Let’s get the facts straight here. DM’s report estimated that the paparazzi made £100,000, and they don’t know if Tom Sr received anything as they clearly stated. So for those that are screaming he made £100k here, let’s stick to the facts and not get the carriage ahead of the horse.
Now onto this matter of Tom Sr. participating in this. I think it showed extremely poor judgement. I wholeheartedly agree with Robert Jobson’s analysis on the matter. What we do know is that Tom Sr has not said much to the media about his daughter that’s not generic. And he has certainly not even shared details about his daughter or her wedding with even relatives as all of them stated he wasn’t invited. And I don’t believe all this meghan was coerced into having her father walk her down the aisle for several reasons. If she didn’t plan for her father to be part of the wedding, the announcement on the engagement would’ve simply been from her mother. Not both of her parents. No one will ask one of their parents to release a statement if they weren’t going to be invited to the wedding. Then there is the fact that Harry asked both of her parents for blessing rather than just Doria. I believe at this point, Harry is fully aware of the less than close relationship between Meghan and some relatives. And while Harry hasn’t met Tom Sr., he has spoken to him multiple times. As for Tom Sr., it’s clear that he’s had to walk a fine line here. And let’s not start the tabloid was reporting this and that. Clearly, BP nor KP is willing or able to force Meghan into inviting people she doesn’t want to as her Markle relatives are just simply not invited. That shows me that the Palace is letting Meghan make the decision regarding her own family.
Looking back to the situation since the engagement has been announced, the way it’s been handled is odd and I think it has to do with her father being able to fly under the radar until one of Meghan’s uncle and Tom Jr sold his location. They clearly were very prepared when it came to Doria and expected the press would show up on her doorstep as they’ve done before. Doria made plans ahead of time to be off from work, and they hired private security that had a letter from KP ready to hand to photographers. However, Tom wasn’t discovered until days later and the world media descended on a small town in Mexico. He wasn’t prepared for that, nor was Meghan or Harry or KP. I think they just figured the interest will burn out in a few days and everyone will move on to Just Meghan and Harry. And they probably told Tom to just ignore them and they will go away. But they obviously didn’t. And I’m trying to think from Tom Sr.’s perspective. If I’m being told by Meghan and KP that the interest will die down and they’ll go away if I don’t say anything, but it doesn’t happen after a few months. And I’ve got this other person on the other side that’s been pestering me for months and now tells me he’ll leave me alone if I pose for a few photos. Who would I believe? And clearly, he was left alone since March until recently when the announcement about him walking Meghan down the aisle came. And if I do think Tom has been the bigger story than Doria for the simple fact that there has been no question about if Doria will be at the wedding. The original story questioning Tom Sr.’s role started about if he would walk her down the aisle due to his reclusiveness and then it just snowballed from there.
Ultimately, the person this hurts the most is Meghan and it happens less than a week before the wedding. And ultimately she’s the one that’s hurt by this the most. As someone that has been a fan of hers from the first season of Suits, this breaks my heart for her. She has done nothing but behave impeccably in representing the BRF. But any sign of mistake would erase a lot of good work and effort. While people will say this isn’t her fault, but I imagine there will be a large portion of the public and UK press that will hold this against her for years to come. After the wedding, people will care about Tom Sr less and less as long as he doesn’t pull this again. However, Meghan will have to face the public and the press as a member of the BRF. This is the price. And I’m sure this is painful for her personally as well. It’s one thing when it’s Tom Jr and Samantha pulling their latest stunts. This has to be gut wrenching after she probably has been concerned for her father’s privacy. As for the wedding, I still think he’ll walk her down the aisle. You don’t bring family discord into the public. Whatever needs to be worked out needs to be done privately at this point. One bad offense isn’t going to erase what her father has meant to her and done for her over the years as she was growing up. This hurts, but everything passes.
I agree with those that said they will have to question if they can trust Tom from now on. I don’t necessarily agree that it would be if he’d sell stories about Meghan, but what I’ve learned about trust as in adulthood is that it’s ultimately if you can trust someone’s judgement. And that is a concern. He obviously made a very bad judgement here. But I’d heisitate to talk about any bad intention simply because he has shown he isn’t willing to go to the bat for Meghan when it comes to his relatives by telling them absolutely nothing. It’s tricky to navigate. My hope is that Tom Sr and Meghan would sit down and have a candid conversation about this and Tom learns that he needs to trust his daughter and what she tells him when it comes to dealing with the press. It might be hard and he’s just going to have to hang on tight. While this is unfortunate, I’d say this is a far cry from the stunts his older children has pulled. While he exercised barn judgement, they are just vindictive in going after Meghan.
I would also caution people that the paparazzi situation in US is very different from UK. The press gets a lot more leeway here in terms taking photos of well known people in their off time. The tabloids just aren’t as vicious here. And I can’t imagine the laws are tougher in Mexico.
As for those that says the Queen should change any plans regarding allowing Tom Sr to be at Windsor Castle. I’m just going to laugh this off. If HMQ can still receive Fergie aftershock was caught flatout selling access to a member of BRF, she’ll be ok when it comes to Tom Markle.
