Doria didn’t want to stand in for her ex... so Prince Charles came to the rescue

ALL in all it was the most elegant of solutions to the most intractable of problems. And it was reached over a cup of tea. As the sound of discord over the wedding subsides, the decision that will see Prince Charles escort his daughter-in-law down the aisle will be viewed as successfully pouring oil on troubled waters.

But it came too late to amend the order of service, which still has Meghan being accompanied by her father Thomas Markle.

Ever since he began his will-he, won’t-he routine about leaving his Mexican bolthole, palace officials have been worried over who would give the bride away. But such a delicate move required unanimous approval. So they had to wait for Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.

The bookies had installed her as favourite to do the honours. Already facing a nerve-racking ordeal as mother of the bride she had no wish to add to the pressure. So Charles and Camilla’s family tea party for Harry, Meghan and Doria on Wednesday was not just to exchange pleasantries.

Harry had already sounded out his father about stepping into Mr Markle’s shoes. But Charles wanted to be certain this would be acceptable. I understand she was gracious in her assent.

But there was still a twist, a sign the wedding will have a modern feel. Meghan will begin her walk up the aisle alone. Accompanied by her six bridesmaids and four pageboys, following the Dean of Windsor the length of the nave.

THERE, Prince Charles will wait to complete her journey to the altar. This had always been Meghan’s intention. Even if her father had been there, she wanted to walk the first part alone – a move being seen by some as a feminist gesture.

Royal officials did not demur, and pointedly avoided saying the prince would be giving her away, rather that he would ‘accompany her’. The distinction is significant as there is no mention in the order of service, as there was when Kate Middleton married Prince William, of the words where the priest asks, ‘Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?’

For the Prince of Wales the emotions will be bittersweet. It was once a dream of his to be a father of a bride giving away a daughter on her wedding day. Had his marriage to Diana survived and they had had the daughter Diana longed for it might have come to pass.

But today he will, uniquely perhaps for a father of boys, find himself giving away a bride for the second time. Two years ago he gave away Alexandra Knatchbull in the place of her father and his childhood friend Lord Brabourne, who was not well enough to carry out the role himself. At the time it raised eyebrows but it was left to the vicar who conducted the service at Romsey Abbey to point out that Charles was, in fact, ‘family’. A cousin through his father Prince Philip, he had also been best man at Brabourne’s wedding.

The links between the family run deep, not least because of the murder of Brabourne’s grandfather Earl Mountbatten, who was a powerful mentor for the prince.

Drawing these strands together, Charles became the most obvious figure to step in today. Friends said yesterday that he was ‘genuinely affected’ to have been asked. ‘He considers it a great honour and he is proud to do it,’ said one of his circle. ‘He feels that Harry and Meghan are entrusting him with something special.’

Harry might have asked his brother to take on the role were it not for the fact that William will be alongside him at the altar as best man. Switching William might have meant a last-minute call-up for one of his friends into the role of ‘supporter’, as the royals refer to their best man. Harry could, conceivably, also have asked either of his uncles, Prince Andrew or Prince Edward, but that would raise eyebrows.

In the end it was the example of his grandfather, Prince Philip, he chose to follow. He walked his sister-in-law, Princess Margaret, down the aisle at her wedding to Lord Snowdon 58 years ago this month. Some will wonder why it is the Windsor side of the family and not the Markles taking on this duty. With her mother the only member of her family attending, Meghan could have turned to one of her male friends.

CANADIAN Markus Anderson was tipped for a role. As a membership director at the private members’ club Soho House, on whose premises the couple met in the early days of their romance, he has been a close confidante of Meghan.

It was the sheer enormity of the occasion that persuaded the couple that whatever the merits of her circle, Charles was the ideal choice. ‘Meghan’s dad would have been extremely nervous but the prince will be enormously reassuring,’ says a courtier. ‘Meghan would probably have been propping Tom Markle up but now it will be Charles who will be strong at her side.’

After all the family rancour, there will now be an air of calm about the ceremony. More than anything, however, Charles’s presence will not just be a symbolic welcome into the royal family, it will prove that the royals believe she is the right person to be marrying the prince’s son.