A federal judge in Tampa, Florida, ordered 82-year-old Thomas Markle Sr. jailed without bond on Tuesday, Nov. 10, after authorities discovered he had cut off his court-ordered electronic ankle monitor. Markle, the estranged father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was taken back into custody days after his arrest on a federal charge of possessing child sexual abuse material.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California said Markle removed the monitoring device at 1:45 a.m. Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. Prosecutors asked the court to revoke his pre-trial release and hold him in detention pending trial.
“Release conditions are court orders, not suggestions,” Essayli said. He told The Associated Press that he did not know why the device was removed or where the removal took place.
Why the judge ordered detention
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lindsay S. Griffin granted the prosecution’s request during Tuesday’s hearing in Tampa, revoking Markle’s release to a Florida senior care center and placing him in federal custody without bond. Authorities have not disclosed which facility is holding him ahead of his expected transfer to federal court in California.
In a written order, Judge Griffin noted that Markle’s “housing situation” had become “untenable,” without elaborating on the circumstances. According to a hearing summary cited by The Associated Press, defense attorney Mary Claire Wolf argued to keep Markle out of custody during the Tuesday appearance, though she had not found a suitable place for him to stay. Wolf did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment.
The California storage unit investigation
Markle was initially arrested on Friday, Nov. 6, at an assisted living facility in Lakeland, Florida, on a federal criminal complaint filed in the Central District of California. Prosecutors charged him with one count of possessing child sexual abuse material after FBI agents seized approximately 78 items from two storage units in the Los Angeles area.
According to Essayli, the seized items included slides, film negatives and books containing suspected unlawful images. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the two California storage units had been registered to Markle since 2008, with the most recent rental payments made in October via automatic payment.
British newspaper The Sun reported that Meghan’s half-brother discovered a collection of unlawful images while clearing out their father’s former home in the Philippines, which led investigators to the two storage units in California. Markle had suffered a stroke earlier in 2026 while living in the Philippines and underwent an amputation of his left leg, prompting his return to the United States and move into the Florida care center.
Family response and next court steps
Meghan, a former actor on the television drama “Suits,” married Prince Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018 and has two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. Following her father’s initial arrest, she said she was “deeply distressed” by the allegations and disclosed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about him had been sent to police in London in 2019, which authorities assured her was being investigated. She added that her distance from her father and her decision to keep him from having contact with her children were meant to protect them.
On Tuesday, Meghan made her first public appearance since her father’s arrest, joining Prince Harry at the European Parliament in Brussels, where he spoke about online child protection. She did not answer shouted questions from reporters, according to the BBC and The Washington Post.
Following Markle’s initial Nov. 6 court appearance, Judge Griffin also ordered a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether a mental condition prevents him from being able to “understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him.” That mental competency report is due to the court by Nov. 20, ahead of his anticipated transfer to California.