Where are Wills and Kate? Royal no-show at close friend’s big day
WI TH numerous friends of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge packed into historic Temple Church this weekend for the marriage of Olivia Hunt and Nicholas Wilkinson, it felt like a repeat of the Royal Wedding.
There was, however, one couple who were conspicuous by their absence: Prince William and Kate.
Their no- show has set tongues wagging again about the Duchess’s apparent reluctance to attend social events that would once have been certain dates for the couple’s diary.
‘Prince Harry was there, along with most of William and Kate’s friends,’ says one present. ‘Their absence was really striking.’
Willowy Olivia, 33, the sister-in-law of TV adventurer Ben Fogle, was William’s first girlfriend at the University of St Andrews. Their relationship ended after the Prince caught a glimpse of Kate in her famous see-through dress in a catwalk fashion show.
Olivia remained good friends with the couple and she was invited to the Royal Wedding in 2011.
Her 34-year-old groom was named as Britain’s ‘hottest’ barrister by a legal blog in 2014. ‘I’m trying not to be intimidated by having a girlfriend who used to be with Prince William,’ Nick admitted the previous year.
He’s the son of senior judge Dame Heather Hallett, which should have
Lords speaker Frances d’souza has said she will not seek re-election to the £100k-a-year post after reports about her taste for chauffeur-driven trips at taxpayers’ expense. Perhaps she knew there was more bad news to come? Latest details include a £194 car charge helped secure London’s 12th-century Temple Church, built by the Knights Templar, for his wedding and Middle Temple Hall, one of the ancient Inns of Court, for the reception.
Security was in place for royal guests. Tourists and photographers were turned away from entering, apparently at the request of the police. One couple had come from Normandy to visit the church, which featured in Dan Brown’s best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code, and were extremely annoyed not to be let in.
Guests included Prince Harry’s ‘wingman’ and fellow party-lover Tom ‘Skippy’ Inskip and his fiancee, Lara Hughes-Young. Also present were key ‘turnip toffs’ who live near William and Kate in Norfolk, including the Van Cutsem brothers and their wives.
A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s absence. for attending memorial services in Hyde Park and at st Paul’s. Last october her travel for a banquet at Buckingham Palace, one mile from Westminster, cost £226. At least she didn’t bill the public purse to get to shoreditch, where she was sitting for her £12,000 portrait.