It was the wedding of our now King and Queen, and pictured front and centre, with smiles adorning their youthful faces, were the royal cousins Prince William, Prince Harry, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
The close bond between the giggling and grinning relatives could be clearly captured as they walked alongside one another outside St George’s Chapel, in Windsor, in 2005.
But similar feel-good scenes between the cousins likely won’t be witnessed at the wedding of Princess Anne’s son Peter, 48, to his NHS nurse fiancée Harriet Sperling when they tie the knot at All Saints’ Church in Kemble, Gloucestershire, on June 6.
Instead, the nuptials will lay bare the sad state of relations between the royal cousins who were once so close, having all grown up together.
Prince Harry, who stands closest to Peter in the aforementioned snap from Charles and Camilla’s wedding, is not expected to attend his cousin’s big day next month as the pair have ‘lost touch’.
A friend close to The Princess Royal’s son told HELLO!: ‘Peter and Harry haven’t spoken for several years and have simply lost touch, so he hasn’t been invited.’
‘Peter and Harriet’s wedding is an intimate occasion with their close friends and immediate family around them in the Cotswolds. It’s an area where they grew up and is very special to them both,’ a pal said.
Adding to the sad situation, the groom once discussed how growing up alongside his cousins during family holidays to Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor, ‘was a lot of fun’.
It was the wedding of our now King and Queen in 2005, and pictured front and centre, with smiles adorning their youthful faces, were the royal cousins Prince William, Prince Harry, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie
‘There was a lot of space for kids to run around in, and it wasn’t just us – it was the Waleses, Freddie and Ella Windsor, and the Gloucesters,’ Peter said during an appearance on Good Morning Britain in 2016.
‘So there was quite a gang of us growing up in that age, and it was a lot of fun. We caused quite a bit of mayhem and chaos, but fortunately, I don’t think we broke too much!’
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But the cousins are unlikely to showcase that familiar bond at Peter’s wedding – with further drama surrounding the possible attendance of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
The daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson are expected to join senior royals at the wedding in what will mark their first major public appearance in months.
Beatrice and Eugenie – who is expecting her third child – have kept a notably lower profile following renewed scrutiny surrounding their parents’ links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year.
A source told The Sun: ‘The Royal Family needs good news and nothing unites like a big church wedding. Beatrice is going and Eugenie is in the second trimester of her pregnancy but hopes to attend.
‘The King always wanted both to remain part of the family. He made it clear they are welcome at family events.’
However, while King Charles might be keen to ensure Eugenie and Beatrice are not punished for the sins of their parents, Queen Camilla, The Mail on Sunday has been told, is among those ‘leading the anti-York faction’, closely followed by Prince William.
The Prince of Wales remains furious at the way his uncle’s misdemeanours have cast a shadow across the monarchy he will one day inherit, and concern about the impact the scandal has had on the reputation of the Firm is still high among senior members.
Peter Phillips, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, Zara and Mike Tindall leave after attending the Service of Thanksgiving for the late Queen’s reign at Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022
More recently, Camilla is said to have formed the opinion that Eugenie, who is a director of Mayfair art gallery Hauser & Wirth, and Beatrice should stop using their titles, albeit on a voluntary basis.
Prince William, too, is said to be concerned about his cousins’ links to Epstein, a subject on which both have maintained an uncomfortable silence.
According to the source: ‘William was keen to keep the girls close and not let them be tainted by the sins of their father and the stupidity of both parents, but the Epstein revelations mean he has abandoned that plan.
‘The way he and Kate have pointedly not publicly welcomed the baby news is a sign of how things have changed.’
Royal expert and biographer Phil Dampier said bluntly: ‘Relations between the Yorks and the rest of the royals are at an all-time low.
‘If moves are being made to take Andrew out of the line of succession there must be a possibility that Beatrice and Eugenie, as well as their children, will also be taken out, lancing the boil once and for all.’
A royal insider claimed the Queen and William are pushing Charles for ‘clearer action to distance the institution from the entire York branch of the family’.
Peter Phillips and Harriet Sperling attend the Cheltenham Festival
‘The King is still very fond of Beatrice and Eugenie though,’ the source added.
‘William isn’t as close to Beatrice and Eugenie as Harry is but in the past few years, he has invited Beatrice and Eugenie as well as other cousins to help him and Catherine host one of the Buckingham Palace garden parties.
‘They weren’t there at this year’s one. Only Zara was there out of the cousins. At the moment their presence at any royal event is going to completely overshadow everything.’
Mr Dampier believes the Prince and Princess of Wales, as the future King and Queen, ‘need to separate themselves from any toxic relationships’.
He went on: ‘Kate has not said anything publicly but friends tell me, although she was worried about Andrew’s mental state and future, her attitude has hardened and she fully supports anything William does to distance themselves from them.’
On the day of Peter’s wedding, it appears that it will likely only be Zara, the groom’s beloved sister, and her equally adored husband Mike Tindall, who will bridge the gap between the cousins.
Often seen as the glue that holds the Royal Family together, Princess Anne’s daughter and her former rugby union player spouse are close with William, the heir to the throne, as well as sharing special bonds with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
Indeed, Zara was one of the few who were entrusted with the recent news of Eugenie’s pregnancy and even persuaded her to write to the King prior to the public announcement.
Among those expected to attend Peter’s wedding are King Charles and Queen Camilla, alongside the groom’s mother Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Lawrence, as well as Zara and Mike Tindall.
Also expected at the Gloucestershire ceremony are the Prince and Princess of Wales, as well as Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh and Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.
However, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has reportedly not been invited to the private nuptials as the Firm continues to distance itself from the former prince in the fallout surrounding the long-running scandal linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter, 48, and Harriet, 45, officially announced their engagement in August last year after first being linked in May 2024. In a statement to announce the joyous news, they said both families were ‘delighted’.
The wedding will mark a new chapter for Peter following the breakdown of his marriage to Canadian-born Autumn Kelly.
They married in a lavish 2008 ceremony at St George’s Chapel and later welcomed daughters Savannah, now 15, and Isla, 13, before separating in 2019. Their divorce was finalised in 2021.
Harriet, who has a 13-year-old daughter named Georgina from her first marriage, has quickly become a familiar and warmly received face within royal circles.
Last summer she was seen laughing alongside the King at Royal Ascot after joining members of the Royal Family in the official carriage procession – a strong sign of how accepted she has become within the Firm.
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Earlier this year, the couple appeared happier than ever as they attended the Cheltenham Festival alongside Zara and Mike.
Peter looked visibly smitten as Harriet proudly displayed her engagement ring – a sparkling design said to contain a touching tribute to the late Elizabeth II, having been created by the same jeweller behind the Queen’s iconic 1946 engagement ring.
Harriet herself also boasts wealthy connections, sharing a relation to the Duke of Gloucester through her late father, Rupert Sanders.
Royal biographer Richard Fitzwilliams has suggested the upcoming ceremony will be markedly different from Peter’s first wedding, which reportedly left sections of the Royal Family ‘bewildered’.
Harriet herself has spoken openly about the importance of faith in her life, previously revealing how Christianity helped her through the challenges of single motherhood.
In a previous interview, she revealed that her ‘faith was always in me, but it was kind of dormant’.
She added: ‘Somehow it didn’t seem relevant to my life in London. But the end of a seven-year relationship was the turning point for me. I went to church as I felt there was something missing.’
Writing last year for Christian magazine Woman Alive, Harriet also spoke candidly about the difficulties of raising a child alone while finding comfort in her faith.
According to her professional biography, Harriet lives in Gloucestershire and works as a paediatric nurse specialist for the NHS, where she is described as being ‘passionate about early brain development in babies and seeing children thrive’.
In 2010, she was part of a specialist medical team credited with helping save the life of a critically ill baby struck down by a deadly virus at just three weeks old.
Now, with nearly all senior royals expected to gather in the Cotswolds this summer, Peter and Harriet’s wedding is shaping up to be one of the most significant private Royal Family celebrations of the year.
