Last December, there was a weeks-long controversy involving billionaire Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, and the Windsor clan. Hugh is engaged and his wedding is scheduled for June 7th. It’s set to be the British society wedding of the year, with a guest-list full of titled nobility, royalty and a who’s who of British society. The Grosvenor family is very rich, very powerful and they stay far away from the British tabloids. The Grosvenors aren’t playing a short-term game of one-upmanship with the royals. So it was definitely weird when Prince William seemingly dragged Hugh’s wedding into his (Will’s) beef with Prince Harry.

Last December, there was suddenly a treasury of well-sourced articles in the Times, Telegraph and Mail about how Hugh Grosvenor had purposefully snubbed the Sussexes and refused to invite them to his wedding because of his loyalty to Huevo and the Windsors. These stories were clearly part of a briefing spree from Kensington Palace, and the whole thing looked tacky and classless on William’s part, to use Hugh’s name and Hugh’s wedding to “snub” Harry. Hilariously, Page Six got an interesting tip that Hugh actually did send the Sussexes an invitation and Harry had already called Hugh and personally apologized for not being able to make it. Which I believe. Now, months later, royal experts are trying to revive the controversy (started by Huevo) and make it sound like the whole thing is… Meghan’s fault.

Prince Harry will not attend the Duke of Westminster’s wedding later this summer because it will be ‘too awkward’ with Prince William, an expert has claimed.

The event, which will take place on 7 June 2024 at Chester Cathedral, will see the marriage between Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson take place. It’s likely to be the event of the summer, with royals such as King Charles, Queen Camilla, the Prince of Wales and the Princess of Wales all invited. However there have long been rumours about whether the Duke of Sussex would be in attendance at the event.

A source previously Page Six that the Duke of Sussex turned down a ‘save the date’ to the Duke of Westminster’s wedding to avoid an ‘awkward’ encounter with the other members of the royal family. Prince Harry was said to have called the Duke himself to apologise for any inconvenience at him having to refuse. At the time, it was said that the Duchess of Sussex was also invited to the wedding but, like her husband, would not attend. In recent weeks, speculation ramped up that Prince Harry could attend the event – with some suggesting the nuptials would see the brothers reunited face-to-face for the first time since Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis. According to Ephraim Hardcastle’s column, published mid-March, a ‘society guessing game’ was taking place over whether Prince Harry will show up at the event.

Now an expert appears to have laid rest to the rumours, saying Prince Harry did, in fact, decline to attend the event. Speaking to The Mirror, royal author Tom Quinn said Harry declined on the grounds that it would just be ‘too awkward’. He said, ‘But there are other reasons – Harry knows he can’t attend without Meghan and Meghan has absolutely insisted she won’t be there.’

He also claimed that Prince William will be in attendance, in large part due to the fact that Hugh is one of Prince George’s godparents.

[From Tatler]

I was actually thinking about Hugh’s wedding in recent weeks because I wondered if anyone would write about the Princess of Wales and whether she would be well enough to attend the June wedding. Considering they’re iffy on Kate’s attendance at Trooping the Colour on June 15, it will be interesting to see if Kate goes. That should be the bigger conversation, not a repeat of William’s unhinged tantrum about a billionaire’s society wedding. As I said, I totally believe Hugh did invite the Sussexes and that Harry politely turned him down. It has nothing to do with Meghan, these people are just grasping for an excuse why Harry isn’t desperate to beg for their approval and socialize with the crème de la crème of Britain’s horse people.

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