The FBI has been alerted to allegations involving material found in a storage unit in Mexico rented by Thomas Markle, the estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex. The reported contents include magazines depicting child sexual abuse, books about paedophilia and photographs of women who appear to be young.
Markle, 82, denies wrongdoing. The allegations are separate from an investigation in the Philippines, where police obtained a warrant after child-sex images were reportedly found among his possessions at his son’s home.
The Mexican unit, measuring approximately 5ft by 10ft, was rented in Rosarito Beach in 2017, six years after Markle moved to the area. Receipts reportedly confirm the tenancy, while information supplied to reporters indicated that he stopped keeping up with payments in 2024.
Access to the abandoned unit revealed about 20 boxes containing family keepsakes, photographs, letters, books, magazines and more than 50 videotapes. The contents of the tapes, including one labelled ‘Manila Nites’, have not been established.
Among the other items were seven hard drives removed from computers, four pen drives, an old computer tower, digital cameras and an Apple computer. A note attached to the tower read ‘Overheated… Virus!’, while instructions for using a programme that wipes hard drives were found alongside an activation code.
A paper plate bearing the words ‘DARK WEB’ in red ink, together with several URLs, was also found in the unit. It is not known what information, if any, remains on the electronic devices.
Reporters also found 35mm negatives showing apparently voyeuristic images of children on a beach. Other negatives depict a woman with her limbs bound during what appears to be a photographic session.
A collection of black-and-white photographs included images of several naked women. Nearly half of 31 prints appeared to show the same woman, who was also pictured fully clothed with Markle in a hotel room.
The material included books with themes involving sex and children, among them Victorian Children, Young Aphrodites, Hollywood Lolitas, Forbidden Sexual Behavior and Morality and The Invisible Children. Some of the books have been criticised for their treatment or depiction of child sexual abuse.
The discovery comes as Philippine authorities investigate reports that child-sex images were found in four boxes of Markle’s belongings in Cebu. His son, Thomas Markle Jr, reportedly alerted the Philippine National Police and the FBI after examining the material.
Philippine official Jonvic Remulla said Markle could be a “sex offender of the grossest kind”, adding that “all signs” pointed to the possibility that a serious offence had been committed.
Markle has rejected the allegations. He said he had never had sex with anyone under 18 and described claims that he had downloaded child-sex images as “the worst thing anyone could accuse me of”.
Markle’s son said he was horrified by what he found and had felt compelled to report his father. He later said he believed he had been protecting “the wrong person” for nine years.
Markle lived in Rosarito after leaving Los Angeles in 2011 and later moved to the Philippines in January 2025. He is now recovering in a rehabilitation facility in central Florida after the amputation of his left leg in the Philippines.
Mark Phillips, the partner of Markle’s daughter Samantha, denied that Markle had handled the material found in the Philippines or Mexico. He said: “Thomas Markle doesn’t even have fingerprints on the stuff in the Philippines… He didn’t even ever touch it the whole time it was there, he can’t be charged.”
Phillips also said the FBI had no jurisdiction in Mexico and dismissed the allegations as “all bulls**t”.
