Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Four Cape ladies get Harry nod
Kitty Spencer centre of media focus
FOUR Capetonians have not only cracked the nod to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding today, but they are among the VIP guests.
Harry’s glamorous Capetonian cousins Kitty, 27, and 25-year-old twins Eliza and Amelia Spencer, who all go by the title “Lady”, plus their mom, Victoria Aitken, will be among the 600 wedding guests at Windsor Castle’s St George’s Chapel and the lunch reception in St George’s Hall.
In addition, the family have scored what’s being referred to in the British press as the “golden ticket” to the intimate, all-night after-party at Frogmore House, which will be attended by just 200 guests and hosted by Harry’s father, Prince Charles.
Just days before the nuptials, Kitty became the focus of the media-feeding frenzy, with the UK tabloids dubbing her Harry’s sexiest guest and “Princess Diana’s eye-popping niece”. There’s even been speculation that she will “dare to bare in a jaw-dropping outfit” that will attract “wandering eyes when she takes to her seat”.
The Spencer sisters, whose father is one- time Cape Town resident Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl of Spencer, were a shoo-in for wedding invites. Sources close to Prince Harry have said that he wants to keep his mother’s memory alive by having the entire Spencer clan at his special day.
But few guessed that their mom would crack the nod even though she is no longer a Spencer. A former model, Aitken divorced Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, in 1997 after an eight-year marriage. By then the couple had been living in Cape Town for two years and Victoria decided to continue raising her children, including a son Louis, in Constantia.
Spencer moved back to his ancestral seat, Althorp House, where Princess Di is buried.
During her battle with addiction Victoria met Capetonian Jonathan Aitken in rehab and married him in 2005. They divorced four years later. She lives at Steenberg Estate and blends in with the crowd at the local shopping centre or Constantia Village.
Ever since Amelia escaped assault charges that almost stopped her from attending William and Kate’s wedding in 2011, she and her twin have kept a low profile. But elder sister Kitty is constantly in the media spotlight, especially since her modelling career took off. She is one of the faces of Dolce & Gabbana in their latest spring/ summer campaign.
Despite her international jet-setting, however, Cape Town and her mother are never far from Kitty’s heart according to her Instagram account. When she is not loving mom with old photo album snaps, she’s posting pictures of her frequent visits home, like one January selfie in the Constantia winelands that declared: “I really did grow up in the most beautiful place on Earth.”
Victoria’s presence at today’s nuptials is almost sure to raise eyebrows, not least of all her ex-husband’s, according to insiders citing a cold reception from him at their son Louis’s 21st at Althorp last year.
“Her invite comes straight from Harry’s heart,” said one. “When he stayed with his Aunt Vic during his Cape Town visits, she made an impression on him with her gentleness and down-to-earth values. Harry could drop his guard with her. She provided a sense of normality and a connection to his mother.”
A former army officer and onetime royal wild child, Harry, 33, met his bride-to-be on a blind date in July 2016. After just two dates, he whisked her off to Botswana for a holiday, camping under the stars. – Additional reporting by Reuters