Prince Harry has been left off the guest list for his cousin Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling’s wedding as the groom’s loyalties are believed to lie with Prince William.
Royal commentator Emily Nash spoke exclusively with Page Six while promoting her upcoming appearance on the Hello! show. Magazine’s “A Right Royal Podcast” next Tuesday.
“I think it comes down to relationships, right?” Nash said. “What we were told was that Peter hadn’t spoken to Harry in a few years, so naturally there was a cooling off, and as a result he wasn’t invited.”
But Mr Nash described Mr Phillips as “very close” to the Prince of Wales.
“(Peter) is very loyal, very protective. He’s been a very good sounding board for his cousin over the years,” Nash said. “So it makes perfect sense that I think if the two Welsh brothers had come there, there would have been a completely different slant to the whole event.”
“And that’s not what you want on what’s supposed to be the happiest day of your life, right?” she added.
Page Six reached out to Prince Harry’s representatives, but did not immediately receive a response.
Nash recalled that Prince Philip, 48, was a “settler” between the Duke of Sussex, 41, and his brother, 43, during Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021.
“Peter was between two brothers who were fighting,” Nash said. “He was kind of put in the middle of them as an older cousin, and that must have been a really difficult moment for him.”
She added: “Of course, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then.”
Nash cited Prince Harry’s revealing memoir Spare and Meghan Markle’s Netflix documentary series, both of which exposed private family tensions, as further reasons for Princess Anne’s rift with her son.
halo! A magazine editor believes it was a “wise” decision to exclude Harry from the wedding.
“If that had been the case, it would have been the absolute focus of Peter and Harriet’s special day. And I think there have been enough distractions from the good things in the royal family over the past year,” Nash said. “Hopefully, someday they can get together and celebrate someone’s happy news for a change.”
Prince William and Duchess Kate are also expected to attend the June 6 wedding, and Nash believes Charles III will also be “in attendance.”
She also hopes the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children will be able to attend, with Phillips’ sister Zara Tindall and her husband Mike clearly in favor.
Harriet’s first marriage, Antonio St John Sperling’s daughter Georgina, is also expected to attend.
“There’s a real family at the heart of it, and then there’s also a blended family. So it really reflects the more modern face of the royal family,” Nash said.
Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice are also expected to attend, marking their first public appearance with members of the royal family since their father, former Prince Andrew, was arrested over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
“It’s going to show them there’s still a place for them in the family,” Nash said of attending the ceremony, warning: “But it’s also important to remember that this is very much a family event.
It’s not official. ”
“So I can’t read too much into these things, but I think it’s going to be interesting to see how they interact with other members of the family,” she said.
As for the chances of Eugenie and Beatrice’s mother, Sarah Ferguson, attending, Nash said: “I think it’s almost zero.”
“I don’t think I’ll see Andrew or Sarah there,” she said. “The last year has been devastating for them both individually and as a former couple.”
