In December 2023, there was an extremely gauche storyline involving one of the wealthiest men in the UK. Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster. At the time, Hugh was sending out wedding invitations for his June 2024 wedding to Olivia Henson. Curiously, the Times’ royal reporter Roya Nikkhah got several exclusives about how Hugh, a longtime friend of both Prince Harry and Prince William, was snubbing the Sussexes and not inviting them to his wedding. It sounded very much like a Kensington Palace briefing about the Duke of Westminster’s wedding, and it also sounded like William was throwing a very public tantrum over the idea of Hugh even thinking of including the Sussexes. We later heard that Hugh did send an invitation to the Sussexes, but Harry called Hugh and made his apologies, saying that they would not be able to make it. William still ran around for months, gloating that HE was the only brother attending the “wedding of the decade.” (William’s wife did not bother to come.)
So, you get the idea. There’s precedent for Prince William to use the Duke of Westminster – again, one of the richest and most powerful people in the UK – as a tabloid pawn in his violently obsessive and public grudge against Harry. Well, Hugh and Olivia welcomed their first child recently, a daughter they named Cosima. Obviously, there’s a conversation about who will be Cosima’s godfather. Wouldn’t you know, Roya Nikkhah got another exclusive, straight from Kensington Palace.
For many new parents, deciding who to choose as godparents is a minefield. For the Duke of Westminster, one of the closest friends of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex, it is a particularly delicate dilemma.
After his wife Olivia gave birth to their first child, Cosima, last month, Hugh Grosvenor is still considering whether to ask Prince Harry to be a godfather, amid ongoing tensions between the royal and his family. Friends of the couple say they have not yet made a final decision but it is understood Prince William will be a godfather.
Grosvenor — known as Hughie by his friends — is the King’s godson. He has an estimated fortune of more than £9 billion, having inherited 140,000 acres of land in Oxfordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Scotland, as well as 300 acres in Mayfair and Belgravia in central London, from his father.
He is so close to both princes that he is thought to be the only of their friends chosen as a godparent by both — to Prince George, 12, and Prince Archie, six. The Sussexes have not publicly named Archie’s godparents but they also include Tiggy Pettifer (née Legge-Bourke), a former nanny to William and Harry; Mark Dyer, a former equerry to Charles and a close friend of Harry’s; and Charlie van Straubenzee, a friend of the duke’s since school.
After choosing Grosvenor, Harry might hope the gesture would be returned. However, continuing friction with the royal family since the Sussexes’ departure from royal life in 2020, added to the estrangement from William, has affected some of the brothers’ mutual friendships.
The Westminsters’ daughter was born in London on July 27. Both William and Harry have sent their congratulations to the couple, who have not yet set a date for Cosima’s christening.
Selecting both brothers as godfathers to his firstborn would be seen by many in royal circles as an attempt by Grosvenor to thaw the princes’ frosty relationship. It is understood that William, 43, and Harry, 40, have not spoken since the period following Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022.
When baby Cosima was born, I actually looked up the criss-crossed godparent situation, and here’s the rundown: King Charles is Hugh’s godfather, Hugh’s mother Natalia is Prince William’s godmother; the late Princess Diana was godmother to Hugh’s sister, Lady Edwina Grosvenor; Hugh is godfather to both Prince Archie and Prince George. My instinct was that Hugh would actually wait until he and Olivia welcomed a male heir before they asked Prince William to be a godfather. That would just make sense given the family connections, and the symmetry of current/future-king and current/future-Duke of Westminster. But I forgot something very important: Prince William’s insane jealousy and immaturity, and his complete tackiness with turning another man’s wedding AND BABY into stories about how much William hates his brother.
I also wonder why no one is suggesting that the Princess of Wales could be godmother to Cosima. It seems like Kate has never been chosen as godmother to any of the babies born to William’s friends though. It’s weird that no one asks why.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
