Thomas Markle, father of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is in the news again for all the wrong reasons. He’s made a habit of this over the years, but the latest bombshell pedophilia claims are beyond anything he’s done in the past. It’s a sordid story to say the least, and (at least according to one report) it’s so bad that it’s affecting Meghan Markle’s business negatively. Meghan has been estranged from Thomas for years, but the allegations are so controversial that they could be coming into play here, according to Rob Shuter on his Substack, Naughty But Nice.
According to an unnamed source of Shuter’s, Meghan’s lifestyle brand, including her Emmy-nominated lifestyle show that you can check out with a Netflix subscription, is in “full-blown crisis” amid the allegations. Thomas’ son (Meghan’s half-brother) reported that he found child pornography in Thomas’ home in the Philippines and alerted authorities there and in the United States. The source told Shuter:
Sales were already terrible when the allegations first surfaced. Now they’ve fallen to zero, This is about something far more serious than a business setback. These are deeply disturbing allegations, and people are horrified. Nobody wants to be sold a fantasy of family happiness while questions this serious remain unanswered.
Though the Duchess has distanced herself from her father over the years, including leaving him off the invitation list for her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018, according to Shuter’s supposed source, that doesn’t matter. The source added:
Meghan cannot simply turn the page and pretend this isn’t happening. The allegations are extremely serious, and people want answers. Her lifestyle brand is now caught in the middle of a family scandal that refuses to go away.
Obviously, these are very serious allegations.
In late October, The Sun reported that Thomas was being investigated for a cache of “hundreds, if not thousands” of images and videos in boxes in this home, discovered by his son, Thomas Jr., Meghan’s half-brother. The younger Thomas reported what he found to the FBI in the U.S., where Thomas Sr. is currently living after surgery to amputate one of his legs.
That report was followed up by another from The Sun last week that Meghan knew of the images and reportedly sent Thomas Sr. last December, as he recovered from the surgery. In the letter, Meghan allegedly told Thomas Sr. that she had been aware of the allegations as early as 2019. Meghan has not been in contact with Thomas Sr. in years, and reportedly has banned her father from ever meeting her two children with Prince Harry.
Thomas Jr. has also been estranged from the Duchess for years, after siding with their father many years ago, something he now regrets, telling The Sun:
I now know I have been protecting the wrong person for the past nine years. Having seen what I have seen, I believe the man I’ve been defending and caring for is a monster.
Whether all of this is really affecting Meghan Markle’s business, as Shuter claims, is impossible to know for sure. As I said, it’s not like Meghan is close to her father, and fans of the Duchess have long known their history (though SNL UK is still taking their shots, of course), but these are serious allegations, so it’s not unreasonable to think it's possibly been bad for the business.
