MARKLE MAYHEM
DAYS BEFORE THE ROYAL WEDDING, MEGHAN’S FAMILY TURNS HEADS.
YOU’VE BEEN TRASHING HER FOR TWO YEARS, YOU LITTLE VULTURE.
LONDON • Will Meghan Markle’s father be at her wedding this Saturday to walk his daughter down the aisle? Has the media’s zoom lens of attention on Meg’s Valium-popping pop been “atrocious and intrusive,” as Markle’s half sister claims? Or is Markle’s half-sis a little media “vulture” herself as celebrity TV personalty Piers Morgan claimed on Tuesday?
Ah, nothing like a British royal wedding.
Whether Markle’s father shows at St. George’s Chapel on Saturday was the subject of fevered speculation among royal obsessives on Tuesday.
Thomas Markle told the celebrity news site TMZ on Tuesday that he wanted to walk is daughter down the aisle, but wasn’t sure if he would be able to travel to Britain.
“Of course I’d walk her down the aisle. This is a historic moment. I’d like to be a part of history,” he told the website.
But he said he was back in the hospital following chest pains and wasn’t sure if the doctors would let him out in time. He also told the website that Meghan tried calling him on Monday, but he missed the call. She then texted him saying she loved him and was concerned about his health, the website said.
His latest chat with TMZ comes after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle asked for “understanding” amid claims that Thomas Markle won’t be attending the royal wedding.
According to TMZ, as of Monday, Markle had decided to pull out of the wedding because he doesn’t want to embarrass his daughter or the royals.
TMZ said that Markle senior regretted working with a photographer and posing for pictures, which included pictures of the retiree getting measured for his wedding suit and another of him looking at pictures of his daughter and future son-in-law. The elder Markle told the website he looked “stupid and hammy.”
The 73-year-old retired Hollywood lighting director told TMZ he was “popping Valium” because of chest pains brought on by “emotional upset.”
The reports of a possible no-show by Markle’s father were splashed across the front pages of several British newspapers on Tuesday.
Doria Ragland, Markle’s mother, is expected to meet the Queen this week as planned. She is expected to be the first choice to walk Markle down the aisle if her father does not show.
Markle’s half sister, Samantha Grant, said she was the one to blame for the photos and that they were intended to portray her father in a positive light.
“The bad press over my father doing staged photos is my fault,” she said, according to tweets seen by the BBC. “The media was unfairly making him look bad so I suggested he do positive photos for his benefit and the benefit of the royal family. We had no idea he would be taken advantage of. It was not for money.”
On Tuesday, Grant tangled with host Piers Morgan on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” show.
“You say that this is all the media’s fault that he’s not coming to the wedding because of this,” Morgan said. “Many of our viewers may have watched your activities in a year and half and noticed you have been treating your sister in a shabby way.”
Grant defended her father’s granting permission to be photographed. “The goal of those photographs was basically because he’s feeling defenceless,” she said. “A person has the right to say enough is enough.”
“Yeah but here’s the problem. The media have been bombarded with letters from Kensington Palace and Thomas Markle as well,” claiming the press should not intrude on his privacy, Morgan said.
“Now it turns out he was actively invading his own privacy for a check from a photographer,” he said.
Then the TV host lashed into her for cashing in as well by publishing her tattletale book, “The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister.” Grant insisted the book is fiction.
“There’s no bigger media vulture than you,” Morgan said. “You’ve been trashing her for two years, you little vulture.”
Meghan Markle is estranged from her two half siblings, products of her father’s first marriage.
Recently, Thomas Markle Jr., Grant’s brother and Meghan’s half brother, called Meghan a “jaded, shallow, conceited woman.” He also warned Harry, in an open letter he provided to the media, that the marriage would be “the biggest mistake in royal wedding history.” He is reported to have been arrested last January for allegedly pointing a gun at his girlfriend during an argument. He has since apologized.
Meanwhile his ex-wife, Tracy Dooley, and their two sons Tyler, 25, and Thomas, 26, arrived in London Monday despite the fact none of them has been invited to the wedding.
“Her brother has said such horrible things about her that she couldn’t have invited her nephews or me to the wedding,” Dooley said in an interview.
Dooley would like to make it clear that she has no intention of exploiting, exaggerating, inflating, monetizing, misrepresenting or in any way abusing her connection.