Prince Harry will not be attending his cousin Peter Phillips’ wedding to Harriet Sperling on June 6. Prince William will. So will King Charles, who is expected to make an appearance. Kate Middleton will likely be there. The Wales children might attend. Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice are on the list.
Harry is not.
According to royal commentator Emily Nash, speaking to Page Six, the reason is straightforward: Phillips hasn’t spoken to Harry in years. The relationship cooled. The invitation didn’t come.
The family math behind the guest list
Phillips is Princess Anne’s son and the older cousin who famously played peacemaker between Harry and William at Prince Philip’s funeral in 2021. He was physically positioned between the two brothers during the procession, a visual that became one of the defining images of that day.
A lot has changed since then. Harry’s memoir “Spare” landed in 2023. The Netflix docuseries with Meghan Markle aired the year before. Both laid out private family grievances in cinematic detail. Nash said Phillips is “very close” to William, “very loyal,” and has been a “very good sounding board” to the Prince of Wales over the years.
The implication: Phillips picked a side, and it wasn’t Harry’s.
Why leaving Harry off was the smart move
Nash called the decision not to invite Harry a “smart” one. If both brothers had been there, she said, it would have “put a completely different slant on the whole event.” The wedding would have become about the rift, not the marriage.
“That would have become the absolute focal point for Peter and Harriet’s special day,” Nash said, “and there have been enough distractions, I think, from the good things about the royal family over the past year.”
Phillips is marrying Sperling in what Nash described as a “blended” modern family ceremony. Sperling has a daughter, Georgina, from her first marriage. Phillips’ sister Zara Tindall and her husband Mike are expected to attend.
It is, by all accounts, meant to be a family day. Not a spectacle.
The Andrew daughters will be there
Eugenie and Beatrice are expected to attend, marking their first major royal family appearance since their father was arrested over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Nash noted that their presence will “show that there is still a place for them within the family,” but she cautioned against reading too much into it.
“This is very much a family occasion,” she said. “So you can’t read too much into these things, but I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how they interact with other members of the family.”
Sarah Ferguson, the sisters’ mother, is not expected to attend. Nash put the chances at “slim to zero.” Andrew himself is also off the list. “The last year has been catastrophic for them as individuals and as a former couple,” Nash said.
What this says about where Harry stands now
Harry was once close enough to Phillips to be positioned as a buffer at their grandfather’s funeral. Now he doesn’t make the cut for a cousin’s wedding. The narrative around Harry’s departure from royal life has been about his choice to leave, his grievances with the institution, and his desire for independence.
But this is a different data point. This is about whether the family he left behind still considers him part of the inner circle when it comes to private, personal moments. The answer, at least for this wedding, appears to be no.
Nash’s framing suggests the decision was practical, not punitive. But the effect is the same. Harry is on the outside. William is on the inside. And the cousin who once stood between them is now standing with one of them.
The question now is whether this is a one-time decision tied to one wedding, or whether it’s the template for how Harry will be treated at family events going forward.
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