Markle’s royal wedding suit finally gets its day in the sun

WHEN Thomas Markle was left unable to attend the royal wedding after a heart attack, the suit he would have worn to lead his daughter down the aisle of St George’s Chapel was left languishing in a tailor’s wardrobe. And there it would have stayed, but for an unlikely twist of fate.

For when Johnno Spence, a sports PR, asked a Savile Row tailor whether he had anything in his size for Royal Ascot, the tailor said he had just the thing in mind – Mr Markle’s tails.

With both men being of similar shape and size, the suit needed only minor alterations and Mr Spence was more than happy to put it to good use.

“It was a shame Mr Markle couldn’t attend his daughter’s wedding,” Mr Spence told The Sunday Telegraph. “But you could say his misfortune was my good luck.”

As well as buying the wedding suit, he also bought the summer suit and three shirts that Mr Markle had ordered especially for his aborted visit to Britain. “I went into my tailors because I needed a new morning suit,” said Mr Spence, whose clients have included the Jockey Club and the Epsom Derby.

“His face lit up and he said ‘well, actually I’ve got the perfect thing for you, a tail suit, a summer suit and three shirts we made for Mr Markle, but unfortunately he couldn’t take them’.”

Mr Markle caused controversy in the week before the wedding, as photographs emerged of him apparently being measured up for a suit near his home in Mexico. It turned out, however, that the images were staged and the “tailor” a stooge.

Mr Markle last week told how he had cried as he watched the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on television at a small rented hideout.