Diana’s dance partner Wayne laments royal wedding snub

BALLET star Wayne Sleep,who whisked Princess Diana off her feet at the Royal Opera House in 1985, is clearly rankled by not being invited to the royal wedding.

‘Of course I would love to go,’ he laments. ‘ I was so fond of her but that’s the way it goes. Prince Harry probably doesn’t realise we were friends.’

Just last week Sir Elton John, another close friend of Diana, revealed he had not received an invitation to the royal nuptials.

Sir Elton, 71, who sang at Diana’s funeral in 1997, reportedly cancelled several Las Vegas shows so he could attend Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s nuptials on May 19.

Asked if he would be performing on the day, the Rocket Man said: ‘If they asked me to — but I haven’t been asked to the wedding yet. I would love to be at the wedding to see them because I think they are happy. I know they are so happy.’

Another who has been snubbed is Samantha Grant, Meghan Markle’s estranged half-sister.

Samantha has claimed to have raised Meghan for 12 years in California. However, other sources say they were raised apart. She complained last week; ‘I was the first-born Markle to my father. Excluding the Markles from this wedding would be highly inappropriate.’

At least Sleep, 69, has other plans to preoccupy him. ‘I’m shortly holding a cocktail party for my friend, ballerina Dame Beryl Grey, for receiving one of the highest honours — the Companion of Honour — in the land,’ he tells me at the Terrence Higgins Trust Prudential Auction at Christie’s.

‘She is 91 soon and has not had a celebration to commemorate so I’m doing it at my Chiswick cottage, which used to be Nancy Mitford’s house. It’s so easy to forget these old dames.’ Oh no it isn’t.