The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will be absent from the Duke of Westminster and Olivia Henson’s wedding on Friday. Among the notable guests attending the ceremony in Chester will be Prince William, who will be taking on the role of usher.

Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, shares a close connection with the royal family, being friends with both the Prince of Wales and Prince Harry. Both royal brothers have even made the Duke of Westminster godfather to their sons, Prince George and Prince Archie.

Despite their close relationship, Prince Harry and Meghan have chosen not to attend the event. One of the reasons could be that the brothers are not on great terms and don’t want to make things complicated for the groom.

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Even if Prince Harry had decided to attend, Meghan would not have travelled to the UK with the Duke, for the same reason she didn’t attend the Invictus Games service in London last month due to the issue surrounding their security.

In a recent episode of HELLO!’s A Right Royal Podcast, The Telegraph’s Royal Editor Hannah Furness talks about why Meghan is unlikely to return to the UK anytime soon.

“There is quite a heavy narrative that Meghan and the children won’t be coming back until they can resolve this security issue to their liking,” she says. “But he [Harry] will certainly be coming and going.” Listen to the full episode here…

LISTEN: The reason why Meghan and her children don’t want to visit the UK just yet

Prince Harry took legal action against the Home Office over the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the country.

His lawyers filed an emotional witness statement to the High Court in December, in which the Duke explained why he and Meghan felt they had to move to the US after stepping back as senior royals in 2020.

The father-of-two wrote: “It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.

“The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US. That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.

“I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”

Relations between Harry and the royal family have become strained in recent years, following explosive claims about Charles, his stepmother Queen Camilla, and the Prince and Princess of Wales in the Sussexes’ Oprah Winfrey interview, their Netflix docuseries and Harry’s memoir, Spare.

It’s hard to imagine a time when the Duchess of Sussex wasn’t making headlines for not only her relationship with Prince Harry, but also her elite fashion and beauty credentials. The super stylish, former Suits star causes sellouts wherever she goes in whatever she wears. The ‘Meghan Effect’ is still in full force and we are here for it!

Back when the stunning American actress was first dating Prince William’s little brother, photographers caught an image of the now mother-of-two doing errands, wearing a beautiful personalised necklace bearing Harry’s initials.

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The asymmetrical letter necklace sold out immediately afterwards and people loved the design. This subtle approach all but confirmed the relationship and the necklace caught everyone’s eye, putting Maya Brenner‘s incredible brand on the map.

It’s been almost 25 years since the brand’s founder & CEO Maya Brenner launched her company. After Meghan was spotted wearing the necklace, it led to major brand expansion and the opening of UK studios in order to cope with UK and mainland Europe orders. Wow!

We sat down with the former social worker who gave us the lowdown on how the royal changed her business.

The Meghan Effect

Maya explained that after Meghan rocked her designs, everything changed. “Meghan wearing our letter necklace had a phenomenal impact on our business, especially since it happened just three weeks before Christmas, our busiest season. The photo of her wearing the necklace went viral almost instantly, leading to an overwhelming surge in orders, enquiries, and global attention. The necklace became the story since it was the confirmation of her and Harry’s relationship, something the public had been eagerly anticipating, further amplifying its popularity.”

Maya had no idea at all that the LA-born beauty was going to wear her jewellery. “We had no prior knowledge that Meghan was going to wear the necklace. Our Asymmetrical Letter Necklace is one of our signature designs, instantly recognizable to our customers. We’ve been crafting this piece since 2007, inspired by the birth of my daughter, making it particularly special to see it gain such attention.”

And it’s not just the initial necklace, Meghan has worn other styles by Maya’s brand, too. “Meghan has also been seen wearing our ‘Crystal Retreat Necklace’. Notably, she wore it during a hike in California over the coronation weekend, which naturally drew significant attention. While some speculated she was sending a message, the reality is that the ‘Crystal Retreat Necklace’ is simply a versatile and cherished piece that feels great to wear on any occasion.”

Maya’s brand has a huge celebrity following, with home-grown talents such as Frankie Bridge and Rita Ora sporting her designs, to Halle Berry and Meghan’s former Suits co-star, Abigail Spencer.

What a customer list!

Friends of Prince Andrew have urged King Charles to drop his “cruel” campaign to force Andrew to vacate his home, Royal Lodge, and reiterated that he has every intention of continuing to live in the vast property—and of leaving it to his children.

The friends have also accused the Palace of having learned nothing from the acrimonious departure of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry from royal life, and of carrying out the same kind of anonymous briefings against Andrew that the Sussexes have complained were conducted against them. One friend argued that the efforts to kick Andrew out of the palatial home, which was previously the residence of Andrew’s famously extravagant grandmother, the Queen Mother, were counterproductive as they had forced the issue of Andrew’s living arrangements back into the public eye when they would otherwise be largely forgotten.

Prince Andrew ‘Ain’t Going Anywhere’ in ‘Siege of Royal Lodge’: Sources

The pushback came days after an extensive report in the London Times detailed how the king was renewing his efforts to kick Andrew out, threatening him with being cut off financially if he did not comply.

According to the paper, Palace insiders have dubbed the affair the Siege of Royal Lodge.

Several outraged friends of Andrew’s spoke to The Daily Beast in the wake of the report.

One said: “Andrew has no intention of moving out, and it’s extraordinary that his brother has chosen to reopen this battle via anonymous briefings to the press. It’s like they [the Palace] have learned nothing from the whole Harry and Meghan debacle. Andrew does not have a huge amount in his life any more, the house is one of the few things keeping him going, and the idea that he is going to throw that away along with his children’s inheritance is just absurd.

“The place is perfectly well maintained and the notion that Andrew is in dire financial straits is not remotely accurate. He still has the support of plenty of friends and has plenty of business interests.”

Another friend said: “He was given the lease on the house on favorable terms by the late queen. He has been living there with his family for the past twenty years. It is his forever home and he won’t be leaving. Charles has more than enough houses to go round, and should drop this distracting argument with his brother. I find it hard to believe many people in the U.K. would give the issue a second thought if Charles’ camp stopped running these cruel eviction plans up the flagpole every few months.”

A friend of Sarah Ferguson’s disputed a suggestion in the report in The Times that she would encourage her ex-husband, whom she still lives with, to “see sense” and acquiesce to the king’s demands.

“Sarah has never sought to rock the boat. She has said very publicly that she is grateful to have been brought back into the family by the late queen and she is of course very grateful that has carried on under Charles. That’s a different thing to selling out her family,” the friend said, “She is fiercely loyal to Andrew.”

Sarah has been diagnosed with both skin and breast cancer in the last 12 months and said this week in a TV interview that she would be “having cancer treatment for the rest of my life.”

Asked if her double cancer diagnosis last year had affected her position, the friend said, “Not really because her position has always been that Royal Lodge is the family home. That hasn’t changed.”

The Times article said that the king would “reconsider the levels of support he is willing to provide” unless Andrew moved out. It claimed the king is supporting Andrew in the “low millions” of pounds per annum.

One source told the paper, “The king’s kindness is not without limit, and there is a very good option for Andrew to move into Frogmore Cottage…which also has the benefit of being within the Windsor Castle security cordon hence reducing the need for alternative round-the-clock security for Royal Lodge.”

The journalist who wrote the story, royal correspondent Kate Mansey, said that she had seen Andrew’s lease at Royal Lodge, which gives Andrew and his heirs the right to live there until June 15, 2078, at an annual rent of £260,000 ($330,000). The lease says Andrew must “repair, renew, uphold, clean and keep in repair and where necessary rebuild” the property.

Mansey described it as Andrew’s “key weapon” and cited a friend of Andrew’s saying, “He ain’t going anywhere.”

The author and historian Andrew Lownie, who is working on a new biography of Andrew, told The Daily Beast: “It’s very clear that Charles is now completely fed up with him and would very much like him to move to Frogmore Cottage, but it all still comes down to the fact that Andrew has the lease. That means there is not much anyone can do. There is evidence that work is going on there, and sure, some of it should have been started last year, but that is hardly going to be grounds to evict him.

“He has plenty of money. He sold his Swiss chalet, he continues to go out to the Middle East for work, and he inherited money from his grandmother. Sarah Ferguson bought a £5m ($6.4m) property in Mayfair in 2022.

“The whole dispute really stems from the fact that that the brothers have never got on, and the households don’t get on either. No-one is coming out of this very well, but if Charles is really serious about getting rid of him, he should stop paying for his security—but the problem there is that Andrew is the one royal who perhaps needs it more than any other.”