British police say they received a letter containing complaints against Meghan’s father and was not shared with other law enforcement agencies

A letter containing a “number of claims” against Meghan’s father, the Duchess of Sussex, was received by the Metropolitan Police in 2019, a Scotland Yard spokesperson confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.

Police said they forwarded the letter to the Duke and Duchess’s office “for review,” but details of the allegations made in the letter have not been shared with other law enforcement agencies.

On Friday, it was reported that Meghan stranger his father, Thomas Markle, is under investigation by Philippine authorities for alleged possession of child pornography.

A spokesperson for the Philippine National Police told CBS News in a statement Saturday that they opened an investigation after Markle’s personal items were turned over to law enforcement by her son, Thomas Markle Jr.

“At this stage, investigators are examining the nature and origin of the materials and whether they may be linked to a violation of the law,” Col. Allen Rae Co said in a statement. “U.S. authorities have also offered assistance if Philippine authorities determine their support is needed as the investigation progresses.”

British tabloid The Sun was the first to report the allegations against Markle Sr. The report said the younger Markle allegedly discovered child pornography in storage boxes at his father’s home in the Philippines.

The Daily Mail reported on Friday that Markle had denied the allegations against him.

Meghan, who recently returned to Britain with her husband Prince Harry and their children, said in a statement sent to CBS News on Friday that she was “deeply distressed” by the reports regarding her father. She said she had been aware of the allegations against him since 2018 and that the allegations were then shared with British authorities.

“In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royal and Specialist Protection. This letter was subsequently shared with me. It contained disturbing and worrying allegations against my father and I was assured that they were being investigated,” his Friday statement said.

Meghan said she distanced herself from her father in an effort to protect her children.

“I hope we can now understand that, despite the distortion of some media publications over the years, any distance from my father and my choice not to allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason only: to protect them,” she said.

In response to Saturday’s developments dating back to the 2019 letter, a spokesperson for the duchess told CBS News partner BBC News that “any gap of a few months” was “an understandable consequence of this passage of time.”

Scotland Yard said on Saturday that the Met Police would review the handling of the case in 2019 and decide whether to approach the police watchdog.