weddings

People think one of the phrases Meghan Markle used to describe her father is 'odd'.

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On Thursday, for the first time since Thomas Markle decided he wasn’t attending his daughter’s wedding (then he was, then he wasn’t again), Meghan Markle spoke about the saga in a carefully worded statement released by Kensington Palace.

The 36-year-old former US actress thanked the public for their understanding of what has been a rather perplexing situation playing out almost entirely in the public eye.

“Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding,” she wrote.

“I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health.”

She continued: “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.”

The official statement came a day after Thomas, a cinematographer, told US tabloid website TMZ he was to undergo heart surgery.

While the statement offered little information that was new, it didn’t stop social media users speculating on the statement’s wording.

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Of course, in the context of the last week – where the relationships between members of Meghan Markle’s family appear fractured to say the least – it would be easy to overanalyse the wording of a statement that could hint to a relationship splintered by the events of the days prior.

But what speculation like that does, is ignore the very foundations, the core value, of the British royal family: restraint.

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While this might be unfamiliar to the many Americans who are now invested in the royal wedding, to the Brits, this is nothing unusual.

Prince Harry – in releasing that groundbreaking statement in 2016 pleading for privacy and disparaging the racist and sexist undertones of coverage of Meghan Markle – may have given the world a false sense of, well, feelings in the beginning of their union. That from here on, perhaps, this is how the royal family would communicate.

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But of course, he was the anomaly, not Meghan.

It’s quintessentially royal to underplay love or anger. Whatever you may think of it, they are – and have always been – firmly grounded in neutrality. Therefore Meghan Markle’s statement says far more about the constraints on and of the royal family than it does about her relationship with her father.

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