MIAMI: Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, was arrested in Florida on Friday over alleged possession of images of child sexual abuse, British and US media reported.
Markle, 82, was taken into custody by FBI agents at the retirement home where he lives in the town of Lakeland, the Daily Mail and New York Post said.
The Daily Mail, quoting an unidentified source, said Markle was arrested on charges of possession of child sexual abuse material.
The FBI did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.
The arrest comes after pictures of child sex abuse were allegedly found at Markle’s former home in the Philippines and at a storage unit he rented in Mexico.
Meghan Markle said last month that she was “deeply distressed” by accusations that her father possessed images of child sexual abuse.
She said she had blocked contact between him and her children over previous “troubling and disturbing” allegations.
Harry, the second son of King Charles III and estranged brother of heir to the throne Prince William, married Meghan, an American former actress, at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
The couple left Britain and quit royal duties in 2020 but made an unexpected return with their two children to live in the United Kingdom in August.
The British tabloid The Sun first reported last month that Markle’s son, Thomas Markle Jr, had discovered the child sex abuse images while going through boxes found in his father’s former home in the Philippines.
Markle had been living in Cebu in the Philippines until reportedly returning to the United States earlier this year.
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