The first rule of any wedding is: don't upstage the bride. For most people, this amounts to avoiding a dress that might be confused for a bridal gown, but for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor there are other considerations.
As a man who has had to renounce all his titles, including his birthright of Prince, as a result of his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew would be the centre of attention at any public occasion. Even in a country where an embarrassing uncle is a wedding staple, Peter Phillips has wisely decreed that uncle Andrew shall not attend his nuptials.
A friend of the bride and groom-to-be exclusively told HELLO! ahead of the nuptials: "Peter and Harriet's wedding is an intimate occasion with their close friends and immediate family around them in the Cotswolds. It's an area where they grew up and is very special to them both.
"When and whether Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and Sarah Ferguson had been invited, it was probably not deemed appropriate to invite them. It's Peter and Harriet's special day, and clearly their attendance would cause a distraction to the whole day."
Andrew, who denies any wrongdoing, remains under investigation for misconduct in public office since his release from police custody in February, when he became the first British royal to be detained since the reign of George I. (George imprisoned his ex-wife Princess Sophia Dorothea in 1694 until her death.)
Regardless of the outcome of that investigation, Andrew has the worst public approval rating of any British royal since YouGov began its royal polling 15 years ago. His overall positivity rating of 3 per cent did not change after his arrest but the proportion of people holding a "very negative" view of him jumped from 80 to 85 per cent.
© UK Press via Getty ImagesSarah, formerly styled the Duchess of York, would be similarly distracting. Like her husband, she has disappeared from public view after revelations from the "Epstein files" released by the US authorities, including an email in which she described the convicted financier as the "brother I have always wished for". She has not been seen at an event since her granddaughter Athena's christening in December.
© UK Press via Getty ImagesThe attendance of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie is less clear cut. They were notably absent from the royal Easter service at St George's Chapel in Windsor, the royal box at Cheltenham races and the annual garden parties at Buckingham Palace, but a family wedding is a more private and personal affair. The Princesses are not in hiding: both attended Poppy Delevigne's 40th birthday party in early May.
It is not yet clear how Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have been affected by their father's fall from grace. They are relatively unpopular, ranking below only their father and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in polls, but their most recent positivity rating of 37 per cent in January was no worse than when YouGov first measured public opinion about them in 2024. We do not yet know if Andrew's arrest also damaged their reputation because the Princesses were omitted from the most recent survey.
Given Peter's seniority in the royal family – he is 19th in the line of succession – his marriage to Harriet Sperling is the royal wedding of the year. They and those family members who might cause a distraction, will wish to ensure that it is memorable for the right reasons.
