Meghan & Harry declined invite to Archie’s godfather’s wedding ‘to avoid overshadowing bride & making event too awkward’

PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly declined an invite to Archie’s godfather’s wedding to “avoid overshadowing the day”.

Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, will marry Olivia Henson, 31, at Chester Cathedral on June 7.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly declined an invite to Archie’s godfather’s weddingCredit: Getty

Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, 33, is marrying Olivia Henson next monthCredit: PA

Prince William with General Timothy Granville-Chapman, Hugh Grosvenor and John PeaceCredit: AFP

Hugh and William attend the wedding of Edward van Cutsem and Lady Tamara Grosvenor at Chester Cathedral in 2004Credit: Getty
But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not attend the wedding, the Sunday Times 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 allegedly to “avoid royal tensions overshadowing the day”.

Reports emerged in December suggesting Harry and his wife Meghan were not on the guest list for the wedding.

Grosvenor was said to be concerned that the ongoing rift between Prince William and Harry could overshadow the day.

“It’s incredibly sad it has come to this,” a friend of the princes previously told the Sunday Times.

“Hugh is one of the very few close friends of William and Harry’s who has maintained strong bonds and a line of communication with both.

“He wishes they could put their heads together and patch things up, but realises it’s unlikely to happen before the wedding.

“He wanted to avoid anything overshadowing the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn’t want any awkwardness.”

However sources close to the Sussexes claim the pair did receive a “save the date” card but thought attending would be “too awkward”.

The Sun has contacted representatives of the Sussexes for comment.

It comes after it was reported the Prince of Wales is to be an usher at the wedding of his close friend.

William will be among the groom’s party at the 400-person ceremony.

The Princess of Wales, who is undergoing treatment for cancer, is not expected to attend.

The Duke of Westminster is a godson of the King and godfather to William’s son, Prince George.

A timeline of Prince Harry and William’s ‘feud’: Brothers ‘at war’

IN 2018, the Sun told how “simmering tension

The first hints of friction reportedly came after William was introduced to Meghan when she was staying at Kensington Palace.

Once she’d returned home to Canada, William and Harry sat down for a brother-to-brother chat.

He knew Harry was already head-over-heels for her but it has been claimed he advised him to take it slowly.

The younger prince reportedly didn’t take too kindly to the advice, with one royal source saying he “went mental”.

Then in June 2019 Harry and Meghan officially split off from the charity they shared with William and Kate.

The Royal Foundation will be divided between the Sussexes and Cambridges as the couples focus on their own separate charitable endeavours.

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 would often appear together at events and the Foundation had huge successes with projects like the Invictus Games for injured veterans and the mental health Heads Together campaign.

The Royal Foundation said the decision was made following the conclusion of a review into its structure – but added both couples will continue to work together in the future.

Harry and Meg were living in close proximity to Kate and Wills within the Kensington Palace estate, but they switched to Frogmore Cottage in Windsor before baby Archie was born.

The move further increased rumours 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 the “D.O.W” after the Duchess of Windsor — the American divorcee who led Edward VIII to abdicate.

And he warned the late Queen to be “cautious” of Harry’s then bride-to-be, a royal author claims.

Ingrid Seward revealed in new book My Mother And I that Prince Philip felt it was “uncanny…how much Meghan reminded him of the Duchess of Windsor”.

In 2021, Harry and Meghan give their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey where Harry accused his dad of cutting him off financially.

Harry then jetted back to UK to join William in unveiling a statue to their mother Princess Diana in the grounds of Kensington Palace. But sources claimed William didn’t want to attend the memorial amid their ongoing rift.

In 2022, just before their grandmother the Queen died, sources claimed Kate acts as a “peacemaker” between the brothers.

Last year Harry claimed his brother “knocked him to the floor” during an argument about Meghan.

In his book Spare, Harry said William branded Meghan “rude” and “difficult” during a row.

Harry alleged William “grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and … knocked me to the floor”.

He said he was left with a visible injury to his back following the argument in 2019 at Nottingham Cottage on the grounds of Kensington Palace, where he was living at the time.

In January this year, Harry flew in to be with Charles after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.

Harry flew back to the US the following 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 40 Under 40 Rich List this week, boasting a fortune of £10.1 billion.

He became an instant billionaire when he inherited his title and control of the historic Grosvenor Estate aged 25 following the death of his father from a heart attack in 2016.

His property company, Grosvenor Group, owns about 300 acres of land in Mayfair and Belgravia, as well as major city centre developments such as Liverpool’s ONE shopping centre, and the duke is part of the royal inner circle.