Scotland Yard Confirms Receiving 2019 Letter Containing Claims About Meghan's Father

London's Metropolitan Police has confirmed it received a letter in 2019 that made a "number of claims" about Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. A Scotland Yard spokesperson told CBS News of the letter on Saturday.

According to police, the letter was sent on to the office of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "for their awareness." The details of the allegations it contained were not shared with other law enforcement agencies.

The confirmation follows a series of reports this week. The British tabloid The Sun reported on Thursday that Markle had been reported to authorities in the Philippines by his son, Thomas Markle Jr. The younger man allegedly found child abuse materials in storage boxes at the family home in the Philippines. On Friday, it was reported that authorities in the Philippines were dealing with Markle over alleged possession of child sexual abuse materials. The Daily Mail reported on Friday that Markle had denied the allegations.

In a statement sent to CBS News on Friday, Meghan said she was "deeply distressed" by the reports. She said she had known of the allegations since 2018 and that they had been shared with U.K. authorities at that time.

"In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated," her statement said.

Meghan also said she had kept her distance from her father to protect her children. She said she hoped it could now be understood that, "despite certain media publications' distortion over the years," her decision not to allow him contact with the children had "one reason: to protect them."

The date of the letter is the point on which the two accounts differ, with Meghan referring to 2018 and Scotland Yard to 2019. A spokesman for the duchess addressed this in comments to BBC News, a CBS News partner. The spokesman said "any discrepancy of a few months" was "an understandable consequence of that passage of time."

Scotland Yard said the Met will review how the matter was handled in 2019. As part of that process, it will decide whether to refer itself to the police watchdog.