First Meghan Markle’s dad, Thomas, was caught on CCTV footage conspiring with a paparazzi photographer to take staged photos of him, which made him decide not to walk his daughter down the aisle for her wedding to Prince Harry.

Now, Markle said that he wants to attend the ceremony this Saturday. But that’s if the doctors sign off on him travelling after he reportedly suffered a heart attack.

All this he told to TMZ, not to Kensington Palace.

Oy vey.

Per a report by The Guardian:

TMZ reported late on Tuesday that [Markle, pictured] would be undergoing surgery on Wednesday, apparently ruling out a trip to Britain. It quoted him saying that doctors would be inserting a stent and clearing a blockage following chest pains and an apparent heart attack.

This must have sent Kensington Palace tail-spinning into chaos. For royal courtiers, it’s the stuff of nightmares, and will long be remembered as the day they lost control of the narrative of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding day, explains The Daily Beast:

The failings of the Kensington Palace press office are often a subject of conversation among the royal press pack, and this occasion was no different.

First, although the palace was in the middle of a huge, international story of interest to people in every time zone, they did not staff up the press office after 6 p.m. local time (1 p.m. in New York)—all press inquiries after office hours were routed to a beleaguered duty press officer’s mobile phone…

The palace had been asked one very simple question: “Is her dad coming?” and answered by saying, “Look, Meghan’s really sad about her dad right now. Stop asking questions please.”

That’s when it all went to hell afterwards.

According to PEOPLE, Markle’s father told TMZ on Monday about pulling out of the wedding to avoid further embarrassing his daughter. This prompted Meghan and husband-to-be Harry to issue a statement that day, calling for “understanding and respect” towards her father and for him to be allowed space.

Markle also revealed that his daughter (pictured with him below) sent him a text saying that she loved him, was concerned about his health, and that she wasn’t angry about the staged photos debacle.

On Tuesday, Papa Markle changed his tune and told the website that although he was suffering from chest pains and checked himself into the hospital, he wants to walk Meghan down the aisle after all.

Happy ever after to the drama? Not so fast.

Father Markle spoke to TMZ again, telling them that he won’t be able to travel to England and attend the wedding because he was undergoing heart surgery on Wednesday morning.

*Throws arms helplessly in the air*

TMZ founder Harvey Levin claims that they didn’t pay Markle money for his cooperation:

We didn’t pay [Markle] anything, he didn’t ask for anything. Sean started texting him and eventually he talked to both of us. He was offered $100,000 [R1,2 million] to do an interview, turned it down.”

Attaboy, Thomas.

Maybe speaking to the gossip site was a way for Markle to get his side of the story out there without having to deal with Kensington Palace, which so far hasn’t done much to protect him from the media since his daughter got engaged to her royal beau.

That’ll give the royal courtiers something to think about over the next few days, if not years.

[sources:guardian&dailybeast&people]