Thomas Markle, an accused child sexual predator and the estranged father of Britain’s Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, was sent back to jail on Tuesday (November 10, 2026) after cutting off an electronic ankle monitor he was ordered to wear as a condition of home confinement.
The affidavit says federal agents seized the material in question, including photographic slides, film negatives and books, from two storage units Markle had rented in Los Angeles since 2008. Commenting on the case on Friday (November 6, 2026), FBI Director Kash Patel said Markle “targeted innocent children and sought to steal their innocence through his criminal actions. Meghan, an American actor, has been estranged from her father since the run-up to her marriage to King Charles’ younger son, Harry, in 2018, when the duchess has said she first became aware of the allegations against the elder Markle.
Neither responded to questions shouted at them by journalists at the gathering.
But federal prosecutors said they asked the judge to revoke home-release and keep him locked up pending trial after he was found to have cut the ankle bracelet off early Monday morning. The judge said she found “reasonable cause to believe” he was suffering from some mental deficiency, based in part on his advanced age and a “lack of recall” he demonstrated during last week’s court appearance. She has said she was “deeply distressed” over the matter, which led her to cut off contact between her father and her two children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5. Harry delivered a speech at the event, but Meghan canceled her planned address, a spokesperson for the couple said.
Griffin on Friday ordered Markle to undergo a psychiatric examination to determine whether he was mentally competent to face prosecution.
