Prince Harry Skips Peter Phillips’s Wedding Over Privacy Concerns Linked to 2008 Hello! Magazine Coverage

Prince Harry is anticipated to be notably absent from his cousin Peter Phillips’ wedding today.

Despite Harry reportedly having not communicated with Peter for years, insiders suggest that the attendance of his estranged brother, Prince William, and his wife, Kate, at the Cotswolds celebration might have influenced his decision to skip the event.

According to the Daily Mail, the tension between Harry and Princess Anne’s son can be traced back to an incident nearly two decades ago.

The rift began after Peter’s 2008 wedding to Canadian Autumn Kelly, when Harry discovered that Peter had sold exclusive rights to the ceremony to Hello! magazine for a reported £500,000 without informing the family.

This move particularly irked Harry, who had brought his then-girlfriend Chelsy Davy to the wedding, planning to introduce her to Queen Elizabeth for the first time, signaling the seriousness of their relationship.

Although Harry was aware of a photographer capturing moments at the event, he believed the photos, including those with Chelsy and the then Kate Middleton, were meant solely for Peter and Autumn’s personal collection.

He had no idea that they would end up splashed across 100 pages of the glossy celebrity magazine.

It also came at a time when he and his brother had been battling to preserve Chelsy and Kate’s anonymity, complaining that unofficial pictures of them were a violation of their privacy.

Harry was deeply nervous about the meeting with the Queen, admitting afterwards that while he was sure ‘granny would love her’, it was a huge step forwards in their four-year relationship.

Also present – alone – was Kate, who had agreed to attend while William was away in Africa at the wedding of another close friend. She was also meeting the Queen for the first time.

The two young women spent a great deal of time together during the course of the day, even hitting the dancefloor in the evening, where they were pictured throwing their arms in the air in delight.

Peter and Harriet officially announced their engagement in August last year after first being linked in May 2024 (picture from the dress rehearsal) 

Harry loudly complained later that the first he knew of the debacle was when a copy of Hello! was delivered a few days later to Highgrove, his father’s country home, and he saw it on the breakfast table.

Furiously, he tried to call Peter to have it out with him but his phone went straight to voicemail, he later said, as Peter had ‘buggered off on honeymoon’. 

It is not known if the two ever had it out personally, but the deal sparked a massive public outcry about the ‘selling out’ of the royals.

It certainly appears to account for Peter’s decision not to negotiate a deal the second time around for today’s wedding to Harriet Sperling.

The bride-to-be, a single mother and NHS nurse, grinned broadly yesterday as she arrived for the wedding rehearsal in a striped jumper tucked into wide-legged linen trousers and flat espadrilles.

She and Peter were accompanied by her daughter Georgina and his daughters Isla, 14, and Savannah, 15, by former wife Autumn, as well as his sister, Zara Tindall, and other family and friends.