Meghan Markle’s special wedding text message to her father
After pulling out of the royal wedding last minute – before making a spectacular backflip and insisting he wants to be part of royal history – Meghan Markle’s father Thomas may get no choice in the matter as he will be facing “major surgery” instead.
Markle told TMZ that his heart was “seriously damaged” after a recent heart attack and that he will head into surgery 7:30am Wednesday, LA time and that “They [doctors] will go in and clear blockage, repair damage and put a stent where it is needed.”
“I hate the idea of missing one of the greatest moments in history and walking my daughter down the aisle,” TMZ reported Markle as saying, adding that he had received a text from Meghan saying she loved him and was worried about his health.
“Of course I’d walk her down the aisle. This is a historic moment. I’d like to be a part of history,” he is quoted as saying.
Thomas decided against attending the wedding yesterday due to the fallout of reports that he staged paparazzi photos of himself ahead of the wedding, saying he didn’t want to embarrass his daughter and the royal family.
Although in hindsight he says that his staged pictures were “stupid” he did not believe the Queen would be upset.
It comes as Meghan’s estranged half-sister Samantha defended her father’s decision to take the staged pictures – which showed him showed him getting measured for a suit, looking at engagement photos at an internet café, and reading a book on Great Britain – before taking she took the blame for the whole idea.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, Samantha, 53, backed her father Thomas, 73.
“He wanted peace and quiet,” Samantha said about the days leading up to the wedding. “But when he calls me panicking on the freeway because he’s in a dangerous situation, being followed by seven or eight cars, I think there have been examples in history of how dangerous that can be,” she said in a pointed reference to the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car accident.
“He was so stressed out. They rented the house next to him in Mexico ... He can’t open his blinds he can’t go anywhere without being followed. Really it’s quite atrocious and intrusive.”
When she labelled the media “vultures” though, host Piers Morgan jumped in, saying: “There’s no bigger media vulture with this wedding than you, is there Ms Markle?”
“How you can have the gall to come on here and talk about media vultures. You wrote a book called The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister.....You’ve been trashing her for two years, you little vulture.”
It’s understood Meghan still wants her father to attend, although reports suggest her mother, Doria Ragland, 61, will walk her down the aisle instead.