Prince Harry’s “main reason” for skipping a friend’s wedding on the weekend was that “security wasn’t provided for the visit,” a source has claimed.
The Duke of Sussex, 40, finds attending such events in the UK “very challenging,” it is understood. However, Harry was still able to attend the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday for the Court of Appeal hearing into the Home Office’s decision to strip him of taxpayer-funded security when he returns to these shores.
Yet, Harry did not attend Charles Vivian and Saweda Kamara’s big day. Lord Vivian has helped Harry set up several of his charity trips to Africa. When asked why Harry was not there to celebrate the happy day, Lord Vivian said: “I don’t know. He has a lot on.” Since his cryptic response at Chelsea Old Town Hall, an insider said “the main reason” for the duke’s absence was that “security wasn’t provided for the visit, which makes attending events or moving around the UK very challenging”.
But father-of-two Harry went on tour to crime-riddled Colombia last year as well as visiting Nigeria, where the murder rate is ten times that in England.
Among the guests in Chelsea, west London, was the man sometimes known as Harry’s “second father”, Mark Dyer, 59, a former Welsh Guards officer. Dyer introduced Harry to Lord Vivian, who’s a major player in the public relations world and reportedly helped the prince set up several of his charity trips to Africa.
The duke’s absence in Chelsea was particularly notable because he was an usher at Vivian’s first wedding to Elizabeth Wimpress. Lord Vivian’s was not the first wedding of one of the “band of brothers” he missed. In 2023, Harry skipped Jack Mann’s nuptials in Suffolk.
News of Harry skipping the wedding comes as he reportedly made a secret trip to the UK landing just hours before his his father King Charles travelled to Italy for a historic state visit. The Duke of Sussex is said to have landed in London on Sunday – the same weekend as the wedding – with the trip coming ahead of the latest stage of the his legal challenge over the level of security he is given when he is in the UK starting at the Court of Appeal today.
Arriving on Sunday means that Harry’s time in the UK has overlapped with his father, whom he last saw more than a year ago when it was first announced that the monarch had been diagnosed with cancer.
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However, according to The Sun, it is unknown if the pair met up. Harry has been taking legal action against the Home Office over the February 2020 decision of the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (Ravec) that he should receive a different degree of taxpayer-funded protection when in the UK.
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