Meghan Markle's father to miss royal wedding

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Meghan Markle confirmed she will walk down the aisle without her father when she weds Prince Harry in a glittering ceremony on Saturday, putting an end to days of speculation that has marred the build-up to Britain's biggest social event of the year.

Outside the ancient walls of Windsor Castle, home to the English royal family for nearly 1,000 years, crowds of well-wishers mingled with tourists and swarms of television crews under swathes of red, white and blue Union flags.

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Harry, Queen Elizabeth's grandson, and US actress Markle, a star of the TV drama "Suits," will tie the knot on Saturday in a royal extravaganza at the castle's 15th-century St George's Chapel.

Markle's father, Thomas, had been due to walk his daughter down the aisle in front of a congregation of senior royals, celebrities, friends of the couple and a TV audience of hundreds of millions.

But the former lighting director for TV soaps and sitcoms gave a series of contradictory statements about whether he would be there, with the Los Angeles-based celebrity website TMZ.com saying he had undergone heart surgery on Wednesday.

"Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding. I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health," Meghan Markle, 36, said in a statement.

"I would like to thank everyone who has offered generous messages of support. Please know how much Harry and I look forward to sharing our special day with you on Saturday."

Meghan Markle confirmed she will walk down the aisle without her father. /VCG Photo

Meghan and Harry were driven to Windsor Castle on Thursday where the Royal Standard was raised, indicating the monarch was also in residence. The couple will stay in separate luxury hotels on the eve of the wedding.

The wedding celebrations, forecast to play out under sunshine and blue skies, will be a sumptuous show of British pageantry that is likely to attract a huge world audience.

Supporters hope the union of one of the most popular royals and a glamorous American actress, a divorcee with a white father and an African-American mother, will reinvigorate the monarchy.

Beside the British royal family, which blends sometimes stuffy European traditions with the global popularity of modern superstars, Markle has brought some Hollywood glamour and a sense of modernity to the House of Windsor.

However, much of the carefully planned and choreographed build-up to the ceremony has been overshadowed by confusion over the attendance of Markle's father, who is divorced from her mother, Doria Ragland, a yoga instructor and social worker.

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TMZ said it had spoken to Markle's father after his surgery and that "he seemed alert and coherent, telling us doctors implanted stents in his blood vessels." It was not known when he would be out of the hospital.

Ragland, who will spend the night before the wedding with her daughter in the five-star Cliveden House hotel and accompany her to the chapel, has arrived in Britain and was due to meet the 92-year-old queen and her husband Prince Philip, 96. Royal commentators have speculated she will now walk her daughter down the aisle instead.

Source(s): Reuters