Or is Meghan Markle making the right choice?

[CaliforniaDream]

I don't know if it actually was her choice or her father's, but it seems to me that it's the right decision for him not to come to the wedding.

He's obviously not at all well and needs to recover from his heart attack. He is also obviously wildly in over his head with the media. I think Kensington Palace have something to answer for there as they should have taken him under their wing from the start and given him more help in dealing with press speculation. But the damage is done and now he has caused himself and his daughter a lot of heartache - that must be causing him stress, and I think he will be happier and more healthy for missing it.

I really feel for Meghan. She obviously had quite a complex and uneasy relationship with her dad. She must feel so betrayed that he went behind her back to have these press photographs taken, and it seems he is also texting gossip fodder directly to TMZ. While there are mitigating factors, he very clearly hasn't been putting his daughter's wellbeing first. If he had, she'd be able to have her dad at her wedding and now she can't.

I hope she still has a great day on Saturday, and that her father recovers, and that she's able to move on from this and have a reasonable relationship with him.

I actually feel sorry for Meghan. I really do. Her dad did something stupid and her mum seems fine, but fuck me, the rest of them? She's got a shitty shitty family.

Plenty of people are lovely but have arsehole relatives, but the more that's revealed about these people, the more you feel sorry for her. And the media are loving it. These people have no idea how bad they look, and the media are giving them a platform because they know it.

They are all trying to cash in. Money grabbing, fame hungry, bitter and envious. It's a horrible mix. Poor cow.

That sister is clearly burning with jealousy against her.

Op

You misunderstood my post, it was a genuine question, I wonder if her father and family were at her first wedding? And if they were, did they behave well. Maybe they have form for disrupting every family event.

I think the palace have really got to modernise their PR machine for this new era. They've really let her down over this- not everyone is enthralled to royalty and her Dad's side of the family are a totally rogue, needing handling of some description. Good luck to her- I am no royalist, but I like Harry and she seems sweet.

There’s a good article on the BBC website about how KP have dealt with this

But KP can't control the actions of adults in a different country who aren't British citizens.
They can offer advice and support, and we don't know that they haven't, but they can't insist on things being done their way.

I do also think the wedding is going to be the least of her problems, it is likely she will have to endure years of kiss and tell stories as her family make as much money from this as possible. They have nothing to lose now having screwed her over on the biggest day of her life.

I would like to think she will enjoy a wonderful wedding, the weather is going to be great and Harry will make a super husband.

In reality she will never be able to stop them from embarrassing her over and over again.

Another Meghan thread...well we all know where this is heading! No doubt they'll be along soon with the usual accusatory hammer... what ever you do, don’t diss Miss Markle. Not on here anyway.
Just pretend that she really is the princess of humanitarian plight...and really did try to alleviate her poor father’s predicament in some way, and really didn’t want a big royal high profile wedding in some big castle, and therefore can’t change her plans..because she simply can’t. And couldn’t possibly have factored in a visit to see her sick father in the weeks or months before....because he really is very ill. Who knows! What I do know, is that I’ve never heard of any wedding, where the bride has had only one solitary family member invited! Either they really are all crack pots...or they have been intentionally estranged because they just didn’t fit with the image she wanted to portray.

I have asked on other threads why they didn't opt for a quiet wedding away from the glare of publicity. Posters insisted that it wouldn't be allowed - rubbish! Harry calls all the shots, listens to no-one, they could easily have had a small wedding.

It's not a legal requirement to go around Windsor in a carriage. His father didn't do it second time around, Princess Anne didn't do it for her second wedding. This is not Meghan's first wedding. They constantly appeal for privacy but must surely adore the limelight to be doing it this way.

Insane mismanagement of her family as well. A quiet wedding would have avoided all this drama.

School12345 I agree, she knew full well what her family were like, and the Palace know full well what the media is like.

A small wedding with some decorum would have been optimal, it would not have received the same level of exposure or the same levels of pressure.

Harry and Megan could have easily instructed the royal household of their wishes. This could have been managed far better if on a smaller more intimate scale.

fully

I feel sorry for her.

I've seen friends from blended and split families get blindsided like this - it's usual when they are distant but cordial relationships. The ones who know certain family may be problematic usually plan around it.

I think they look happy and hope they have a good wedding and great marriage - however I agree she probably has years of crap like this from her family coming.

If her father did indeed have a heart attack and did, as reported, have 3 stents put in a couple of days ago - there is no way a responsible cardiologist would let him get on a 'plane yet. Also, it ISN'T SURGERY - it is an interventional procedure done by a cardiologist - no cutting involved, apart from a small incision in the groin area to stick a catheter into the femoral vein and thence to the heart. You only stay in hospital one night but unlikely to be able to undertake longhaul journeys immediately.

Do we think them being American has any thing to do with it?

I think Harry should've met him by now. He's got the resources, it was obviously a choice not too and that's not very princely behaviour in my book.

It's not a legal requirement to go around Windsor in a carriage. His father didn't do it second time around, Princess Anne didn't do it for her second wedding. This is not Meghan's first wedding. They constantly appeal for privacy but must surely adore the limelight to be doing it this way.*

I imagine they anticipated they would be a bit more popular, that the carriage procession is what the public would've wanted and to be fair, it's not like no one is turning up in Windsor on Saturday.

Megan is many great things I am sure, but she is not a small town country girl, she is a highly experienced A list actress at the end of the day, so there was no way she was going to have a small wedding and miss the opportunity of so much attention. Even if a small wedding would have been the best thing given her horrible family, second marriage status and the media pressure.

Also, the majority of heart attacks are not end of life situations. He's survived it (if it happened) so no reason to think he can't have his heart circulation improved (which is what the stents are for) to minimise the chance of it happening again.

Spot on.. School12345

They could very easily have had a small affair somewhere. And you can be darned sure, that Harry would have consulted/ deferred to MM on this.

I'm not sure how KP should be managing a group of adults who live in the states tbh.

Iirc, they kicked off way before the engagement announcement so it was to be expected.

The only odd thing to me is that her dad was still in Mexico so close to the event.

It couldn't have been planned better if it was never intended for him to come...

If he really is ill I think it's odd that she hasn't been over-so that imo reflects badly on her-unless they are estranged

My mother in law almost died when she had a stent put in. It's not necessarily an insignificant procedure.

Yawning chasm between how they portray themselves and how they act. As SV puts it: "It's just all so horribly wrong. Why aren't the right-on couple helping dad?

Why did Meghan not ‘reach out’ (as Californians say) to her father? If the pair of them — are so committed (as they never tire of telling us) to helping people with mental health issues, why have they not done anything to help her father, who has patently been struggling with this for some time.

They say charity begins at home, and never was this more true than in the case of Thomas Markle. Even if he is one of those proud, stubborn fathers who struggles to accept help, couldn’t she at least have helped him out a little financially to ease the pressure?

If Kensington Palace were to want to try and scrape back some credibility from this farce of a situation, the first stop for their honeymoon ought to be Mexico to see her father (even if she hates him, especially if she hates him even) because there will be people that will judge her for ignoring him.

I am not sure KP will be happy to see her popularity drop because the public have decided she/they are a loose cannon and she is someone that cares little for her family is something I am sure they will wish to avoid.

I was joking about the get well balloons and teddies but she could do worse than to address this situation directly so it is doesn't ruin her reputation as a humanitarian.

That is a good piece by the BBC. Makes a pleasant change from the finger pointing exercises the papers (not just the Mail) have been coming up with. It's worth a read for quotes like this alone.

"The BBC understands but has been unable to confirm that Kensington Palace did offer assistance to Thomas Markle in the months running up to Saturday's wedding.

The presumption must be that he declined it."

Harry's marrying into one classy family. I think it's bloody funny.

*"The BBC understands but has been unable to confirm that Kensington Palace did offer assistance to Thomas Markle in the months running up to Saturday's wedding.

The presumption must be that he declined it."*

I don't read that he declined it, I read that no one thought of it in KP until it was too late.

You would have thought the relevant research into her family life and past etc would have been done months before the engagement. I really don't understand how this could have happened. They must have known the level of ill feeling.

I doubt KP would have willingly left Mr Markle out on his own, if only to protect the Royal family.

I also doubt Mr Markle had any idea of how crazy things would get. He probably thought he'd be pretty much left alone and declined the help thinking it was unnecessary.

I think if they stopover before/en route to the honeymoon it'll just look like a PR stunt now.