Duke of Westminster set for huge slight as Prince Harry 'to be the focus of his wedding'
The Duke of Westminster and fiancée Olivia Henson invited Prince Harry to their nuptials at Chester Cathedral but he declined, according to reports.
Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster will likely see all the attention a groom should expect on his wedding day refocussed on Prince Harry, according to a royal commentator.
Grosvenor will be tying the knot with fiancée Olivia Henson at Chester Cathedral today [June 7] after a three-year relationship.
However, the pair can expect their wedding to attract a lot of interest because of the notable absence of the Duke of Sussex. Harry, a long-time friend of Grosvenor, was invited to the ceremony earlier this year but is not expected to attend.
Reports that Prince William, with whom the Duke of Sussex has been embroiled in a bitter feud for years, will be serving as an usher at the ceremony further exacerbated speculation about the upcoming ceremony.
Commentator Charlotte Griffiths argued that Harry might have decided to skip the wedding to avoid stealing the attention, but the spotlight is still very much going to be on him.
Speaking to the Daily Mail's Palace Confidential, Ms Griffiths said: "It's definitely going to be the talk of the wedding, I'm afraid.
"I'm sorry for Olivia, who's getting married, but she's not going to be the number one subject because everyone is talking about why Harry's not going to be there.
"And there's been the usual transatlantic tit-for-tat briefings to magazines, there's been another one in which it was briefed that both Hugh and Harry mutually agreed that Harry wasn't going to attend.
"It sounds a bit like when somebody gets dumped, and they go, 'Well, actually, it was mutual'."
The expert claimed sources behind the scenes had suggested the Duke of Sussex received a "save the date" earlier this year to attend the Duke of Westminster's wedding – only to later be gently pressured into not attending.
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She continued: "But what we've been hearing was that Harry got a save the date and then was encouraged not to accept the invitation by Hugh's associates. There's a lot of hearsay, tit-for-tat and it's just a hot piece of gossip.
"And no one can quite get to the bottom of this because although we're getting briefings from sources close to Harry, nobody's actually said what exactly has happened behind the scenes."
Hugh and Harry have been friends since childhood as the former Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, was himself a close friend of the then-Prince Charles.
Their strong bond was further highlighted when the current Duke of Westminster was reportedly picked to be one of Prince Archie Harrison's godfathers.
