How Princess Diana Would Have Helped Meghan Markle After News Father Won't Attend Wedding

As Meghan Markle confirms the news that her father will no longer be attending her wedding to Prince Harry on Saturday, one of Princess Diana's former aides is speaking out about the situation, revealing how Princess Diana would have been able to help the royal couple during this time of crisis.

Via a statement through Kensington Palace, Markle has confirmed that due to his health concerns, her father, Thomas Markle, will no longer be attending the wedding or walking her down the aisle, as was previously stated. The news comes after a tumultuous week of news concerning him after he initially pulled out of the wedding due to a scandal involving staged paparazzi photos. He later changed his mind but was hospitalized and forced to undergo surgery for his heart, following a heart attack a week prior.

Now, a palace source tells People that a decision regarding who will replace him to walk his daughter down the aisle will be made "in due course," though one of Harry's late mother, Princess Diana's, former aides, believes that if she were still alive, the former Princess would have found a way to avoid any scandal regarding Markle's father all week.

In an interview with Page Six, Patrick Jephson, who served as Diana's equerry and private secretary for eight years, told the publication that she would have mostly been concerned with making sure Markle helped Harry through any tough times, as they weathered the scandal together.

"The first thing you need to know is that she was fabulously approachable, warm and emotionally empathetic. And she recognized those strengths only work if you also learn the practical skills to be a perfect, professional princess," he said. "She worked very hard at that. Not least because of her own lineage, which was way more aristocratic than the Windsors. She had a sixth sense about how to make royalty approachable."

"The only thing [Diana] would be concerned with is that Meghan should help Harry carry the burden of public life, help him to be happy and offer unfailing encouragement, support and advice—and know how to take a joke!" He added.

He also added that it is up to Markle and Harry, but especially Markle, to handle things in regards to what comes out about her or her family.

"It bears repeating that Meghan is the age that Diana was when she died," he said. "When you're 36, with one marriage and numerous romances behind you, you're not a beginner, you don't have many excuses left. Therefore, the amount of latitude that the British public will give Meghan and to an extent, Harry, does have its limits."

"Harry and Meghan now hold their own future happiness in their own hands," he added. "They will encounter many media irritation and it will be up to them whether they fulfill the enormous potential for themselves and their children, they cannot blame anybody else."

Markle and Prince Harry are set to wed this Saturday, May 19, at St. George's Chapel in Windsor.