Actress Meghan Markle's father will not attend her royal wedding with Prince Harry. The Kensington Palace has said that "this is a deeply personal moment".
A spokesman said that Meghan and Prince Harry "ask for understanding and respect to be extended to Markle in this difficult situation" after a celebrity news website ran an interview with Thomas Markle saying he was pulling out of the Windsor nuptials, reports independent.co.uk.
According to a tmz.com report published on Monday, the actress' father backtracked on plans to be at his daughter's wedding because of allegations that he posed for staged paparazzi photographs of himself recently to make money.
In the interview, he also said that he suffered a heart attack less than a week ago, but checked himself out of the hospital so he could attend the ceremony at Windsor Castle.
Since then, claims were published in the Mail on Sunday that latest paparazzi images of himself were staged by him, in cooperation with a British photographer.
As a result, he has decided not to go to the event so as not to "embarrass" the royal family and Meghan.
He justified his action by saying that paparazzi have "ambushed" him during the past year, capturing him in unflattering situations like "buying beer, looking dishevelled and reclusive".
Meghan's father said he has been offered interviews between $50,000 and $100,000 since the future princess began dating Prince Harry, but he has "turned all of them down".
When he was approached by the paparazzi agency in question who offered him money, he thought "there was no harm" in working with them as it would help him to repair his image, the website said.
