Prince William will be there, but not his brother, Harry, at the wedding of the year in British high society. On 7 June, Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, one of the richest men in Great Britain, baptized by Charles when he was still Prince of Wales, and today himself godfather to Princes George and Archie, marries. The duke – with huge real estate properties, a fortune estimated at 10 billion pounds – will marry Olivia Henson, a ‘commoner’ who is two years younger than him, introduced to him by mutual friends in 2021. It will be a ‘green’ wedding, strictly without gifts (seen that the couple certainly doesn’t need money), all the ‘cream’ of the local nobility were invited. Ten years younger than the very reserved heir to the throne, Hugh, seventh Duke of Westminster, belongs by lineage to the inner circle that revolves around the Royal Family. And his family is much richer than the royal family.
Properties in the heart of London (entire blocks of flats in Mayfair, Park Lane, Belgravia), as well as the estate around Eaton Hall, where the wedding will take place; another in Lancashire, one on the Scottish highlands, one in Spain (it seems that the invitations to his hunting trips, to shoot wild boars and partridges, are among the most coveted in noble circles). After university (he also studied Italian as well as agricultural management), Grosvenor (Hughie to his friends) joined the family business, but also worked in a company that recycles used coffee grounds. When his father died prematurely in 2016 from a heart attack, Grosvenor inherited the family fortune while paying minimal inheritance tax, as most of his assets were placed in a trust. The Duke currently divides his time between London and the Cheshire home, Eaton Hall, where the couple will settle once they marry.
Well, at her wedding, only William will be there from the Royal Family: Kate, the Princess of Wales, has not participated in public events since she was diagnosed with cancer; Carlo will be in France in those days, together with his wife Camilla, for the D-Day celebrations. Following the wedding service at Chester Cathedral, guests will enjoy a lavish reception at nearby Eaton Hall. The following day there will be a second, more private reception, again at Eaton Hall for family and close friends. But the Dukes of Sussex will not be there. At first it seemed that they wouldn’t even be invited: an almost rude gesture considering Hughie’s closeness to the royal family. Sources close to the Sussexes later said that they had received a “save the date” card, but that they decided not to attend because it would have been “too embarrassing”. The marriage of Hughie’s sister Lady Tamara – who is married to Edward van Cutsem, a close friend of Prince William – was also accompanied by friction with the royal family. At the time Camilla was not yet married to Charles and the Grosvenors, very faithful to protocol, decided that in the church she would be relegated to a few rows of pews behind the Prince of Wales. Camilla was furious but three months later Carlo announced his official engagement with the woman who had always been at her side, albeit in the shadows.
