want me to. Then the bigger picture. Minutes after the Sultan of Oman’s state visit got underway on Tuesday, Harry’s GQ interview dropped, with the Duke complaining that “some people don’t want it to work out.” Everybody heard “some people” and thought William. That same evening, at the Windsor banquet, Charles stood up in front of 160 guests and talked about his son and “our successors.” Today, father and son stood at the memorial together. The line runs from Charles to William, full stop. It was deliberate, and we need to see a lot more of it (and some much tougher language about Harry). Finally, the anger. Not at the royals, but at the institutions: the Coal Board that was warned and did nothing, nobody sacked or prosecuted, the money taken from the disaster fund, and 2,589 disused coal tips still sitting above Welsh villages sixty years on. The royal family is the last institution these people still have faith in. That is exactly why what Harry is doing is so dangerous. Full write-up, with all my pictures and video, in tomorrow morning’s free Substack newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#ad Make laundry day the best day of the week! Get 20% off your entire order @LaundrySauce with code ROYALIST at https://laundrysauce.com/ROYALIST  #laundrysaucepod On this episode of The Royalist, Tom Sykes is joined by Paula Froelich ( @PaulaFroelich  , https://thescoopwithpaulafroelich.substack.com/) and investigative biographer Tom Bower for a revealing discussion of Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and the latest royal drama. Did Queen Camilla see trouble brewing from the beginning? Tom Bower revisits the explosive claim that Harry was “brainwashed” and examines the Sussexes’ ambitions, their relationship with the Royal Family and the challenges facing King Charles. Plus, Paula Froelich weighs in on Meghan’s Netflix projects, With Love, Meghan, and the latest twists in her Hollywood ambitions. From the Sussexes’ royal status to the future of the monarchy, this episode unpacks the stories making headlines in the world of royal news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tom was joined by writer and podcaster Molly Mulshine to discuss Harry's astonishing interview with GQ. Prince Harry has said he wants to reconcile with his brother, but suggested WILLIAM is to blame for their ongoing estrangement! That's the big line from a new interview with GQ, published today as part of the magazine's One More Question series. It dropped just as King Charles was hosting a state visit for the Sultan of Oman. Asked whether he grieves his "complicated relationship" with Prince William and his father, Harry says: "Yes, of course." He calls family estrangement "another massively relatable issue for so many people," and then says: "Some people don't want it to work out. I want it to work out." Asked whether he really does, he insists: "Of course I do. Again, with everything else that's going on in the world, the most important thing is to reconcile. That's the key point." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The cheering crowds in Nottingham were not what they seemed. I was on the ground for Harry and Meghan's charity visit on Thursday, and I can tell you the crowds were coached to cheer for Meghan. The walkabout at the first engagement, at the Community Recording Studio, was more or less fake. Everyone taking part had been invited. Children were brought in from the neighboring school, young adults were brought in from the local Mencap, and the cameras were positioned to make the scene look busy. My own footage shows the rest of the street was entirely empty. I counted perhaps half a dozen genuine passers-by. At the Himmah Hub, people stopped because they saw cameras, not because they had come for the couple. By Epic Partners it was complete chaos, ending with a teacher from the school next door begging the crowd to part so the children could get out of the building. And the day ended, as I exclusively revealed, with the couple leaving their final event 15 minutes early to collect their own children from school. Why stage-manage a crowd? Because the Sussexes are desperate to be seen as royals. Days later, a conveniently placed "friend" (whom anyone on this beat will recognize as their press office) told the Sunday Times that Harry and Meghan hate being called anything other than members of the royal family. That is a direct rejection of the King's ruling, sent by the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Benyon, that their position is "akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests." In this video I explain why a manufactured royal welcome is so dangerous for the monarchy, why the Palace is in a state of dismay and has no idea what to do, and why the couple's camp says they might do "one or two more things together" before the end of the year. My bet is Remembrance. I also explain why Nottingham proves they can never be given police security: outriders at events like these would make them look exactly like members of the royal family again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Duncan joins me to discuss Meghan's latest headache, which has her fans and her critics reading the same story two very different ways. Supporters see a working mom juggling job and family. Critics see fresh proof that the half-in, half-out model the Sussexes are trying to make work simply doesn't. So which is it? Tom Sykes breaks down what really happened, what it tells us about how the Sussex operation is run, and why this one will be hard to shrug off. Subscribe to The Royalist for daily analysis of the British royal family, from the only royal journalist who has been on the beat since Diana's funeral. Read more and join the conversation at The Royalist on Substack. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"It's unforgivable." A friend of the Sussexes has told Hello! magazine that Harry and Meghan never agreed to the Sandringham settlement the late Queen hammered out in January 2020, and do not consider themselves bound by it. "They never agreed they wouldn't be half in half out," the friend said. "That was what was decided and foisted upon them." "Half in, half out" was the very thing Queen Elizabeth II ruled out at Sandringham. It was the central tenet of Megxit, and the basis on which the entire post-Megxit structure was built (the HRHs held in abeyance, the loss of the military appointments, the end of public funding). Six years on, the Sussexes' position is that none of it counts. Tom Sykes reports on why the statement has gone down so badly with friends of the late Queen and the King. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Harry and Meghan are back in Nottingham, and The Royalist has been there all day - and is going live with FOUR special guests to bring you every twist and turn. This is Meghan's first public appearance in Britain since the Sussexes left Montecito and moved back to the UK in August. Harry has been out and about on his own, with Invictus and the WellChild Awards, but today is the first time the couple have stepped out together on British soil in six years. And they chose the location very carefully. Nottingham is where, in December 2017, just days after announcing their engagement, they did their first walkabout as a couple, to a sea of camera phones and chants of "Harry! Meghan!" Nearly nine years on, the itinerary looks remarkably familiar: the Community Recording Studio in St Ann's, the Hubb Community Kitchen (born out of the Grenfell tragedy) and the youth charity Epic Partners. It looks, sounds and feels exactly like a royal engagement. There is just one problem. It isn't one. Only last month, the King had the Lord Chamberlain write to senior officials making it clear that the Sussexes are not working royals and should be treated as private citizens. Their office declared itself "surprised". Today's outing, with all the trappings of a royal tour, looks very much like their reply. So is this an olive branch, or a rival court setting up shop on the King's doorstep? With their security still unresolved and Christmas at Sandringham already off the table, what does it mean for relations with Charles, William and Catherine? And, belieev it or not, CHARLES was the one who got booed today. I've got a brilliant line-up to pick it all apart with me. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tom was live in Nottingham. Listen here to hear the full scoop! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Royalist. Today I am delighted to welcome back a friend of the show, the Daily Mail’s Editor at Large, Alison Boshoff. Alison has done something nobody else seems to have bothered to do: she has actually done the math on Meghan’s big charity gesture. Last week, after a “private” tea at Claridge’s that somehow ended up all over Instagram, Meghan announced that 100 percent of net proceeds from a day’s sales of As Ever jams and teas would go to Malala Yousafzai’s Malala Fund, in honor of International Day of the Girl. “Tea for Two has never felt so good,” she told her 4.9 million followers. So how much did the Malala Fund actually get? Meghan’s office won’t say. But Alison has gone back to the only hard sales data that has ever leaked out of As Ever (a website glitch in January that briefly exposed how many units were selling), and the answer looks distinctly modest. Even assuming a wildly generous 50 percent margin, a day’s jam and tea proceeds come to roughly $2,500 (about £1,900). That is less than the outfit she wore to tea. The wide white Ralph Lauren trousers alone cost $2,247, and the cashmere sweater another $832. To be fair, a source close to Meghan says any figure is speculative and argues the real value lies in the attention the gesture brings, encouraging others to give. But is there a gap between the size of the fanfare and the size of the check? And who really benefits most from these one-off acts of charity? We also get into what those January figures reveal about As Ever more broadly (not a single bottle of the $89 Napa Valley Brut sold in a day, with the $42 jam trio the best-seller), Meghan’s plans to start shipping to the UK, talk in California that the brand is a minnow in decline, and the suggestion (dismissed by Team Sussex) that money worries lay behind the move back to Britain. If not jam, then what? Acting, reality TV, Harry’s speaking circuit? Alison has her ear to the ground like nobody else. Don’t miss it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Prince Andrew’s bizarre new romance takes center stage as Tom Sykes reveals the wild story of how Andrew allegedly met his new girlfriend—including the shocking claim that she simply rang him up out of the blue. Tom and Paula Froelich ( @PaulaFroelich  , https://thescoopwithpaulafroelich.substack.com/) react to the unlikely “meet-cute,” and Tom reveals what this strange new relationship could mean for Andrew’s life in Norfolk. Plus, Tom sits down with Vogue contributing editor and novelist Plum Sykes to discuss Meghan Markle’s new British wardrobe, Harry’s style, and the royal fashion rules he thinks they should follow.  Follow Tom Sykes on Substack: https://theroyalist.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Prince Harry has been spotted at Soho House again. This time there was no Meghan, no brunch and no fanfare. Just the Duke of Sussex, a gym, and his security guard. It is, I confess, another strong contender for least surprising scoop of the year. Last month my Cotswold sources told me Harry had been seen in the Soho Farmhouse pool area, wandering around reception in search of a towel, and Hello! later reported that he had used the gym there before having brunch with his wife. Today he was back, working out with only his protection officer for company. Why does it matter? Because a Soho House is not somewhere you go to hide. If you turn up at one, someone like me is probably going to hear about it. And if Harry genuinely wanted to stay out of sight, one assumes the lavish property where he is staying has a bench press of its own. I have argued that these sightings are part of a normalisation campaign, a sort of exposure therapy for the British public. It comes after the King confirmed the Sussexes as non-working royals, and after a source told Alison Boshoff that Harry expects the royal family needs him and that the couple expect to be let back in. And yet there is something rather poignant about the picture. A prince who once had palaces, a regiment and a brother at his side, now working out alone in a members' club with a bodyguard standing by. All this in the week the Sussexes are expected to make their first joint public appearance since moving back to Britain, with a royal-style visit to three charities. In this video I ask what Harry's solitary gym sessions tell us about his new life in Britain, whether the normalization campaign is working, and what it would really take for the family to let him back in. Watch now, and tell me in the comments: is Harry lonely, or is this exactly the life he wants? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Cotswold source told The Royalist that a terrifying incident “bonded” Harry and Meghan and the billionaire, on whose estate, The Royalist understands, the couple are now living. Meghan appears to have filmed the video she posted yesterday of Archie and Lilibet walking through a deer park on the property. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices