The depiction of the Duchess of Sussex by certain sections of the media has often been one of a fame-hungry daughter casting off an elderly father in his declining years and keeping him from his grandchildren as she embraces the international celebrity stage.

Their estrangement has been the subject of countless headlines since her marriage to Prince Harry. But her statement today, released after child sexual abuse image allegations made against Thomas Markle Sr , 82, suggests deeper, darker fears as the cause.

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

It has been speculated that the source of the estrangement between Meghan and Markle Sr, an award-winning TV lighting director, was over his decision to collude with a photographer and be paid for setting up shots of him preparing to attend the Sussexes’…