MEGHAN’S LAST-MINUTE GUEST LIST DISASTER!
JustJu before the royal wedding, the stressed bride-to-be is hurt by her family’s public betrayal
Meghan Markle’s wedding planning has gone from being an exciting, joyous occasion to a right royal nightmare as she continually faces the wrath of relatives she’s snubbed from the wedding guest list. The bride-to-be secretly jetted home to the US to finalise her UK visa application, but sources tell Woman’s Day she used the opportunity to confront several family members after they went public about not being invited to watch her marry Prince Harry, 33. Her half-sister Samantha Grant has been forthright in her criticism of Meghan since she started dating Harry and is penning a tell-all book titled The Diary Of Princess Pushy’s Sister. She calls it “poor taste” that “no one” in the family was asked to the wedding, while more than 2500 strangers were invited.
FAMILY FALLOUT
Meghan’s cousin Trish Gallup also says the family was “hurt and saddened” to be left off the list for the Windsor wedding. It’s unlikely Meghan, 36, would want her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr at the event, given his arrest in January 2017 for allegedly threatening his girlfriend Darlene Blount with a gun during a drunken brawl. And last week, Thomas, 51, only widened the rift when he accused Meghan of casting aside her family and “acting phoney” in her new royal life. “Meg likes to portray herself as a humanitarian, a people person and a charitable person but she’s none of those things to her family,” Thomas said. “She’s giving the greatest performance of her life.” Revealing he spent a lot of time with the actress as recently as 2011, Thomas says he’s confused as to how she’s “clearly forgotten her roots and her family”. “Maybe the normal American family she has is embarrassing to her because we’re not producers and executive producers,” he said. “There’s a whole different side of her that’s started to surface and it’s ugly to see.”
An insider tells Woman’s Day, “Meghan’s crushed so many of her relatives are offended they weren’t invited, but she’s not close to them and it would have been awkward to have them at her wedding.”
SHAMING & BLAMING
“Samantha has been bashing her ever since she became involved with Harry and the royals, even though Meghan never did anything to harm her,” says the source.
“Meghan’s struggled over this but she believes she made the right decision. Harry even told her they shouldn’t expect to come.”
The source adds, “Still, it hasn’t been easy. Meghan is hurt her relatives are trying to shame her in the press. Part of the reason for her coming back to the States was to confront her family and smooth over ruffled feathers. She’s hoping they understand and nd stop airing their grievances so publicly.”
Meghan flew into Chicago on April 12 with four bodyguards and strolled into VFS Global bal UK Visa Application Centre, where paperwork ork for her British visa was completed.
Afterwards, insiders say, Meghan contacted ted her family to try and set things straight, adding, “She was nice and apologetic to them. She’s hoping things calm down now.” w.”
At the time Woman’s Day went to press, Meghan’s furious sister Samantha still wasn’t backing down, this time lashing out t at Harry for supporting his fiancee with her wedding decisions. “It’s time to ‘man up’ @Hrhhenrywindsor,” she tweeted. “Shout-outs about humanitarianism don’t work when you’re allowing Meg to ignore the Markles.”
‘She’s not close to them and it would have been awkward’
Meanwhile, her nephew Tyler Dooley went public with his plans to develop a new cannabis strain called “Markle’s Sparkles” – of which the royals would not approve.
Discussions about the guest list have been no end of stress for the royal bride-to-be. One of Meghan’s uncles even went as far as to claim her dad is still in the dark about his involvement. “He hasn’t heard anything – he didn’t t even know if he’d be walking Meghan down the aisle,” says Michael Markle.
But an insider tells Woman’s Day there’s “no way” Meghan will walk down the aisle alone. “It’s believed she’s quietly arranged for her father to fly to the UK for the wedding and asked him to keep it hush-hush so as not to offend other relatives,” says our source. “She’s close to her dad, so she’d want him to give her away.
“Of course, her mother Doria will also be there to help her get ready, and she has a close group of friends who will be there for support, too. Meghan’s sorry the rest of her family aren’t happy with her decision – but this is her wedding, not theirs.”