The Duchess of Sussex’s father appears to be a “possible sex offender of the grossest kind”, the Philippine interior minister has told a newspaper.

Meghan’s half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr, on Friday told the Sun he found a stash of child sex abuse images belonging to their father at his former home in the Philippines, and subsequently reported it to local police and the FBI.

Their father, Thomas Markle Sr, has admitted to paying for sex in the southeast Asian country but denies ever possessing a hoard of such material.

Meghan sent a final letter to her father while he was recovering there from a leg amputation in 2025, according to reports in the Sun on Sunday.

She wrote to say she knew he was an abuser and he would never see his grandchildren Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five, the outlet said.

Philippine Interior Minister Jonvic Remulla told The Guardian that a forensic investigation into Thomas Markle Sr would be completed in a week and provide a “definitive picture”.

According to the outlet’s report on Sunday, he said: “In these cases where family disputes are mixed up, we have to consider all the angles.

“Right now all signs point to a possible sex offender of the grossest kind. We want to be sure before we release the findings.

“The forensics data will be complete in a week.”

A statement would be released once the data had been analysed, he said.

The same minister told Agence France-Presse the country’s national police found a “trove of child pornography materials as well as a laptop” when it inspected Thomas Markle Sr’s former home in Cebu.

“The PNP (Philippine National Police) will co-ordinate with their counterparts to locate and take appropriate legal actions against Mr Markle if found that there is sufficient evidence to charge him”, he said.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed that in 2019 it had passed a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom” to Meghan and Prince Harry, but did not share details with other law enforcement agencies.

The BBC and other media including the Telegraph, which said it had seen a copy, reported the note was written by Thomas Markle Sr’s ex-wife, Roslyn Loveless, who had since died.

She is the mother of Thomas Markle Jr and Meghan’s other half-sibling, Samantha Markle, who has defended their father, telling the Mail on Sunday: “I believe this is a set-up.”

Meghan is “upset and really frustrated” by the Met’s handling of the investigation, the Telegraph reported.

She said that she was shown a letter sent to Scotland Yard making “troubling” allegations against Thomas Markle Sr and was assured that these were being investigated.

The Met is now “reviewing the handling of this matter”, including whether it needs to be referred to the police watchdog.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Thomas Markle Sr said he has “never had sex with anyone under the age of 18”.

He told the paper that when he was single he travelled to the Philippines at least twice and “slept with prostitutes”.

“I like Asian women but that is not a crime,” he said.