Meghan Markle’s Dad Won’t Attend the Royal Wedding After Fallout From Staged Pictures.
TMZ reports Thomas Markle Sr. won’t attend Meghan and Harry’s wedding later this week after all. Though Kensington Palace recently confirmed he would be the one to walk her down the aisle, he now says that won’t be the case.
Over the weekend, the Daily Mail reported Markle Sr. staged and sold the now-viral photos of him reading a picture book about Great Britain. Though the site said he’d made more than $100,000 from the shoot, he denies it.
Per TMZ, Markle Sr. “meant no harm to Meghan or the Royal Family when he made a deal to allow a photo agency to take pics of him getting ready for the wedding. He says he had a reason and it was not principally about money.”
In fact, he said he’s been offered anywhere from $50,000-100,000 to talk about Meghan in the past, but that he’s never made any deals until now:
Markle tells us over the last year he’s been ambushed by paparazzi who have photographed him in the most unflattering circumstances … buying beer, looking disheveled and reclusive. He’s especially upset that they made him look like a lush. Thomas says he doesn’t even drink beer … he was buying it for the guards at the place where he lives.
Thomas says the paparazzi agency approached him, offered him money — though nowhere near the reported $100k — and he figured there was no harm in it and it would help recast his image.
On top of everything else, Markle told the outlet he suffered a heart attack not even six days ago, “but checked himself out of the hospital so he could attend the wedding. He’s now decided not to go because he doesn’t want to embarrass the Royal Family or his daughter.”
