Meghan Markle's Family's Royal Wedding Drama
After a messy AF week's worth of revelations about staged paparazzi photos, a broken angle, a heart attack, surgery to fix that heart attack, Kensington Palace announced that Meghan Markle's father Thomas Markle would not be attending her wedding to Prince Harry this weekend - though he had previously been believed to be walking her down the aisle. "I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health," Meghan said in an additional statement. Although a crazy twist of events, this was by no means the start of the drama the Markles have caused in the run-up to the royal wedding. Here's a timeline of all the pots they've stirred since Meghan and Harry announced in November that they were about to live happily every after.
December 27, 2017: Samantha Markle, Meghan's half-sister, fired back at Prince Harry's comments that his family is the family "Meghan's never had."
When Prince Harry commented in an interview after Christmas that his family is "the family I suppose that [Meghan's] never had," Samantha responded by tweeting that Meghan has "a large family who were always there with her and for her."
She's also, FYI, writing a book called The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister (release date TBD) about her relationship with Meghan. She insists it's not a mean book, though.
January 8, 2018: Samantha said any reports that her father wouldn't be at the wedding were false.
Up until this point, media outlets had reported that Megan's father might not even attend the wedding, but Samantha set the record straight in an interview with the U.K.'s The Wright Stuff. “Yes he is [planning to walk her down the aisle],” she said. “He will be there one way or the other. Any rumor to the contrary is . . . my favorite new word is becoming ‘Oh, rubbish.’ He will be there.”
February 8, 2018: Meghan's half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. said Meghan's engagement has put his life under scrutiny.
He told the Daily Mail that Meghan's engagement has put his life under a microscope.
"There was a time where people were following me around at work, taking pictures, and posting horrible stories about me and my family saying I'm a white supremacist, a drug addict, and a dealer," he told the tabloid. "That just isn't true." He was, however, arrested last year for pointing a gun at his then-girlfriend.
April 15, 2018: Meghan's nephew conveniently started selling a strain of weed called Markle Sparkle, just in time for the wedding.
Meghan's nephew Tyler Dooley, a marijuana farmer, released a strain of weed to sell in the months before the wedding, even though weed isn't even legal in the U.K. "I know in England that marijuana is still a taboo subject but it’s more normal to us here because we grew up around it in high school," he told The Daily Mail. "Everybody experiments with it here."
May 2, 2018: Thomas Jr., wrote a letter urging Prince Harry to call off the wedding.
"As more time passes to your royal wedding, it became very clear that this is the biggest mistake in royal wedding history," Tom wrote in the letter, which he shared with InTouch magazine. "Meghan Markle is obviously not the right woman for you." He also wrote that she is a "jaded, shallow, conceited woman that will make a joke of you and the royal family heritage."
May 11, 2018: Thomas Jr., wrote ANOTHER letter asking for a last-minute wedding invite.
A week after InTouch published a letter where Thomas told Harry to call off the wedding because Meghan was a horrible person, Thomas wrote another letter begging for a wedding invite. He wrote: "Meg I know that I’m not perfect, nor is anyone else in our family, as I’m sure you have read by now. But good, bad, or perfect, we’re the only family that you have. It does hurt my feelings not getting invited to your wedding, along with the rest of the family. But it’s not too late to send me an invite along with your entire family. "
May 13, 2018: The Daily Mail broke a story that those seemingly adorable pictures of Thomas reading picture books of Britain were staged.
The outlet obtained footage of Thomas posing for those photos of him reading in the Starbucks, looking at a gallery of his daughter and Prince Harry in the internet cafe, getting his suit tailored, etc. They also obtained footage of him exchanging money with the photographers.
May 14, 2018: Samantha claimed the photos were her idea all along.
In an interview with the British talk show Loose Women, Samantha said she told her father to orchestrate the photoshoots as a way to show the world how he was preparing for Meghan's wedding. “As we know the media can take very unflattering photographs of people on their casual days and blow it way out of proportion," she said. "I said, you know, the world has no idea you’re getting in shape, doing healthy things. They don’t photograph you buying vegetables and PH water. They photograph you as unflattering ways as they can.”
She also defended her father by saying none of this was motivated by money. "There’s a lot of scrutiny that it was money motivated, it was not."
May 14, 2018: Thomas decided that because of the paparazzi incident, he wasn't going to go to the wedding, and therefore wouldn't walk Meghan down the aisle.
He told TMZ that he didn't mean to cause Meghan, Harry, or the Royal Family any harm by staging the photos, he was just looking for money, but because of the whole incident, he wouldn't attend the wedding.
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.
TMZ mentioned in this same story that Thomas said he'd suffered a heart attack days before, but checked himself out of the hospital so he could go to the wedding. Then he had a change of heart. At this point, Kensington Palace confirmed that he wouldn't be at the wedding.
May 14, 2018: Meghan's nephews and their mother arrived in the U.K. for the wedding, even though they... weren't invited.
Meghan's nephews Tyler and Thomas Dooley, along with their mother Tracey, arrived in London earlier this week. They weren't invited to the wedding but they'll serve as correspondents on Good Morning Britain to talk all about Meghan. They admittedly have not spoken to Meghan in years.
May 15, 2018: Thomas was like "Wait, maybe I will go to my daughter's wedding."
While in the hospital for the aforementioned heart attack, Thomas changed his mind about going to the wedding, and told TMZ that he "[hates] the idea of missing one of the greatest moments in history and walking my daughter down the aisle." Despite previous reports that Meghan hadn't contacted him since the heart attack, he told the outlet that she had. TMZ reported:
Meghan tried calling him Monday but he was not near his phone. She followed up with a text telling him she loved him and was concerned about his health. He says she harbors no ill feelings toward him for making a deal with a paparazzi agency to stage photos of him getting ready for the wedding.
May 15, 2018: And then Thomas confirmed that actually, he won't be able to attend the wedding because he'll undergo heart surgery on May 16.
After changing his mind more than once, Thomas gave the official word to TMZ that he'll be MIA for his daughter's nuptials. He's supposed to have heart surgery on May 16 (today). "[Doctors] will go in and clear blockage, repair damage and put a stent where it is needed," he told TMZ. The surgery will prevent him from traveling to the U.K.
May 16, 2018: Samantha gave an interview with TMZ where she accused Meghan of trying to censor her.
"If it's about my life or my father's, there's something in this country known as freedom of speech. She doesn't have a copyright on that," Samantha said. "She's way out of her league to tell me that I can't speak."
May 17, 2018: And Samantha got in a car accident while trying to avoid the paparazzi.
Samantha's boyfriend told TMZ that she was hospitalized after a car accident that happened while she was trying to avoid paparazzi. They were allegedly driving in Florida when a photographer swerved in front of them, and they had to veer to avoid a crash, which made them hit a concrete barrier.
Cosmopolitan.com will update this post as more drama unfolds, because there will obviously be more. Obviously.
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