The Metropolitan Police has referred itself to the police complaints watchdog over its handling of a 2019 letter containing allegations against Thomas Markle, Meghan's father.
The letter was written by Markle's first wife Roslyn Loveless and passed to Meghan in January 2019. The Met gave it to the Duchess of Sussex's office but did not share its contents with other law enforcement agencies in the UK or overseas, despite the letter containing claims of alleged offences outside the United Kingdom.
The force has voluntarily referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the decisions not to inform other agencies and to pass the letter directly to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's office. The Met said the letter "did not actually contain any information specifically related to security matters" but did contain claims about alleged offending outside the UK.
Meghan said last week the letter had "made troubling and disturbing allegations" against her father and gave her reason not to visit him or allow him to meet his grandchildren.
Thomas Markle has strongly denied recent allegations that he possessed images of child abuse, calling them "sick lies". Authorities in the Philippines have begun investigating after his son reported material allegedly containing such images that was found in Markle's possessions. Philippine police obtained a warrant to examine devices and materials including computers, phones and hard drives.
Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, told BBC Radio 4 he would have expected the Met to share such warnings with agencies including the FBI.