Elite group keeps inner secrets
WHILE Diana felt an outsider in the Royal Family and relied on friends to help her as she struggled to fit in, the next generation of Windsors are a close-knit band with a shared desire to live as normal a life as possible.
As well as Harry, William and Catherine can count the princes’ cousin, Zara Tindall, and her husband Mike as good friends, together with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Other friends include Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster; William’s childhood friend William van Cutsem and wife Rosie Ruck Keene; Emilia Jardine-Paterson, one of Catherine’s closest friends from school and Sophie Carter, who she plays tennis with, as well as the couple’s university housemate Oli Baker.
The pair is also good friends with James Meade and his wife Lady Laura Marsham and Thomas van Straubenzee and wife Lady Melissa Percy.
Trustworthy, loyal and private, the Cambridge’s crew helps keep the royal couple out of the limelight — unlike Harry and his racy mates who have been with him through much of his marauding.
His friends include Tom Inskip, whose wedding Harry recently attended in Jamaica with Meghan Markle; Arthur Landon, one of the richest men in the UK, who was also by Harry’s side at the naked Vegas party; Jake Warren and Guy Pelly.
However, with Harry now a new man, it was down to William to hit the headlines recently when he partied a little too enthusiastically on a boys’ ski trip in Switzerland. He was filmed dad dancing and put his hand around the waist of Australian model Sophie Taylor.
Diana, who did a surprise performance on stage with ballet dancer Wayne Sleep in 1985, would most likely forgive his little slip, if not his moves.