Inside royal reception … posh wine gums and ginger jokes!
‘He’s always so hungover’
MOCKING royalty might once have landed you in the Tower – but even Prince Harry was not spared a ribbing at his wedding reception.
The newly married Duke of Sussex was gently teased for his ginger hair, habit of falling off polo ponies and questionable treatment of teddy bears at the celebrity-packed evening event.
Boarding school friend Charlie van Straubenzee referred to Harry, 33, as ‘our strawberry blond prince’ in an after-dinner speech at Frogmore House near Windsor Castle, adding: ‘Let’s face it, Harry’s a ginger.
‘He was in denial for years. When he was young he used to hate other gingers.’ Mr van Straubenzee also took aim at Harry for tumbling off ponies playing polo. According to The Sunday Times, he joked: ‘He’s always so hungover when he plays.’ Mr van Straubenzee recalled first meeting Harry when he was eight years old, with the prince acting as his dormitory monitor at Ludgrove School in Berkshire.
He told the laughing crowd how, instead of comforting him, Harry threw his teddy bear out the window and on to the roof.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, how can you put someone in charge of a dorm when that someone is worse behaved than the whole dorm combined?’ he said. But in an emotional turn, Mr van Straubenzee, 29, also praised Harry for how he coped with the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, just before he turned 13 in 1997.
A guest said he described how proud Harry’s friends were of him and ‘how happy his mother would have been that he has found love with Meghan and how excited she would be to see them starting their lives together as a married couple. Harry was pretty emotional at that point.’
In his speech, best man Prince William is said to have made a risque joke about underwear, while bride Meghan, 36, read out a moving poem dedicated to her husband. After the speeches, guests were also treated to a performance from James Corden dressed as Henry VIII. He is reported to have said: ‘I had no idea what to wear to a royal wedding so I looked it up in the royal etiquette manual and found this outfit. I hope I’ve come in the right gear.’
He later sat down at the piano to perform a song he had written about Harry and Meghan.
Guests also enjoyed an organic dinner menu and wine gums made with 1984 Taylor’s Port from Harry’s christening.
It was also revealed that guests were seated at tables named after words with different British and American pronunciations – such as tomato, basil and oregano.