PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle turned down an invitation to Archie’s best man’s wedding to “avoid overshadowing the day”.
Hugh Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, will marry Olivia Henson, 31, at Chester Cathedral on June 7.
8
8
8
But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not be attending the wedding, which Sunday schedules reported.
The 33-year-old aristocrat and businessman is godfather to Harry’s five-year-old son, Prince Archie.
Their absence from the wedding is supposedly to “avoid real tensions overshadowing the day.”
Reports emerged in December suggesting that Harry and his wife Meghan were not on the guest list for the wedding.
Grosvenor was said to be worried that the rift between Prince William and Harry would overshadow the day.
“It’s incredibly sad that it has come to this,” a friend of the princes previously told the Sunday Times.
“Hugh is one of the few close friends of William and Harry who has maintained strong ties and a line of communication with both of them.
“He wishes they could come together and fix things, but realizes that’s unlikely to happen before the wedding.
“He wanted to avoid anything clouding the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn’t want any embarrassment.”
However, sources close to the Sussexes claim the pair received a “save the date” card but felt attending would be “very awkward”.
The Sun has contacted representatives for the Sussexes for comment.
This comes after it was reported that the Prince of Wales would be the usher at his close friend’s wedding.
William will be among the groom’s guests at the 400-person ceremony.
The Princess of Wales, who is undergoing cancer treatment, is not expected to attend.
The Duke of Westminster is the king’s godson and godfather to William’s son, Prince George.
A timeline of Prince Harry and William’s ‘rivalry’: Brothers ‘at war’
IN 2018, the Sun told how “simmering tension
The first signs of friction emerged after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.
Once she returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a sibling chat.
He knew Harry was already crazy about her, but it was claimed he advised him to take it slow.
The younger prince reportedly didn’t take the advice very well, with a royal source saying he “went crazy.”
Then, in June 2019, Harry and Meghan officially split from the charity they shared with William and Kate.
The Royal Foundation will be split between the Sussexes and the Cambridges, while the couples focus on their own separate charitable efforts.
Prince William and Prince Harry first established the Royal Foundation in 2009, before Kate joined two years later, shortly after their engagement was announced.
The trio often appeared together at events and the Foundation has had huge success with projects such as the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the Heads Together mental health campaign.
The Royal Foundation said the decision was made after completing a review of its structure – but added that the two couples would continue to work together in the future.
Harry and Meg lived near Kate and Wills on the Kensington Palace estate, but moved to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.
The move further fueled rumors of a fallout.
Harry, 39, also hinted in his ITV documentary “Harry and Meghan, An African Journey” that he and his brother had grown apart.
It came after Prince Philip called Meghan “DOW”, after the Duchess of Windsor – the American divorcee who led Edward VIII to abdicate.
And he warned the late queen to be “cautious” with Harry’s then-fiancée, claims a royal author.
Ingrid Seward revealed in new book My Mother And I that Prince Philip felt it was “strange… how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor”.
In 2021, Harry and Meghan gave their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, where Harry accused his father of holding him back financially.
Harry then flew back to the UK to join William in unveiling a statue of his mother, Princess Diana, in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources said William did not want to attend the memorial amid the fallout.
In 2022, shortly before the death of her grandmother, the Queen, sources claimed that Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the siblings.
Last year, Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the ground” during an argument about Meghan.
In his book Spare, Harry said William called Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a fight.
Harry claimed that William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace and…knocking me to the ground.”
He said he was left with a visible injury to his back after the 2019 argument at Nottingham Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he lived at the time.
In January this year, Harry flew to be with Charles following the shock of the monarch’s cancer diagnosis.
Harry flew back to the US the next day – without seeing Wills.
The couple announced their engagement at Eaton Hall in Cheshire in April last year after being together for two years.
The Duke of Westminster topped the Sunday Times under-40 rich list this week, boasting a fortune of £10.1 billion.
He became an instant billionaire when he inherited title and control of the historic Grosvenor Estate at the age of 25, following his father’s death from a heart attack in 2016.
His property company, Grosvenor Group, owns around 300 acres of land in Mayfair and Belgravia, as well as major city center developments such as Liverpool’s ONE shopping centre, and the duke is part of the royal’s inner circle.
8
8
8
8
Britain’s richest men and women under 40
The Rich List of Britain’s richest people was published this weekend.
Every year, Sunday Times Rich List compiler Robert Watts charts the highs and lows of Britons with the biggest bank accounts.
But The Sun has previewed the 40 richest men and women under 40.
The list includes showbiz and sports stars, musicians, independent tycoons and those who have inherited a family fortune.
The top of the Young Rich list is worth more than £10 billion and number 40 is worth £56 million.
See who’s worth what:
- Duke of Westminster £10.127 billion
- Lady Charlotte Wellesley £2.2 billion
- Herman Narula £780 million
- Fawn and India Rose James £750m
- Ben Francis £725 million
- Thomas Hartland-Mackie £684m
- Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham £455 million
- Ayman Rahman and Fateha Begum £404 million
- Sir Lewis Hamilton £350 million
- Ed Sheeran £340 million
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
