The identity of the mystery officer who allegedly advised Meghan Markle not to go public with a letter detailing child abuse allegations involving her father, Thomas Markle, may never be revealed, it was claimed today.
The Duchess of Sussex's latest wrangle with Scotland Yard could drag on for years, according to a former Metropolitan Police royal protection officer.
The source said the officer's identity may remain hidden because of loyalties either to Meghan or to the Royal Family.
A spokesman for the Duchess has not commented on whether she has provided the name of the officer.
'Meghan Markle may have liked the officer and not want to get him or her into trouble,' the source told the Daily Mail.
However, he stressed that only Meghan's account of events is currently in the public domain and noted that 'recollections may vary' - the phrase famously used by Queen Elizabeth II after Megxit.
Meghan is said to have wanted to publicise the allegations in 2019 but was allegedly advised against doing so.
According to reports, a royal protection officer handed her a letter containing child abuse claims and warned her not to go public.
The Met has reportedly been unable to trace the officer who is said to have told her: 'Leave it with us, we'll investigate it.'
No action was subsequently taken and the force's failure to alert other law enforcement agencies is now being investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Meghan Markle, pictured as a teenager, has been estranged from her father, Thomas Markle Sr, for years
Harry and Meghan returned to the UK after six years - weeks before the scandal erupted around her father
The Daily Mail has alerted the FBI after uncovering a stash of sexually explicit books, magazines and photos - including of Asian females who look conspicuously young - in a Mexican storage unit rented by Thomas Markle
The former armed officer, who served for years in royal protection, suggested the individual may already have retired.
Tracing the officer could depend on 'where their loyalty lies', he said, adding that many officers could have been involved.
However, he believes the individual was more likely to have been a senior protection officer.
The source also suggested the matter may have been discussed by senior figures within Royalty and Specialist Protection, and possibly even by the Met's Gold Group of commanders and assistant commissioners responsible for overseeing major incidents.
Warning the controversy could be far from over, he said that if the IOPC broadens its investigation, the dispute could 'run on for years'.
It came as Thomas Markle Sr's granddaughter has reacted with horror after learning of the stash of child pornography unearthed by the Daily Mail inside a storage locker he rented in Rosarito, Mexico.
The Daily Mail alerted the FBI to the storage unit in Mexico last week, leading to a weekend raid by Mexican authorities.
Markle, 82, is currently being investigated by authorities in the Philippines over another hoard of abuse material uncovered at his former home in Cebu.
Noel Rasmussen, 28, whose mother, Samantha, 61, is the half-sister of the Duchess of Sussex, described the new findings as 'shocking' and said the disgusting cache needs to be taken seriously by the authorities.
She also revealed that she had unwittingly helped send the letter containing child sex abuse allegations against Markle that eventually reached her aunt Meghan and prompted the Duchess of Sussex to cut ties with him.
Noel said her late grandmother, Roslyn Loveless, Markle's first wife, had asked her to mail the letter to Meghan's police security team in London, but never told her of its contents.
'I'm shocked, just absolutely shocked. It's surreal. It's disturbing,' Noel said, speaking from her home in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
'Roslyn never mentioned anything relating to pedophilia to me about Sr. She just had the typical ex-wife gripes about him,' she added.
The findings in Mexico include naked photos of females who appear conspicuously young as well as explicit magazines showing young children being sexually exploited.
There is also a photo of Markle on a bed with his arm around a young Asian female. She appears nude in other pictures.
Meghan's niece Noel (above) broke her silence over the disturbing allegations against her grandfather Thomas Markle Sr in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail (Source: Courtesy of Noel Rasmussen)
'Like she didn't like some of his behavior. He was wrong. He stayed out too late; he came home too late.
'Sometimes he came home smelling like perfume. It was just typical ex-wife stuff. She never explicitly told me to stay away from him or said he's a pedophile to me.'
Roslyn, who was 79 when she died at her home in Albuquerque in 2024, repeatedly claimed that her erstwhile husband had cheated on her during their marriage but never made the exploitation claims in public.
Meghan, 45, meanwhile, has since publicly condemned her father and said she cut ties with him in 2019 after learning of child sex allegations in a letter from Loveless sent to her via London's Metropolitan Police.
Noel says her aunt's decision to cut herself off from Markle is entirely understandable in light of the allegations, adding she would do the same if she had a daughter.
'You know, I believe that she's completely warranted in that,' Noel said. 'I would really rather be safe than sorry if I was in her position.
'I wouldn't want to give him the potential or the chance or the opportunity to create another victim. This is just something that's too serious to be taken lightly in her case.'
Noel, who was born and raised in New Mexico, more than 800 miles from Markle's former homes in Los Angeles and Mexico, said she saw relatively little of her grandfather growing up – which she, at the time, put down to the physical distance.
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When she did see him, she says, he appeared kind and caring and never behaved inappropriately towards her.
'He came to visit several times, I want to say four or five times, maybe. I never got the sense that, you know, this is a creepy man.
'I never felt weirded out by him. I was never creeped out by him. He never acted inappropriately. He never acted strange with me.'
Markle Sr has been at the center of a storm for over a week – sparked by son Thomas Markle Jr, 60, revealing he had uncovered a stash of child pornography at the former lighting director's pad in Cebu.
The elder Markle, who is now living in a senior care home in Florida after losing a leg last December, has strongly denied the claims – despite appearing in some of the photos found by the Daily Mail in his rented storage locker.
He has, however, confessed to paying for sex with prostitutes during his travels in Asia, but insisted they were of legal age.
Noel said the latest revelations have left her struggling to reconcile the allegations with the memory of the man she grew up knowing as her grandfather.
'One of the hardest parts here is that there isn't really a neat or simple way to process something like this,' she said.
'You know, you can have really complicated feelings about somebody being your grandfather while also recognizing that all these allegations of this nature are incredibly serious.'
Of her own mother, Samantha, the only member of the family who has publicly defended Markle, Noel said she thinks her mom is desperate not to believe the worst.
'I really do not blame her for trying to defend her father because at the end of the day, that's still her dad,' Noel said.
'I mean, why would you want to believe something like this, something that's serious about your own parent? That's just the ultimate, worst-case scenario, bad news.
'This is almost as bad as it can get.'
Meghan has since spoken out against her father, revealing she cut ties with him after she was first alerted to 'disturbing' allegations against him eight years ago.
In a statement released in the wake of the Philippines investigation, the Duchess of Sussex said claims against Markle were passed to her in 2018 after a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police's royal protection team.
She also explained she had never allowed her father to meet her children, Prince Archie, seven, and five-year-old Princess Lilibet, 'for one reason: to protect them.'
The Duchess, who, over the summer, moved back to Britain with Prince Harry and their children after six years in the US, has been estranged from her father, 82, since she and Harry married in May 2018.
It has not been confirmed exactly when the 2018 letter was sent, but sources have claimed Meghan received a copy of the letter that summer – after the royal wedding.
She said in a statement: 'I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed.
'In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me.
Meghan, now the Duchess of Sussex, is the only child of Thomas Markle Sr with his second ex-wife Doria Ragland (pictured with Meghan in 2018)
'It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated.
'I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications' distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.
'I trusted that the authorities were doing the same for other families.
'Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.'
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