I’ve seen some of the comments here and elsewhere that this whole Thomas Markle situation could have been avoided or neutralized if only Poor Jason was better at his job. I mean… you guys know that I haven’t been a fan of Jason Knauf from the start. Knauf is William, Harry and Kate’s communications director and he’s terrible at his job. He’s basically the last dumbass standing because William either fires anyone who questions him, or the employees leave because they don’t want to deal with Will’s tantrums. This is one of the reasons why I’ve argued for years that William and Harry need separate communications offices and separate people.
Now, in this particular situation, the situation involving Thomas Markle and the tabloid explosion, I sort of feel like… well, we shouldn’t put it all on Poor Jason. He was doing the best he could with what he was given, and what he was given was a total sh-tshow. In retrospect, of course Meghan should have made one public statement MONTHS ago where she politely clarified that her half-siblings are trash and that she’s been estranged from them for years. Of course Poor Jason should have sent someone to prepare Thomas Markle and Doria for everything. But that’s not what happened, and maybe there are reasons for that. But don’t miss the fact that Thomas Markle and Meg’s half-siblings are terrible people who were always going to make asses out of themselves. There’s little that KP could have done to change that. So, here’s the latest from TMZ, all about how Thomas Markle’s TMZ interview caught everyone at KP off-guard.
Kensington Palace was caught flatfooted by TMZ’s story that Meghan Markle’s dad will not walk his daughter down the aisle … because we found out the palace had made elaborate plans for him. Our palace sources say the plans included a security detail for Thomas Markle, along with accommodations and access to various events.
One source connected to Meghan confirms what we posted Monday … that Meghan’s mom is now the frontrunner to give her daughter away. We’re told the 2 are extremely close.
As for who’s not close to Meghan … her half-sister, Samantha Grant. Our Meghan sources say the 2 have “absolutely no relationship” and “she knows nothing about Meghan’s life.” The sources warn that Samantha is trying to take the media for a ride by planting stories with no basis in fact. Finally, we tried to find out if Meghan has reached out to her dad to see if she could change his mind. So far, no word back.
Yep. Thomas Markle didn’t even call his daughter to tell her that he wasn’t coming to her wedding. He called up TMZ instead. Let that sink in. He called TMZ instead of his daughter, and she had to read TMZ to find out her dad wasn’t coming. And now TMZ is acting like they’ve been on the Royal Wedding Beat all this time (they haven’t). Like, TMZ just found out that Samantha Grant and Meg are estranged. Breaking news!
As for the larger conversations about Poor Jason, KP’s communications team and all of that… yeah. They’ve done some good things for Meghan, like getting her out there, in the public eye, very quickly. They’ve let the imagery and Meghan and Harry’s natural chemistry and charisma tell the story. But they made some huge mistakes and some people need to be fired… after the wedding.
Here’s Poor Jason, in Nepal with Harry in 2016. Jason is going to be looking for work by August.
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, Backgrid, WENN.
WIlliam must be LIVID.
Are you kidding? This makes him and his in-laws look goooooooood! Or less crap.
William’s pet peeve is cooperation with the press. He shuns anyone he thinks is cooperating with the press.
Which is why his Middleton blindspot is so entertaining. Or perhaps convenient depending on situation.
@Lak how much of this blow up do you think is a result of the “powers that be” being used to people jumping when the palace says so? I am just wondering did the palace not anticipate someone going rogue with the press, only then to be caught on the back foot and playing catch up from the start. I am just surprised at how shoddy this lead up to the wedding is being handled in general.
I think this makes William look bad. His PR team really screwed up. If Thomas Markle wanted to improve his image in the media, the campaign should have been run out of Jason’s office. I can’t imagine Thomas would have done something so stupid if he was being advised by professionals.
Tell it LAK.
William can’t say a thing. His family of choice is no better.
How many financed business deals,because of royal connections. Eg. For Pippa, James and house deals and so on.
The press just doesn’t play what the Middletons do , up as much. They are protected because of their golden goose William.
Imo
William is proud of the fact that he doesn’t take advise. He has boasted in several interviews about it. And Harry follows William.
William also thinks he has his mother’s PR savvy. And surrounds himself with yes men who won’t tell him otherwise. He doesn’t take into consideration that as the heir he has protection and can pull the heir card to get any positive publicity. And he has made it very clear that extends to the Middletons.
The Middletons are prudent in not trusting that the media won’t come for them despite William’s protection by retaining publicists and or making media friends to protect them.
Zapp Brannigan: it shows a level of hubris because they can’t imagine that someone in the inner circle can go rogue. Markle snr may not be bosom buddies with the royals, but he was assumed to be inside the circle by default and his seemingly reticent behaviour with the media.
Still, i’m surprised that MM didn’t recognise Daddy dearest’s pap strolls especially the recent set which EVERYONE could see were setups.
And reached out to Daddy dearest to get ahead of any potential fall out instead of sending out a cease and desist letter to the press which prompted the outing.
BP / CH tend to be better with PR and if all else fails, kills the story very quickly before it gains traction. See Panama Papers + The Queen.
KP hire yes men who follow William +Harry’s directives without critical thought.
I am just appalled at how ALL these PR savvy people, people who have been in the BRF machine for ever just left this guy to fend for himself thinking “oh Meghan’s father will just sit back and handle how the media is trashing his name and not say anything but just take it as a good boy”!! I know I am in the minority on this board about cutting Mr. Markle a big chunk of slack due to this his one mistake but thats fine. Doria has had protection/support from KP (I have no proof, but just basing my suspicions on Harry’s comment that Meghan’s “mom is amazing”, I have a strong feeling they get along very well) but Mr. Markle has had zilch. He was left to deal with the hounding tabloids on his own and so he did what he thought was right in his mind, to right a wrong that was being committed against him by the media. When it all backfired, still there’s no apparent support or guidance for this guy, he still being left to deal with it best he can and now KP talking about being blindsided? SMH!! DM made sure to publish this on a Saturday afternoon, that way by beginning of the week, all sheet would have hit the fan and the stench unbearable!! But IMO, that gave KP enough time, they should have contacted this man and said, NO MORE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN YOU AND ANY MEDIA OUTLET.Insted, they once again leave the guy on his own to deal with the fall out best he knows how!!! It seems once KP released that half assed statement about how this all was too personal for Meghan, they just left it at that!!!! Totally upsetting. So now TMZ is having a field day by spreading more trash about how the guy called them blah blah blah, and how they have some inside information. Im even having a difficult time believing this guy called TMZ, it seems the media is out to continuously take advantage of and manipulate this man with no regard of anything!! And whomever he has spoken with has probably convinced him that they are on his side and looking out for his best interests just to gain his trust and then turn around and stick more knives in his back for more tabloid sensation, this is so upsetting. And for those that are saying how Mr. Markle should have called KP, Im willing to bet my last dollar that the man has zero access to his daughter right now. She can call him, but he can’t call her. If he calls, he probably has to go through a team of people that screen phone calls etc, he just can’t easily access Meghan as easily as people think.
Masamf: Your comment is exactly how the media works. Regardless of a civilian talking him into doing this, one of the tried and tested media tactics is to reassure the subject that they are on their side, will protect them, best interests etc.
In the case of tabloids, they will ho as far as paying the source whilst persuading them to reveal everything without care about the person’s welfare.
This is the business they are in.
That’s why you hire a publicist, or in this case a crisis manager, to manage your media narrative, and don’t be seduced into dealing with the media yourself.
@Lak, I agree whole heartedly, and my anger solely is directed at KP PR team. Meghan should have been advised to hire a publicist/representative/manager/someone for her father. She said she had never experienced tabloid culture of this magnitude, so that tells me she was naive/ignorant on a lot of things. So the people that have been in this business for this long should have advised accordingly; either Meghan to get a publicist for her father who is a senior and has lived away from the lime light for so long, or maybe if Meghan was prohibited from making these decisions, KP would have handled this accordingly. They can’t just start crying “we were blindsided” when they knew all along how the tabloids work and they never made any efforts to help this guy or advise him in any way. I’m thinking that the guy is susceptible to any manipulation and that includes by Vonnie. However, if KP had hired some help for Mr. Markle, not even Vonnie would have been able to talk him into doing anything and, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.
But even right now when they can swoop in and stop him from talking, or at least hire somebody for him to take care of his business right now, they just sitting on their hands and doing nothing, just leaking info to TMZ about how blindsided they are, while the guy is messing up even more because he lacks any sort of direction!!! This is very very frustrating. Im hoping this is a wake up cal for both Harry and Meghan, don’t trust William’s PR team, they aren’t here to protect your best interests.
I agree with @Clare – Kate Middleton’s shady uncle, Gary Goldsmith, is looking like a harmless eccentric, compared to the total debacle that is the Markle family.
I think there is some wild over-estimation going on here. PR is only effective if you have cooperating clients that can stick to a message and a strategy. Exactly how is KP supposed to control the behavior of Meghan’s Markle relatives; they are Americans who don’t live in the UK and are not obligated to cooperate. They are clearly pretty dreadful individuals who’ve grabbed a very sleezy opportunity to make some quick money. Dear ole dad is less agressive than his elder daughter, but clearly on board for a quick hustle; I’m sure the pap and TMZ money will come in handy.
Remember when everyone slagged Harry for saying the Windsor’s would be the family Meghan had never had; this is what he meant. One can only imagine the manipulative demands for money that probably accompanied her success as an actress.
Personally, I don’t think they can control MM’s siblings, but they dropped the ball on MM’s father. They should have given more guidance and support for him, just like they did for the mother. The moment they knew the guy had been tracked down to wherever he was, that would have been indication enough that the media would use him to get whatever they wanted. But KP, with all their PR savvy, just left the guy to fend for himself and deal with the tabloids all by himself!! He was living a life away from the spotlight, his daughter has dated Harry for 2 years and he has never said or done anything to embarrass them, he should have been supported just like they did the mother but alas…
I think he and the Middletons might be loving this actually bc they look good in comparison.
Carole M is cackling so hard she fell off her chair.
This has to be so embarrassing for Meg. She should be focused on wedding stuff and her entire family (except Mom) are total f’ing embarrassments.
But does she not share in the responsibility here? Did she visit her dad recently, assess his willingness and discretion to be a part of this celebration? She had to know what kind of “family” she had prior to getting engaged…
Meghan is not responsible for her father’s actions. That’s all on him and his other terrible children. Thomas is a grown man who makes his own decisions.
How does that mean she shares the blame? Should she not get engaged to the man she loves because of her family? That sounds unfair and like you’re blaming the wrong people.
No, she doesn’t hold any responsibility for this. They are who they are.
But paid PR departments are paid to handle these things and being caught flat footed is the worst thing that can happen to them,
Not blaming her, but she could have assessed her father long before this week. That would have given her PR team time to do damage control.
Why would you even want a guy to walk you down the aisle, if you haven’t seen him in obvioulsy a very long time? I don’t get any of this. When her half sibs starting acting out she didn’t talk to her dad? And I just read her mother isn’t even in London yet? Just weirdness.
Good luck to them, sounds like they are gonna need it!
Thomas Markle is a 73 year old man. It doesn’t take an emotional genius to know that you dont sell out your own daughter to the tabloids. No one should have to explain that to you. Its crappy to try to make this Meghan’s responsibility or fault. Also – considering that he was not only invited to the wedding but was supposed to be walking her down the aisle its clear she HAS spoken to him. That obviously didn’t stop him from being a garbage human heing.
That would work if Thomas Markle were honest. He could say all the right things and then call TMZ the next day.
Also, have you ever seen a situation where someone says he doesn’t want to choose sides, but if one person is clearly the aggressor, basically by doing nothing the person has picked a side? Samantha Markle is awful and totally shameless about the mess she has caused. Meghan could get an answer from her father and then Thomas could be led off by Samantha to do something else. It really reveals something about him that he was taking advice from her especially considering the stories of how Samantha treated Meghan and Doria.
If Thomas is embarrassed about his image, he might have been embarrassed about being left out. Besides having a courtier babysit Thomas and cut him off from communicating with other people, I don’t know if they could have contained Samantha who was clearly determined to make trouble.
Thomas is a fully functioning adult who makes his own decisions. He’s in this mess because he staged and sold photos of himself, and then picked up the phone to TMZ. Absolutely every part of this was avoidable by someone with even the tiniest bit of common sense.
I’m not attacking you here at all, Homeslice, but I’ve read comments like this all over the interwebz today, and I just have to laugh. Because it just goes to show that straight white dudes always, always, always get to be the protagonist in a story. No matter their age or circumstance, they will always be cast in the most sympathetic light. We’re conditioned to rally around them and to find justifications for the stupid shit that they do.
@homeslice I agree with you…..everybody is treating MM like a saint or something…😒
lobbit, I’m not sympathetic to TM. Just speculating like everyone else I think the whole family is a low rent embarrassment. But when I started to see my dad standing on streets in Mexico getting measured for a tux, my radar would have went up that something is wrong. Just come out and say that I’m estranged from my father’s side and be done with it. I think lots of people could relate! I know I could!
I’m sympathetic to TM because I know that some people are just dysfunctional, My dad, for example. He only ever met my husband once, and that was only because we all happened to be at an event (a funeral) at the same time. Despite our estrangement, my mother campaigned very, very hard to get my husband to ask my dad for permission to marry me. Because it was tradition. Because people would blame HER somehow if my father wasn’t involved. Because it would be embarrassing for my dad if my then-fiance didn’t ask.
So, yeah. I understand parental dysfunction. And I understand the difficulty of having to plan one’s life around it, being forced to meet societal and cultural expectations in spite of it, of being made responsible for it…
Meghan is not at fault for her father’s shortcomings and / or fragilities, but she knew of Thomas Markle’s fragilities and / shortcomings and took a calculated risk in giving her father, who a family friend said has to “battle his demons,” a pivotal role in her high-profile wedding and now it’s blown up in her face.
Hopefully she can center herself and have a joyous wedding day.
@Homeslice, you don’t know how often Meghan talks to her father.
“How does that mean she shares the blame? ”
I don’t think she shares the blame. But neither do I think the PR people are at fault either. If she didn’t know that her dad was going to pull out of the wedding and talk to TMZ, I wouldn’t expect the PR people to know either.
I think the fact that she couldn’t be bothered to introduce her fiance to her dad speaks volumes. So they are not close, big deal. don’t invite him. But stop wringing your hands about daddy not coming…
No one should have to do PR control in order to have their father behave well!
Ugggh, the worship of MM by some here is perplexing. Look…..she isn’t responsible for her dads bad behavior, but she is responsible to do her best to protect the RF from impact. So yes, she has the knowledge and resources to better manage daddy ……or to isolate him and cut him loose.
What was that semi famous line by a not very popular author ?
“you can ignore reality but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
This is a clear example of that.
Based on Thomas Markle’s repeated phonecalls to TMZ and his wish to not miss history, this guy was always going to make a spectacle of himself, whether invited or not.
I don’t see a solution.
Don’t invite him and he blabs to the press egged on by Samantha.
Invite him, whether or not they make him part of the wedding -he blabs to the press again egged on by Samantha.
Bring him to England and take care of him ahead of time. He would have blabbed to the press the whole time unless they cut off his access to the outside world. And Samantha would have claimed they were imprisoning him or something.
The guy took advice from Samantha even though she’s been a horrible person for months and apparently her whole life. He’s calling TMZ before talking to Meghan. This was always going to be some kind of disaster.
I feel so badly for her. I agree that she should have gotten out in front of this story – do a quick interview with a friendly reporter and just toss the whole lot of them under the bus – politely, of course. Unfortunately, all this is only going to feed Harry’s and William’s somewhat understandable disdain for the press.
Really, Megan should probably just have given the Markles some $$ and told them to go away and shut up. Surely the Royals have a fixer, right?
If they’d given them money, they just would have come back for more later. That’s how these things work, and you end up being shook down for cash for the rest of your days.
With people like this, you cut need to them off completely. Like lancing a boil. Which means Meghan SHOULD say a final goodbye to her father. And that he won’t be seeing any of her grandchildren. But IMO, he made he bed when he talked to TMZ twice, so my sympathy is gone for him.
Frankly, they SHOULD go nuclear on the Markles (the whole lot of them) wrt all of this. Like, almost mob style, but not as bloody. But I don’t think the Royal Family do that sort of thing.
AMEN! They are looking for money — why they didn’t keep throwing it at them until after the wedding I will never understand!
On the other hand I must admit that with how low the standards of behavior of white male are these days I’m kind of happy people can actually be SHOCKED by her father’s behavior.
The BRF should have cut a cheque for $100,000 and an NDA to avoid this mess. I dunno, I wrote yesterday I was getting a “runaway bride” feeling about this wedding. I’m very very nervous that this wedding will not happen….
Allay your fears…ITS ALL HAPPENING!!!!!
I hope it does, I am so excited to see the dress!
It will happen. Only a death in Harry’s family would stop it at this point.
A cheque and and NDA wouldn’t stop these kind of relatives. They’d always be back for more money and there’d never be an end to it.
Yep there is no way that it won’t happen at this point but it’s all pretty entertaining as far as royal weddings go. Meghan’s family have taken something so British and dignified and turned it into a total sh*t show. It’s more of a trashy reality TV show now than a royal wedding. I just saw something about Meghan’s estranged relatives arriving in London.
I mean, I wouldn’t get too excited about royal weddings being some kind of dignified holy event – remember that the biggest story out of Williams wedding was s the bridesmaids fantastic bottom.
The royals perhaps would like their events to be dignified…but nope…the red tops manage to find the lowest common denominator. And most of the time the royals provide the fodder themselves.
Her relatives went to London? Oh god you’ve got to be kidding me 😖
@jammypants, you need to see the awful pictures. It’s her half-brother’s Ex-wife and her two sons. They’ve been hired by some station to do commentary during the wedding. They arrived with enough luggage to stay all summer. I repeat, it’s the half- brother’s ex-wife. In other words, really really close to Meghan. *sarcasm*
@Giddy, geez what a bunch of low class vultures
I wonder if Harry and the RF knew what a circus this would be, if they would have suggested the big wedding with carriage ride, etc. etc?? Cause it is a total circus: her family, taxpayers paying for the carriage ride security, not feeding the guests outside.
Tacky, tacky, tacky. Words I never associated with royal weddings.
If William didn’t drop Kate after staying in and being in a Cocaine Mansion of her moms brother , while with her family while on holiday in Ibiza, why on earth would a father taking photos doing mundane things and getting paid ,stop this wedding?
Please.
Er, what??
You’re equating Kate being held responsible for the actions of an uncle, to those of really sordid and staged actions of … the father of the bride?!
You’re not a Markle are you? Same moral compass, it would appear.
I just find this all to be so sad
Who blamed Kate, not me, just like I’m not blaming Meghan.
Bad choices were made by both families, Even if it was in the past for one.
WK also set up a pap stroll to deflect from uncle Gary’s tabloid sting. The sun newspaper posted pics and video of the pap stroll.
Equated, not blamed.
Kate and Uncle is not bride & FOB. Why are Kate’s Uncle’s misdemeanours even on this thread. Kate’s Uncle’s behaviours and predilections aren’t expected to show up in Kate – not saying that she’s brilliant – she could be far worse, but an Uncle’s attribution is not a great indication of values and standard for conduct etc.
Parents and children do reflect on each other – so I’d expect Meghan to be mortified at this. Unfortunate for her, yes. But bringing Kate’s uncle into this is reaching and showing a very peculiar defensiveness.
Kate’s uncle was very much part of the hunt for the ring. It was a family group effort. That is why he is repeatedly invoked in these threads.
The problem with Thomas Markle is that as father of the bride he might not show up to the wedding, and the whole world is watching before a global televised event. The staged paparazzi thing didn’t even register with me as a big deal because I assumed everyone does that sort of thing. I was kind of surprised that actually blew up into a scandal since nothing seems as bad to me as the toe-sucking incident Fergie was involved in. Well, actually Harry’s nude photos from Vegas probably was. The glaring problem to me is his not showing up and/or keeping people guessing. WTF.
Kate’s uncle is shady and probably has a few other family members that might be embarrassing, but I do think this dad not showing up to the wedding and telling TMZ all about is a whole other different level of weird. Diana’s brother also always seemed shady. Everyone has some family member they’d rather not talk about. Nonetheless, Kate’s family can more or less just kind of avoid talking about the uncle and most people who aren’t regular royal watchers probably won’t know or won’t remember what’s up. But a father not showing up to a royal wedding that is set to be watched globally by hundreds of millions of people — that’s really hard not to notice! And even people who know nothing about the royals or don’t care either way about them will have heard all about it.
I feel so sorry for Megan. Her dad couldn’t even pull it together for her wedding? What a schmuck!
I just wrote on the other story, that perhaps this man should have been visited by his daughter and brought to England a while ago. It seems like something mental is going on here, whether it is old age or something else? The fact that MM and I guess, Harry to some degree, never thought about this problematic family is poor judgement.
The world is watching and this looks like some poorly produced reality show.
What were Harry or Meghan to do? Markle’s bad behavior is all on him.
minx, did Meg visit her dad recently, see how he is? Try to assess his well-being? Even after the debacle with her half sibs? Maybe bring him to England if he was willing and spend some time with him? I don’t know…stuff normal families do?
Yes, you are right she not responsible for how they act, but then why in the world include him from the beginning? They are not close, that much is obvious, the palace could have figured out long ago how to deal with her absent father.
He’s an ADULT. He’s not mentally ill, just an asshole. Meghan does not need to “assess” her father, nor does she need to bring a grown man to England to babysit him. He is responsible for his own bad choices. Not her. He staged those photos because he thought he looked schlubby and wanted to look better in the public eye. Pretty much the stupidest reason ever.
Bridget, how do you know he is not mentally ill???
Why on earth are you so convinced he IS? It’s not like they plucked him from an assisted living facility.
I’m not convinced he is…but clearly something is not right. It’s not out of the realm of possibilty that a 73 yr old loner is not exactly the daddy you had 20 yrs ago…
Bridget, Whilst he may not be obviously ill he is obviously quite reclusive and retiring and may have anxiety when around people. Lots of us dislike being the focus of attention, it’s hardly surprising he is backing out if we take into account the life he leads. Couple to that to barely knowing Meghan (by the sounds of things) and having never met Harry I personally don’t blame him. He’s obv not been part of her close family for a very long time and for her to just expect him to show up is ridiculous. The assholes here are Meghan, Harry, the BRF and everyone else who just expected a painfully shy man to suddenly appear centre stage in front of billions of people. She is supposed to ‘know’ him, she obviously doesn’t. I’m sure her a Mum or Charles will be fine and I hope in time the relationship between them can improve. I feel sorry for the guy, being asked to perform for strangers in a strange country. If you’re already anxious or reclusive that’s a major request and should have been handled much better.
Now Thomas is either painfully shy or mentally ill? He barely knows Meghan?
Thomas is on record (to TMZ smh) that he wanted to go and may still want to go.
The painfully shy Thomas staged a picture of him delivering flowers to Doria and claimed to have had a heart attack but was photographed buying junk food. Painfully shy people don’t repeatedly call TMZ.
Maybe the Markle father and older kids are just irresponsible, self-absorbed liars?
He’s 70 years old, I saw a dramatic decline in my father between 65 and 70. I feel bad for the man, and hindsight is 20/20 but to have someone assigned to him as a caretaker or bringing him to London would have solved a lot of headaches. I can’t imagine being whisked on to the world stage at his age. Not being able to handle that doesn’t mean he’s a jerk or mentally ill.
If my father had a “heart attack” a few days ago, I would have been on the next plane.
I agree that MM didn’t do things a normal daughter would do who understood the pressures this would put on her hermit father. Visit, see how he is doing, etc. Her mom seems stable, totally different story, but her dad seems odd and not very reliable. If she is the devoted daughter that KP put out there, wouldn’t she have known??
I think it’s really hard for people to believe that sometimes parents are emotionally crappy and don’t put their children first. He wasn’t at Meghan’s first wedding either. And there’s nothing the child or the now adult child can do to make the parent act right.
I think Thomas Markle isn’t vicious like his son and first daughter but he is self-absorbed, emotionally negligent, and messy. Anything the BRF did would have been leaked to the press for months and those would have been scandals too. I think they went the -give them nothing to comment on- route but no matter what there would have been some kind of spectacle because Thomas is calling TMZ instead of returning his own daughter’s phonecalls.
I said some of the same things on one of the other posts. 100% agree with you on everything you said here.
Perhaps they asked/invited? Perhaps he said no? Didn’t want to be out of his comfort zone for longer than necessary? We don’t know.
AH missed your post, I wrote the same way down in the comments.
Seriously, he is retired and I am sure they have a spare room. He gets to know the family his daughter marries into, can get some training about the media and how to handle it and also rehearse. How does the guy who should have walked his daughter down the isle at such a public wedding not rehearse that? Not that its rocket science but just for his nerves it would have been good to practice it.
Yes, and the fact that I read her mom is not there yet either??? And they are “close”?? I don’t get it. I really don’t dislike MM, I have been pro on many of these stories, but something is just not right here. She is a grown woman, she has a poor family dynamic, just own it and move on.
I apologize for throwing Harry under the bus for calling out the fact that MM was for the first time experiencing a real family…obvs it was true!
You rehearse it closer to the wedding. Not for a month beforehand.
Somehow? I don’t think bringing to England would have changed much, given from what I’ve seen how he acted wrt all of this. Except that he probably would have blabbed to TMZ about everything that went on at the wedding reception, complete with giving them pictures too.
Also, sometimes, older people are just stuck in their ways. For all we know he could have just said he’d come to England when it was time for him to, and didn’t want to go before. The guy’s an American. He doesn’t know all the ins and outs of this Royal Protocol stuff, and probably didn’t care. Given how he’s so chatty with TMZ, he clearly has issues like avoiding responsibility.
I do agree that someone could have been spared to go check on him. They probably did and we don’t know. At 73 some people are already out of it, we don’t know their health history. We do know that his older children are attention and money hungry.He isa reclusive person living in a retiree community in a different country. I do think that the world exposure that he was going to get attending the wedding is incomparable to him not going for whatever reason.
I think that deep down he did not want go and be exposed. HE listened to that crazy woman,and he spoiled everything. Whatever, he embarrassed himself, not his younger daughter. She is her own person. Let him be now.
You are right. I would have never let my old father travel that far without someone with him. He should have had an aide or a friend with him every step of the way. Also 2 weeks ago to recover from jet lag. Meghan has not realized dad is an old man.
In retrospect, we should have realized Thomas Markle was just as bad as Samantha and Tom when he didn’t tell them to stop trashing their sister (his other daughter!) in the press and saying terrible things about Meghan.
Doria should just walk her down the aisle or Meghan can do it herself (and if neither of those are options, it should be Charles).
I actually think your idea is wonderful. My mom passed away last year and my dad is a piece of trash, I would not mind having my finance’s dad walk me down the isle.
@klutzy_girl @Melly it does not have to be a man! if meghan’s father can’t, her mother should. she’s perfectly capable and she raised meghan on her own, she deserves it. we don’t need to find a man from harry’s family to do it, let that moment be about meghan and her family, not throw in charles just so a man is escorting her.
This is actually a PR goldmine for Charles or William — to step up as comforting in-laws. They can easily spin this to make them look like the last-minute heroes.
I want to see papa Charles step in and as someone said in another post look all haughty, dignified and proud escorting Meghan down the aisle.
But the contrast to Thomas was probably be quite hurtful so maybe it’s best that Doria do it. She is the parent Meghan seems closest with.
Yep but really they should let her have her mom do it. Or let Meghan decide. If her mom has some other role maybe Will or Charles could. TBH this is mortifying for her when she should be having fun and relaxing.
Mom could do it, with one of the guys behind her/them. As in —- Since it’s such an overwhelming thing to do, we’ll walk behind as support….
I truly don’t want to see William do it , because the arse-kissing UK Media would only make the day about William saving the day.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Charles ends up walking Meghan down the aisle. It would position him as the loving supportive father-in-law.
I said the same thing on here months ago and everyone thought I was a jerk to imply Thomas Sr. could do anything to stop the other siblings from trashing her. The fact that he even still talks to Samantha after she sold out Meghan tells me he’s enabling that behavior.
For heaven’s sake, this is the 21st century — why are women still being “given away”?! 25 years ago, I walked myself down the aisle because my father was deceased. I was a 30-something woman with a career. The idea that I needed someone else to walk me down the aisle never entered my mind. Yes, had Dad been alive I would asked him to escort me, but I loved and admired him greatly and would have done that for him more than for myself.
If Meghan had decided at the outset to walk down the aisle unescorted, it would have looked very modern and would have eliminated the possibility of loose-cannon-dad screwing things up. In that case, her dad’s no-show at the wedding would have been a relatively minor deal.
At this point, I say she and Harry should walk down the aisle together. They’ve been living together, so why not do this together, too. If she walks alone, it draws attention to absent-dad, if she has a member of the groom’s family do it…well, that doesn’t make sense to me. If someone must do it, it should be her mother, I suppose.
Yeah, I really hate that this is a big deal, she’s a grown-ass woman who has been supporting herself for years, she can walk herself down the aisle. She’s not owned by anyone to be given away.
Or better yet, why not have Meghan stand at the end and have the Queen walk Harry down the aisle and give him away?
I would honestly much rather have somebody walk me down the aisle. Not to ‘give me away’ but out of nerves. Walking down that long ass aisle with 600 people watching me and TV cameras on me. So maybe that’s why. Maybe it’s nervewracking and she wanted somebody to hold to as she walked. Maybe it’s not always about ‘giving away’ but about comfort. I know, crazy concept that nobody ever seems to think about.
>>Doria should just walk her down the aisle or Meghan can do it herself (and if neither of those are options, it should be Charles).
Uh, yuk. Please, Meghan, please don’t go anywhere near Door #3. What a horrific thought – the man walking the bride down the aisle is also the groom’s father. Ugh.
@lsb SERIOUSLY! i don’t find the idea of charles doing it sweet. let meghan’s mom do it so at least that one moment is about meghan’s family. this whole entire wedding is all about the BRF and going by their ways, we don’t need charles escorting her down the aisle because tradition mandates a man must do it. let doria have that moment.
If Meghan isn’t responsible for her father, how can you blame her father for not stopping his adult children? It either is or isn’t the responsibility of adults to behave themselves.
I hope this helps to endear her to the royal family and they all support and love her instead of using this against her and judging her for something that she has no control over.
Haven’t several of the “Estranged”, who aren’t invited to the wedding, arrived in London? Saw that on the Yahoo news this morning. Delightful.
They are “commentators” on a British TV show, I hear. Yes, the family is low class, but she didn’t know this? She didn’t share her concerns with whoever at the “palace”, so they could get ahead of this?
I don’t know, something is just not right here…this is beyond sour grapes family members.
Harry knew. He said point-blank that with the royals she was getting the family she never had. The press and Samantha Markle went off on him for saying it, but he never took the statement back, and has now proven to be right.
So yeah, she knew and she told Harry, clearly. But she is a daughter who clearly does love her father, and likely hoped he would be responsible or something at least for once. Just a weakspot/blindness wrt her dad on that point.
Her estranged family is garbage. It’s not on Meghan to make sure they behave. That being said, I think the situation could have been handled better – her best bet would have just been to pay them all to go away. Her mother seems to be the only decent one in the bunch. #TeamDoria
This isn’t on Jason. Dad thought he’d make some dough and it blew up on him. I’m sorry for Meghan though. Cringe-worthy family. Oh well. She will hopefully shake it off.
It’s stinks that her terrible family is really enforcing that “rude, ugly American” stereotype!
Don’t worry the rude ugly American stereotype is fully covered by Trump.
Ugh!!! Soooooo true. 🙁
IKR! But on the bright side, after contemplating the s***show of the the Markles, the Queen will be fully prepared for Trump’s visit.
Oh, we’re all fully prepared for Trump’s visit. *rubs hands together* *makes protest sign*
Agree. This is so embarrassing.
I’ve been one making the comments about Poor Jason and his sucky PR skills. They knew dear old dad was a wildcard and they didn’t figure that in to their pre wedding rollout. Someone should have been assigned to sit on him. I don’t think they could have done anything about the half siblings.
But, to be clear, it’s Thomas Markle who holds the blame for this current mess. He owns it. And he will pay by forfeiting his relationship with Meghan and future grandkids.
But I bet KP heads will roll post wedding. PR departments don’t survive bring caught flat footed. And Charles will be leading the charge.
Man, KP is currently staffed by numptys.
Who didn’t see this coming? For WEEKS gossipy gossipers have been saying these photos are staged…how the F did KP not have a contingency plans for if/when this came out.
I think Jason is so weak, not because of the current situation, but just how I’ve seen him roll over in the past few years and let William do as he pleases.
I agree with whoever said Charles will probably take reins over PR department for Harry and Meghan.
Jason is sort of weak
She should publicly denounce the whole lot! Classic family intrusion into a wedding where they should simply be well-behaved guests. It has nothing to do with any of them and they should all stfu. At least her mom will keep it classy. Could she walk her down the aisle?
I think she and her mom have been trying to keep it classy by keeping their mouths shut and not engaging the Markles.
I always SAID Doria should be walking Meghan down the aisle…and I PRAY that she does!!!!
Her mom is apparently not even in England to support her daughter. I’m just a poor plebe but my parents took the week prior to my wedding off to help me and attend to all things wedding. Granted, they have “help”…but you don’t want your mom there, for final fittings? Girls lunch, shopping, gossip, pouring over the gifts, the venue, the church..for crissakes it’s a Royal Wedding! If it were your daughter, could you stay away? Weird, but to each their own, I suppose.
I found that weird as well.
It’s possible that Doria and Meghan did a lot of things together when she was in LA earlier this year. In addition, Doria might not be too keen on hanging around a family who is notorious for being racist. I honestly don’t blame her at all here – and, for all we know, she’s been in constant touch with MM, trying to give her what reassurance she can from where she is.
I agree. My mother is a teacher’s assistant in TX who makes close to nothing in salary and even she came up to NYC a week before my wedding in Fire Island. We helped with lodging and she stayed with us, but my mother, who also walked me down the aisle, was there for me well before the wedding. I get the feeling that M was pushed to invite her father to walk her down the aisle due to tradition. If so, I hope this showed them that no tradition is worth tolerating unnecessary nonsense. So much weirdness all around.
Obviously this seems to be a thing in other families yet I don’t agree with making an individual experience a general rule. I’ve never even heard of parents taking the week before a wedding off or “supporting” brides or grooms. How? Why? What use would she be in England? The RF have all the experience needed to organise the shindig on Sat.
Imagine the headlines: Doria flies out to comfort devastated Meghan! Meghan too much of a sissy to handle her Dad! Harry distances himself! Ugh. No, I think it’s the right play to keep Doria away from this mess. Nonetheless I wish Meghan all the luck in the world with her new life! I like her, I even watched the abysmal Suits because of her. She was surprisingly fresh and lovely on that show.
And Jason will be fine if he is fired. I still think that this job was to pad his resume to get the corporate gig. On that level, he knows those people will actually listen to him. I really don’t think he is horrible at his job, he just has horrible clients ( Bill, Kate and Harry).
You might be right.
I also think the job was to pad resume.
Also just realized that some racists are going to snicker “I told you so”… I really hope they realize race has nothing to do with it! In fact, the people of color in Megan’s family are the ones behaving themselves!!!!
I don’t know-it is the white trash side of her family causing all of this…
I am loving this $hitshow. Sorry, not sorry.
I know, it’s campy as hell. I am so weary of all things “the lovebirds MM and Harry” ……I don’t dislike her, but the adulation on this site is perplexing to me,
I read a very enlightening comment that said the RF did not want to mix their roles into celebrity because then they served no unique purpose. Makes total sense,
And this hot mess is taking them into that territory. It’s fun
But was this a complete blindside, if MM knew her father had a history of not using great judgment and being close to the troublesome half-sister? Disappointing, sure, but likely not a complete surprise.
When people show you who they are, believe them (even if they are immediate family).
I don’t think this is Jason’s fault. Even Olivia Pope couldn’t have predicted the dad’s behaviour. I also think the royal family has dealt with worse, like Diana’s death.
He’s been staging photos for weeks, how could they have not known something was up with this guy? lol. Dopes.
What I mean is that I don’t think they could have predicted he would pull out of the wedding. I actually think the paparazzi stuff would have blown over. Who actually remembers this stuff except for those of us on this forum? Real life people don’t think about who’s staging what or care. Real life people pass over this stuff quickly when it shows up in the news. The problem here is that his refusal to show up at the wedding has thrown a spotlight on the whole thing and what’s going on. Had this been any other guy, he’d probably show up in England, let the UK border agents give him “you should be embarrassed looks”, get a lecture from the Queen, and then show up at the wedding. But not this guy. Now everyone is going, “OMG, how could her father not show up????” I Know that’s what I’m asking.
If someone had told me that a royal bride’s father would refuse to show up at his daughter’s wedding, there’s no way I could have pictured it….until now. I wouldn’t expect the communications guy to picture this scenario either. I think generally we tend to expect the best of people’s parents, no matter what kind of dysfunction they come from, especially the parent of someone marrying into the royal family, and his refusal to show up in front of the whole world is not something I would expect any communications director to predict.
Perplexed, I just heard as like the third top story on CNN that Markle’s father is now going to come to the wedding! Her father made is much worse with this on-again, off-again nonsense.
I feel like Meghan should walk down the aisle herself. No one is “giving her away”. I think it would send a great message to have her strut down the aisle all by herself.
LAK, pls your expertise is needed here. You said there are world renowned PR experts at the KP, why were they caught unawares?
Firstly, poor Jason is simply the worst. That’s been evident from the moment he got his job.
That said, Markle snr *should* have called KP because they have clout to pull a story and or access to CH / BP whose publicists (or access to same) are better at managing a story than TMZ which is only interested in ramping UP the scandal instead of shutting it down.
I’m not convinced that sending someone months ago would have prevented the sh*tshow that happened with Thomas Markle. He clearly chose to listen Samantha rather than talk to Meghan. Until this stuff happened, people were relatively sympathetic towards him. So the idea that he needed to improve his image was just stupid and was planted by the other kids. I don’t think he would have cared about what any PR person said. All he had to do was stay quiet, get on a plane, meet the in-laws, and walk down the aisle. And loser couldn’t do that for Meghan.
KP f-ed up, but the Markles ain’t shit and never have been, including her I’m going to call TMZ and not my daughter first about this father. So yeah, I don’t know if this could really have been stopped. Doria seemed to have common sense and loyalty without the extra KP help.
And I don’t know if any amount of talk or whatever for KP would have stopped Samantha on her quest the life of the half-sister she doesn’t think should even exists help. Samantha was even willing to use her father to do it.
And OMG if it takes TMZ saying it for some people to finally get that Samantha and Meghan have ZERO relationship. But then again, I’ve seen people on twitter who actually think that because an 18 year old Samantha played with baby-newborn Meghan that means Sam deserved an invite because that was “helping to raise her”. So some people will be forever hopeless on this I guess.
I don’t know how I feel about the idea of Meghan should have preemptively saying her paternal side of the family are estranged/trash. I don’t think that would have stopped the press from talking to them and creating the beast known as Samantha. And Meghan might have come off looking snobby or something if she had, airing her families dirty laundry herself like that. Frankly, their actions have just shown the world WHY Meghan cut them out of her life IMO.
. . . her father talked to TMZ and not her first. Well, my suspicions about what likely broke up his and Doria’s marriage are just getting more and more confirmed.
This was handled badly by all concerned. Thomas Markle should not have allowed himself to be conned into the staged pap walks. Meghan knows her family and its history. She’s also media savvy and even if she wasn’t there’s plenty of precedent that illustrates how the tabloids dig for every particle of dirt — look at Diana, Fergie, Kate, etc. Meghan does have some sort of relationship with her Father. I don’t pretend to know how close or distant they are, but she should have spoken with him frankly and warned him not to take advice from shady Samantha and avoid getting into bed with the paps at all costs. KP should have made arrangements to get Doria and Thomas Markle over to London — at least a week ago — to get them out of the line of fire.
Instead this happened.
Meghan has Doria there to help her and hopefully walk her down the aisle. But the paps will continue to fan the flames with more stories. Let’s hope Markle, Sr. avoids them like the plague. Welcome to the RF Meghan.
But we don’t know if Meghan did talk to him and he just ignored her advice. She may have and he just acted like a jerk anyway.
We won’t ever know what was said or not said.
It does seem established that Harry has never met the man over almost 2 years. That is odd from any perspective. There has been plenty of time and money to make that happen. So the relationship between Meghan and her dad does not seem to have been close. At least recently.
It’s not her fault, but once the decision was made to include him in the wedding, KP should have been on it.
@Suze
Her father seems like one of those people with a million excuses for everything. It would not surprise if she tried to arrange for her father to travel to Toronto or for her to go to Mexico, and he just kept delaying and making excuses for why a meeting couldn’t happen. I think he just didn’t want to travel to the UK and now he has a reason. He wasn’t mature enough to be honest and tell her he wouldn’t do it and instead created a mess and hurt his daughter more. He didn’t need a handler to tell him stay away from TMZ. He didn’t stay away from the press all this time to make a mistake in the eleventh hour. He went out of his way to be this awful. And while it is not the biggest scandal ever, he proved he is a crap father.
Agree that this is a PR failure and disaster. Heads should roll. How simple would it have been to just have Meghan release a statement that her father and his kids have not been and are not a part of her life. This would have kept him from being invited to the wedding in the first place.
The half-siblings are not part of her life. But Meghan made it clear in the sit-down interview she did after the engagement, that she did have a relationship with her Dad. Before she shut down her social media accounts, there were plenty of photos of Meghan and Thomas Markle, Sr. as well as Father’s Day and Christmas posts as recently as 18 to 24 months ago. While it appears she’s closer to Doria, she did have a relationship with her Dad. But that may be a moot point now.
Didn’t know that. Really does make the whole situation even worse. Ugh.
Poor Meg. I really, really feel for her. Seriously, I want to just invite her for a hen’s night and just let her CHILL. Her family is a HOT hot mess and she must be mortified. (Trust me, I get it – while my immediate family is wonderful, I have cousins and aunts/uncles who are just awful.) Hang in there, Meghan. I promise it’ll get better, especially if you have someone who seems to love you as much as Harry does.
–sincerely,
a Megan who was interested in a British pilot named Harry
What I dont get is: Why wasnt he in the UK way earlier already? He is retired, right? Shouldnt it have been possible ? I doubt money and regulations would have been a problem. They also would have had some time to get to know each other before his daughter married into that family.
It all seems very weird.
Seems like the dad was invited to make the wedding appear as traditional as possible on both sides and so not at all surprised it didn’t work out.
Maybe next time don’t invite the estranged dad for show.
That’s what I thought too. She obviously didn’t mind him not being there the first time around, so why would she be heartbroken the second time?
Maybe he came to the same conclusion.
I know he’s probably a horrible person but a part of me chuckles reading the reactions here, so upset that the free electron couldn’t be neutralized. Yep, even with all the might, money and connections in the world, some people escape your control. Poor babies that discover that they’re not almighty. Sure fire those in charge now, the next ones will be infallible …
Poor Jason is a Crisis manager not a PR man, no? He doesn’t prevent messes he fixes them. So, he has 4 days to fix this mess.
Why should Kensington Palace have to tell Thomas about decorum, he is 72 frigging years old.
What a disgrace of a father, no wonder she was not in a hurry to introduce Prince Harry to him.
I hope she do not give him the ‘Coat of Arms’, the Markles are a classless bunch.
Meghan should keep her head up, her mother who she can always count on, will be there supporting her, just don’t let your low life relatives ruin your wedding.
Maybe the fact that she was “not in a hurry to introduce Prince Harry” is part of the problem? lol. Why bother invite him to walk you down the aisle if you can’t be bothered to introduce him to your fiance?????????? Wowsers.
How do you know she didn’t try? Considering her father’s recent behavior it would not surprise me if she tried to get him to come to Toronto back when she lived there and he is the one that couldn’t be bothered.
I’m wondering how well she explained the estrangement from her family to Harry. “The family she’s never had” suggests to me that she may have merely said they were absent from her life. I wonder if she offered the vivid details that are now on public display.
These “vivid details” probably weren’t obvious before her and Harry’s relationship went public. Before that she was a little known actress on a moderately popular cable show, how was she to know that her family would act this way?
This sh*t-show, while not of KP’s making IS their responsibility. That’s their job. This info should be coming from them, not TMZ and the fact they so obviously haven’t got control over this mess reflects very badly on them. Like it or not Thomas is a major player and to not have him here or at least buttoned up in an NDA is amateurish and the BRF will not be happy with how this is being handled. We saw it yesterday with their archaic paper scrolls with very correct language, EVERYTHING is (or should) be done correctly and in order with nothing left to chance. This is a major mistake, this information could have been handled so much better and the KP PR dept are 99% responsible for the terrible optics that will have Buckingham Palace reeling.
Who else is responsible? Obv Thomas M himself but if the relationship between him and Meghan is so brittle that such a minor thing could blow it up so spectacularly why wasn’t she visiting him? Why has Harry never met him? Yes he’s a grown man but it’s HER wedding and if she wanted him there then she should have made sure he was comfortable with it. She wants him to do her a favour after all, they are both grown ups and she’s incredibly rich with time and resources to spare, the poor guy prob wanted to feel wanted and meeting her fiancé for the first time at the wedding doesn’t seem very respectful or loving from a daughter to her father. There’s no way my Dad would have missed my wedding, the relationship is obv broken and I think TM did the right thing. Harry and Meghan caused this mess by failing to appropriately reach out and KP are just useless. Hopefully lessons will be learned but sadly too late for this particular fiasco.
I agree with all you said except that I would NEVER sign a NDA involving my own daughter! Imagine the Queen asking Carole M to sign one?? Never!
Precisely….the KP PR were caught up in the magic that is Meghan and Harry and did not plan and work for contingency plans and family opening their traps constantly. I am actually surprised that the train ran as long as it has without KP getting ahead of the train wreck. This Jason fellow needs to go, mishandled from the beginning; never should have allowed to get this bad.
Sorry but the PR department isn’t at fault here. PR people aren’t magicians, they need to know a story is about to break to either stop it or spin it into something less harmful. And, in the case of daddy Markle, no one knew what he was going to do aside from him so no, the PR department didn’t screw up.
That being said, it’s quite easy to notice that KP has been constantly blindsided in regards to the whole Markle family debacle and I believe there are two reasons for that. The first is that the Markles are American and tend to express themselves via the internet. While KP has leverage when interacting with the UK media, it has none when dealing with blogs, personal Facebook pages and/or American websites. The second reason is that Meghan probably didn’t tell them everything she knew or suspected about her own family, for fear of looking bad. That’s perfectly understandable (who wants to tell virtual strangers about family feuds and profoundly intimate issues?) and Meghan might have though that, since her family hadn’t embarrassed her when she was a semi-famous actress, they wouldn’t bother her either when she married the 6th in line to the UK throne so there was no need to tell KP’s PR department about the Markles’ feuds and rivalries. That proved to be a mistake.
Rules 1, 2 and 3 or PR: 1) you pay you PR people incredibly well, 2) you make them sign NDAs that would wreck their lives if they violated them and 3) you tell them everything even the worst. Especially the worst. It’s like with a lawyer: they can’t defend you if they have no idea on what front you can be attacked.
I think there is a lot Meghan haven’t told her soon to be husbond yet.
aaaand now Emily Andrews is saying that Dad will be at the wedding.
I’m tapping out lol.
ETA: Sorry, the story is from TMZ, the official mouthpiece for Thomas Markle Sr.
Well, it’s all about Thomas Markle. It’s not like it’s Meghan’s day or anything.
Oof. Poor Meghan.
Indeed!
If they even let him in. After the way he has acted, he’ll be lucky if he is allowed to sit in the church and attend the wedding at all.
Wow, Thomas is just making me angrier by the day. Now he’s telling TMZ he wants to go?
It’s too late for that.
It’s sad for MM, that this is all people will bring up the day of the wedding….will he or won’t he?? My vote is there is NO WAY in hell he can even show up now. He has pissed off too many people.
I actually wonder if the bookies are going to set odds.
I don’t quite believe it… Thomas Markle is now saying he WILL walk Meghan down the aisle….Apparently after Meghan contacted her father and said she wanted him at her wedding, he said he’d come BUT says he doesn’t know whether the doctors will let him come… this done all through the medium of TMZ and not KP…. extraordinary–@byEmilyAndrews
I feel for her dad IF true and who says Thomas didnt contact Meghan first? All we have is media speculation on a frenzyy I wouldnt believe anything till the day if the wedding. I just hope Meghan wll have her dad there if she truly wants him there. But if TMz or any media outlets have been following her dad and he has been truly sent to the hopital he wouldnt even to say anything, I would think they would put two and two together heckI wouldnt put it pass the press to follow him to the hospital given the chance, juat a thought
Her father is an ass. Just like his two older kids. Meghan needs to cut ties and be done with family. The only plus from this is, she is gaining a lot of sympathy from a lot of people. She probably didn’t want it this way but it’s happened. Hopefully she is able to brush it off and stand there Saturday looking amazing and with the man she loves.
this + 1,000,000
Bingo.
The father is retired, so what they should have done is brought him to the UK a couple of months ago, set him up comfortably in a quiet spot, and positioned it as Meghan’s dad getting to spend some quality time with his daughter before she marries and moves permanently across the Pond. That would have given dad a vacation, kept him away from the paparazzi, and made him look like a more involved parent.
We would have gotten regular updates from Samantha Markle. The father won’t cut her off. And Thomas would have been calling the press there too.
I don’t think Jason will be fired. He is an enabler
Where’s Tommy Lascelles when you need him? 😜
He clearly lives in Mexico because his retirement income is limited. I have zero problem with him making money from staged photos. It is not like he sold a tell-all about her. Every celebrity stages photos including the RF.
Am I the only person incredibly worried about the kidnap risk for him in Mexico?? Am freaked out. Is Meghan considering this? Thanks to her he could be in real trouble.
@Svea kidnap risk? how many kidnappings have taken place in the area of mexico he lives in?
Yes, I agree
“Jason should have sent someone to prepare Thomas Markle and Doria for everything.” Yessssss, so much yes. Doria seems pretty savvy but Thomas really struggles. I don’t think Meghan is to be blamed for any of this. We all know that royals and their family, by extension, are subject to media scrutiny, but how would Meghan have anticipated this? KP should have seen this coming, TM could not manage the overwhelming media interest he received.
I’m ASTOUNDED how many people see Meghan as at fault, and feel sorry for her father as a “painfully shy loner thrust against his will” into the spotlight. What BS! Film work is extremely social; on a set, people are all interacting. He’s in his 70’s folks; he’s not dribbling oatmeal down his chin! He told his daughter he wanted to be there, because he AGREED to be there. Then he made some appallingly selfish decisions, like selling his daughter out for money, whining about HIS side of it, and like every other dysfunctional, disappointing parent: HE MADE THE DRAMA ALL ABOUT HIM!! These kind of people can’t empathize for one minute to care how their behavior affects Meghan. IT SHOULDNT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE ABOUT THEM, but it is. . If she hadn’t invited him, you would have called her a heartless bitch, unwilling to give him the time of day. She probably extended forgiveness and hope, to include him; do y’all know that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy’s father got drunk the day of her wedding, and her stepfather Hugh Auchincloss had to walk her down the aisle? A friend of his claimed Jackie had written him a letter full of love and forgiveness. But never did anyone ever suggest it was HER fault for asking him!!!