Prince Harry avoids ‘awkward’ Meghan Markle, Kate Middleton meeting via wedding snub

Prince Harry received a ‘Save the Date’ card to his best friend’s wedding despite a report he had been left off the guest list.

Prince Harry declined to attend his friend the Duke of Westminster’s wedding to avoid an awkward clash with his brother Prince William and other family members amid their family feud.

According to Page Six, Prince Harry received a “Save the Date” card to the wedding next year — but then called the Duke, Hugh Grosvenor, personally to say it would be best if he and his wife, Meghan Markle, did not attend.

If accepted, the wedding invite would have been the first meeting between Meghan and Catherine, Princess of Wales since the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in September 2022.

Prince Harry declined an invite to the wedding of Hugh Grosvenor and Olivia Henson. Picture: Supplied

Harry’s decision was made before the new tensions with William caused by the publication of controversial author Omid Scobie’s book Endgame last week, which lobbed new bombshells against William and Catherine, including naming her in a Dutch translation as one of two senior royals that allegedly spoke about the skin colour of Harry and Meghan’s son Archie prior to his birth.

Both Harry, 39, and his older brother William, 41, are best friends with Hugh Grosvenor, who is godfather to both their sons, George and Archie.

A storm erupted when the Sunday Times claimed that Grosvenor chose future King William over Harry to attend his wedding to Olivia Henson next summer to avoid a clash among the warring brothers.

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge (R) is best friends with Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster (L) and will be attending his wedding. Picture: Getty Images

The Times also claimed that William is in the running to be Grosvenor’s best man.

But a source clarified to Page Six: “Harry actually got a ‘save the date’ card a few months ago but called Hugh and said it would be too awkward if he and Meghan Markle attended, so he made his apologies and Hugh understood.”

Prince Harry and Hugh Grosvenor (far right) seen on a trip to Africa in 2015. The royal won’t be attending his friend’s wedding. Picture: Care for Wild/Twitter

The wedding will be the society occasion of the year when Grosvenor, 32, one of the richest men and most prominent landowners in Britain, marries Henson, 30, at Chester Cathedral on June 7.

King Charles and Queen Camilla are due to attend - the king was a longtime friend of Grosvenor’s father, Gerald, the previous Duke of Westminster, who died in 2016.

Grosvenor is a godson of Charles, 75, and his mother is a godmother to William.

He inherited his title and control of the Grosvenor Estate, then worth an estimated £9 billion ($A17.23bn), from his father in 2016.

HARRY AND MEGHAN COULD BE STRIPPED OF SUSSEX TITLES

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could be soon stripped of their royal titles under proposed new laws.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex would be referred to as only Mr and Mrs if the legislation proposed this week in UK parliament is passed.

Conservative MP Bob Seely said the decision comes after the release of Omid Scobie’s controversial book Endgame.

Piers Morgan claims King Charles is the senior royal identified in a Dutch version of Scobie’s book, who allegedly discussed the colour of an unborn Prince Archie’s skin colour with Catherine, the Princess of Wales.

What will Harry and Meghan make of this? Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Mr Seely said actions need to be taken following the attempt to use race to smear the Firm, according to the Mail.

“Of all the damaging insults to throw, ‘racism’ is the most poisonous insidious, guaranteed to leave a whiff of stigma and impossible to prove when false,” he said. “It is the catch-all slur of the modern era.”

Mr Seely has previously demanded Harry be stripped of his Duke of Sussex title for “trashing” the royal family.

The MP, a member of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee, wants to adapt laws originally passed in the First World War to strip enemy German nobles of their British titles.

He has applied for his Titles Deprivation 1917 Amendment Bill to be listed on the Commons’ Order Paper. The move would bring back the wartime powers by removing references to “enemies” or “present war”

“I’m not a republican and support the monarchy, but after the latest instalment of the couple’s feud with the rest of the royal family I believe that parliament and the Privy Council should consider a nuclear option,” he said.

Meghan and Harry have stayed quiet following the bombshell royal book Endgame. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for the Invictus Games Foundation

Scobie further deepened the rift between Prince William and Harry after it emerged that the Dutch version of his book brands the heir to the throne “heartless”, according to The Sun.

However, this does not appear in the UK edition of Endgame — just like the two names mentioned about the racist comments.

Harry and Meghan, who quit the firm in 2020, have stayed silent since the shocking claims made in the book came to light last week.

But according to the Telegraph UK, a source close to the family urged them to speak out and defend their relatives.

“For the couple that talked about ‘death by a thousand no comments’, the silence at this point is deafening,” they said.