^^ There has been a lot of OTT speculation in the media about Meghan's father's health and his tendency toward being reclusive. It's no wonder that he prefers his privacy in Mexico, what with the older two whining drama queens he fathered likely having caused other ruckuses and divisiveness in the Markle family over the years.
I agree that Mr. Markle Sr likely remained circumspect as to his plans if he was questioned by those older two children. Plus the tabloid media has been making up a lot of stories and have often given way too much credence and ink to the screeching by Tom, Jr and Samantha (not her actual given name, btw).
Still there has been some legitimate uncertainty regarding whether Mr. Markle Sr would feel up to facing the enormous spotlight, no matter how proud he is of Meghan. I'm not surprised to see the confirmation that he will be there and that he will walk his beloved younger daughter down the aisle on probably the happiest day of her life. But there has been a lot of speculation, apparently some of it bogus and trumped up.
If Mr. Markle did happen to tell his older children (while silently chuckling) that he hadn't received a wedding invitation, that might be true. Since when does a bride send wedding invitations to her own biological parents who raised her? Normally it's the bride's parents who send out the wedding invitations.
In this exceptional instance, it happens to be the groom's father and esteemed grandmother who are hosting and paying for the royally grand ceremony, festive reception, and intimate friends & family after-party. And so the exclusive wedding invitations were extended by The Prince of Wales. Most likely Doria and Tom Sr will be provided with souvenir copies of the invitations, but neither needed an official invitation through the mail.
The recent statement from KP indicates that both of Meghan's parents will arrive in London in the week leading up to the wedding so they can meet with the Queen, Prince Charles, and the rest of Harry's immediate family. I've also read that Meghan will be paying for the honeymoon, which they plan to delay for a week in order to appear at a scheduled public event together.
I knew Meghan would not have her famous friends in her wedding party.
I would never presume to know beforehand exactly what Meghan was or is planning to do. Granted I think it's fair to say that Meghan probably did not contemplate asking Serena Williams nor any of her female actor friends (such as Priyanka Chopra or Abigail Spencer) to be in the royal wedding party. For a normal wedding, she may have thought differently. However, as the KP statement indicated, Meghan has a lot of close girlfriends, and so in this instance she made the decision not to choose between any of them. I agree that for a royal bride, the spotlight should not be distracted by adult female friends. Queen Elizabeth did have a retinue of adult females in her wedding party, but that was in the 1940s, and perhaps they were regarded more as attendants to a future queen rather than spotlight stealers.
In any case, the two most likely candidates who Meghan may have considered selecting as her maid of honor are not well known celebrities (Lindsay Roth and Jessica Mulroney; Jessica is well known in Canada, but she's more famous these days for being Meghan's friend and stylist).
I didn't click on the particular
Daily Fail story speculating about the wedding dress. Most of their tabloid articles are scurrilous clickbait. Not that I don't go there sometimes to look at pictures, or to raise my eyebrows at some of the stuff they try to pass off as truth.
I certainly would watch if I could.
