Royal wedding: Meghan Markle’s dad, Thomas Markle, to walk her down aisle
IT HAS been revealed that Meghan Markle’s father will walk her down the aisle when she marries Prince Harry. However, she is making one major break with tradition.
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
MEGHAN’s Markle’s father Thomas will walk her down the aisle at her wedding to Prince Harry after flying to London and meeting the Queen.
But Ms Markle will break with tradition and travel to the church with her mother Doria for the ceremony on May 19.
Kensington Palace last night confirmed Ms Markle’s parents, who are divorced, will fly to the UK from America in the week before the wedding to meet members of the royal family including the Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Prince William and his wife Catherine.
The announcements come after weeks of speculation about which members of Ms Markle’s family would be attending the wedding in just two weeks’ time.
“The first thing I would like to share is that Prince Harry and Ms Markle are very much looking forward to welcoming Ms Markle’s parents to Windsor for the wedding,” a palace spokesman said. “Both of the bride’s parents will have important roles in the wedding. On the morning of the wedding, Ms Ragland will travel with Ms Markle by car to Windsor Castle. Mr Markle will walk his daughter down the aisle of St George’s Chapel.
“Ms Markle is delighted to have her parents by her side on this important and happy occasion,” he said.
It was also revealed all three siblings of Prince Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, would attend.
Her sister Lady Jane Fellowes will give a reading, Lady Sarah McCorquodale will attend, as will Diana’s brother Charles, Earl Spencer, who famously attacked the royal family at Diana’s funeral in a speech where he vowed her “real family” would look after William and Harry.
Kensington Palace also revealed that Ms Markle, 36, would not have a maid of honour, and all her bridesmaids would be children.
“Ms Markle has a close knit group of friends and did not want to choose one over the other,” a palace spokesman said.
The spokesman said the group of friends had been supporting the US actress in the lead up to the nuptials.
The palace revealed Ms Markle and her mother would be staying at an undisclosed location the night before the wedding before travelling by car to Windsor Castle on the wedding day.
Ms Markle will then join her bridesmaids and page boys and meet her father at the door of St George’s Chapel for the walk down the aisle.
Prince Harry will have arrived earlier with his best man and brother Prince William, and the pair will greet some of the 200 representatives of their charities, who will be gathered directly outside the church.
Prince Harry has met Ms Markle’s mother and spoken on the phone to her father before but Mr Markle, 73, and Ms Ragland, 61, who divorced when their daughter was six, haven’t met the rest of the royal family before.
Kensington Palace said while William’s wife Catherine would be attending, the couple’s new baby Prince Louis, born on April 23, would not be coming.
The palace said it was hoped that Harry’s grandfather Prince Philip, 96, would also be coming but Buckingham Palace would “provide guidance” closer to the day. He is recovering from hip replacement surgery last month.
Ms Markle and Prince Harry will not be going on a honeymoon immediately and their first engagement as a married couple will be in the week after the wedding.
It was also revealed the pair would spend their wedding night at the 1000 year old Windsor Castle.
Their carriage ride after the wedding service will take about 25 minutes and they will be waved off from the church steps by close members of both families.
The announcement that Mr Markle will be escorting his daughter down the aisle puts to rest rumours that he would not be invited to the wedding at all.
His two children from an earlier marriage Thomas Markle Junior and Samantha Grant have been open critics of their half-sister with Mr Markle Junior this week releasing an open letter calling for Harry to cancel the wedding.
A former Emmy award-winning lighting director, Mr Markle Senior lives a reclusive life in Rosarito, Mexico in a small house on a 40-metre cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Ms Ragland is a yoga teacher turned social worker who still lives in Los Angeles, California where Meghan grew up.
Originally published as Royal wedding: Meghan Markle’s dad, Thomas Markle, to walk her down aisle
Rain to smash entire country
Every Australian state is set to be blasted with rain over the coming week - with some locations forecast to receive up to a month’s worth of rainfall in just a few days.
Judge ‘shot, killed in own chambers by cop’
A county sheriff in Kentucky has been charged with murder after he allegedly shot and killed a district court judge in his chambers.