The embittered ex-wife of Thomas Markle Sr who laid ‘disturbing allegations’ at door of Met Police

It was the summer of 1963, the boom of the civil rights movement in Chicago.

In the expanding industrial city on the edge of Lake Michigan, Roslyn Loveless, a 17-year-old clerk for the state’s railway company, went along to a house party where she was immediately struck by a “tall, handsome man”.

That man, Thomas Markle, then a 20-year-old television studio worker, swept the teenager off the ground and the pair’s romance quickly blossomed with the arrival of their first child, Samantha, just a year later.

Tom Jr, their second child, arrived soon after while the pair tied the knot and began married life in a one-bedroom apartment in the city - before the relationship appeared to turn sour.

Struggling to look after her two young children, little could Ms Loveless have known that six decades on her forlorn life she would become intertwined with the United Kingdom’s royal family.

Ms Loveless gained fresh attention this weekend, when reports emerged she had written a letter to the Met Police in 2019 containing allegations against Mr Markle Sr, the father of Meghan Markle.

The full, exact details of the letter have not been published, but the Met said it had shared its contents with the Duchess of Sussex, who said on Friday she had been informed about “disturbing allegations” about her father.

Who was Roslyn Loveless

Born in Albuquerque in New Mexico in October, 1945, little appears to be recorded on Ms Loveless early life until she arrived in Chicago and worked as a clerk for the Illinois Railway Company.

In a 2019 interview with the Daily Mirror, she recalled how she was at a house party when she was attracted by Mr Markle Sr, who she said had a “great sense of humour and charming smile”.

The pair had their two children, but according to Ms Loveless, their relationship fell apart following the birth of Mr Markle Jr in December 1965. Ms Loveless claimed she was “abandoned” with her children at her husband’s mother’s house in Pennsylvania.

In 1975, the pair divorced.

Ms Loveless, who according to the Daily Mirror had survived cancer, died two years ago.

What Roslyn said about Meghan’s father

The letter sent by Ms Loveless to the Met Police in 2019 has not been seen by The Independent, but other outlets including The Telegraph have reported that she accused him of being a paedophile.

The force said it was sent a letter “containing a number of claims about alleged offending outside the United Kingdom”, with its contents shared with Meghan, but astonishingly not with other law enforcement agencies.

Mr Markle has denied all allegations against him, and said he has never had sex with anyone aged under 18.

Six months after the letter was received by the Met, Ms Loveless led an outburst against her ex-husband in the interview with the Daily Mirror. Describing him as a “an awful father”, she said she had been left almost alone to bring up their children.

She claimed he would withhold money from the family, often lose his temper and “live his life as a single man”.

At the time, as Mr Markle Sr was reportedly trying to heal a rift with Meghan, Ms Loveless warned the Duchess of Sussex to keep him out of her family’s life.

She told the Daily Mirror: “While he portrays himself as a loving father, he was anything but to our two children during our marriage. It may sound cliched but a leopard does not change its spots. Repeatedly he has shown to Meghan he cannot be trusted. She must know that now. I speak not out of bitterness, my life moved on many years ago, but out of concern.”

She added: “Tom was an awful father. What makes him think he’d be a great ­grandfather to Archie [Meghan’s son]?”

In response to the interview, Mr Markle Sr said: “These accusations about my relationship more than 40 years ago with my first wife are not valid. None of them. If you have ­questions ask my children.

“Take note that both Samantha and Tom Jr left their mother and came to live with me because of her numerous bad habits and abuse. I have up until this moment never said a bad word about Roslyn but I must defend myself.”

What she said about Meghan

Four years after his divorce from Ms Loveless, Mr Markle Sr married Doria Ragland, who gave birth to Meghan in 1981.

It’s not clear what relationship, if any, Ms Loveless and Meghan had.

But two years following her interview with the Daily Mirror, she intervened when Prince Harry said in an interview with the BBC that the royals were like the family Meghan “never had”.

Ms Loveless appeared to defend Meghan’s step siblings, telling website Radar that “it’s not tension, it’s distance” over the family dynamic. She said that Meghan had graduated from high school in Illinois, and then had worked in Argentina before starting her acting career.

She said: “It was the scenario that everyone got busy, and the distance was always a factor.”