Prince William's Key Honor at Wedding Harry Is Missing

Prince William will be an usher at one of the biggest society weddings of the year in Britain—while Prince Harry will not attend.

William and Harry are both friends with Hugh Grosvenor, 33, the Duke of Westminster, who is due to marry Olivia Henson, 31, at Chester Cathedral in Cheshire, northwestern England, on June 7. In fact, Harry is so close that the aristocrat is godfather to Prince Archie, the Duke of Sussex's 5-year-old son.

However, Harry will not make Grosvenor's wedding to avoid the rift between the royal brothers overshadowing the special day, according to U.K. newspaper The Sunday Times.

Guest lists can be awkward at any wedding, but for Grosvenor and Henson, they have the added pressure of high-profile media coverage as they tie the knot, whichever prince should show up.

Ultimately, though, it would appear that the future king will be there, helping to welcome in guests at Chester Cathedral, and the second-born "spare" will miss the happy occasion.

The reception will likely spare no expense as Grosvenor, according to The Sunday Times, has an inherited fortune of around £10 billion [$12.7 billion].

Many still question whether Harry and William will ever patch up their differences after the Duke of Sussex told Anderson Cooper during a 60 Minutes interview they no longer talk: "Currently, no. But I look forward to us being able to find peace."

Among the points of conflict is Harry's book Spare. In the memoir, the Duke of Sussex described William's "familiar scowl, which had always been his default in dealings with me, his alarming baldness, more advanced than my own, his famous resemblance to Mummy which was fading with time, with age."

Asked by Cooper whether the description was cutting, Harry said: "I don't see it as cutting at all. My brother and I love each other. I love him deeply.

"There has been a lot of pain between the two of us, especially the last six years. None of anything that I've written, anything I've included is ever intended to hurt my family," the duke added.

"But it does give a full picture of the situation as we were growing up, and also squashes this idea that somehow my wife was the one that destroyed the relationship between these two brothers."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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