Kate Hawkesby: Meghan Markle's family is a selfish shambles

The dysfunctional circus that is Meghan Markle's family is consuming the British media.

It appears a train wreck we cannot take our eyes off.

As if the revelations the paparazzi photos of her father were staged wasn't enough, we then had the subsequent fallout of claims he'd had a heart attack, was deeply embarrassed, and would no longer walk his daughter down the aisle.

He unfortunately decided to deliver that piece of news in an interview to tabloid media outlet TMZ.com - instead of to Harry and Meghan themselves, so they had to read about it. Which then prompted another unprecedented press release from Kensington Palace to again urge for privacy and understanding for Markle.

This was about the same time we see pictures of her extended ragtag bunch of misfits she gets to call family (none of whom are invited to the wedding) turning up in London allegedly to do talk shows.

Then the bitter and twisted half sister, Samantha Markle, comes forward and claims the staged papp photos were her idea to reframe their father in a positive light. Massive backfire.

She claims no money changed hands. Cue the paparazzi, who then came on British TV to allege he earned 50,000 pounds from it. Cue more reported heart pains from Thomas Markle.

Then the media breaks the next twist: no sign of a heart attack or any hospital admission for Mr Markle at all. In fact they point to photographs of him at a McDonald's drive through at the time of his alleged heart attack, snapping up a couple of happy meals.

Then Samantha Markle appears again on breakfast TV here, where she's ripped to shreds by Piers Morgan, who calls her a "vulture".

She tries to defend the heart attack-or-was-it-not-a-heart-attack rumour by claiming that sometimes people can have heart pains that feel like a heart attack.

Here's what I think about all this. One, what the hell has the palace been doing in not wrapping up Meghan's parents well in advance and preparing them for the intense media scrutiny and scum they'd be encountering. Why didn't they get her Dad over to London, out of the prying eye of the papps, and stick him somewhere close to the family and keep him safe.

Two, only the most hard-hearted person in the world would not feel sympathy for Meghan Markle at this point. Not having your Dad walk you down the aisle seems a very high price to pay.

Three, dysfunctional families are ones where the worst elements make it all about themselves.

This was supposed to be Meghan's day. All of this serves as a reminder to all of us that no matter how dysfunctional our own families might be, we all look like the Waltons compared to this.

And for all the focus on her flawed family, let's not forget, she's marrying into a royal family not above the fray of dysfunction either.

This has become, for all the wrong reasons, the biggest show in town.

NZ Herald