Why DID Carole leave brother Gary’s wife off guest list?
THE guest list included Royals, socialites, TV stars and even a Wimbledon tennis champion – but there was no invitation for the wife of Pippa’s uncle.
Roguish Gary Goldsmith proudly advertised his attendance at the wedding on Twitter, but his 47-year-old spouse Julie-Ann was noticeably absent.
IT recruitment multi-millionaire Gary, 52, arrived with his 15-year-old daughter Tallulah, leaving Julie-Ann at their London home.
Friends said the apparent snub came as a shock – especially as Mr Goldsmith, the younger brother of Pippa’s mother Carole, is back in the fold after a humiliating newspaper sting at his Ibiza villa in 2008.
And since Mr Goldsmith has been married to Julie-Ann for five years, she can’t have been barred by Pippa’s ‘no ring, no bring’ rule.
In a further slight, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Gary and Tallulah were invited only to the ceremony – not the evening party at the Middleton family mansion in Bucklebury.
Instead father and daughter returned to London and went to dinner at celebrity haunt Chiltern Firehouse with Julie-Ann.
Last week The Mail on Sunday revealed that, apart from Gary and Tallulah, no other members of Carole’s extended family were invited. Carole’s aunt Ruth and her husband Ivor Pritchard did not receive an invitation – despite being guests at the Royal Wedding – and her daughter Alison, who is Carole’s only cousin, her ex-husband Robert and their daughters Catherine and Joanne – Carole’s goddaughter – were not on the list.
Meanwhile, former Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and his wife Mirka, who are friends of tennis fan Pippa, were among the first to arrive.
They were closely followed by ITV news anchor Tom Bradby and his wife Claudia, Vogue fashion editor Serena Hood and TV presenter Donna Air, on-off girlfriend of Pippa’s brother James.