In late July, Peter Phillips announced his engagement to Harriet Sperling, his girlfriend of barely more than a year. Peter seems to adore Harriet, and they seem well-matched and age appropriate (he just turned 48, she’s 45). What’s come after their engagement has surprised me: they’ve barely been seen together and they haven’t set a date for their wedding. There were rumors that Peter would invite all of his cousins to his wedding – including Prince Harry – and I kind of wonder if that’s the hold up. Like, people are bitching back and forth about Peter’s potential wedding-guest list. In any case, some random royal commentator now claims that Harriet and Peter are due to have an “all-white wedding.” A weird way to say that the Duchess of Sussex is banned, but sure.
As Princess Anne’s son – Peter Phillips – celebrates his 48th birthday, there is one key question that is bound to be at the forefront of many royal fanatics’ minds. When will he finally wed his NHS fiancée, Harriet Sperling? The couple, who have been dating since May 2024, officially announced their engagement in July – leaving the nation eagerly anticipating when the next royal wedding could be set to take place.
It will not be the first time Peter – nephew of King Charles – has walked down the aisle. In 2008, he said ‘I Do’ to Montreal-born Autumn Kelly in a fairytale ceremony at Windsor’s St George’s Chapel. The couple, who share two children – Savannah, 14, and Isla, 13, separated in 2019, with their divorce finalised in 2021. Now, Peter has found love again with fellow divorcee Harriet, 46, who shares a 13-year-old daughter, Georgina, from her first marriage. She herself boasts wealthy connections, sharing a relation to the Duke of Gloucester through her late father, Rupert Sperling.
How will Peter and Harriet’s big day differ from his previous nuptials and could wedding bells be set to ring before the end of the year? While little is known about the details of their upcoming nuptials, former royal butler Grant Harrold previously told the Daily Mail that he is almost certain the pair will not be restrained by traditional royal protocol.
Acknowledging that times are ‘very different’ now, he said: ‘Historically, yes, royal weddings, if you’re divorced and you got married again, it was always a much more low key affair.’
Yet, while Peter is seemingly unlikely to abide by all of the traditions of the Firm on the big day, Mr Harrold is confident that Peter and Harriet will likely enjoy an ‘all-white wedding.’
He adds: ‘I think he’ll still want to do things even though he’s the divorcee. I still think it will be a full-blown white wedding affair.’
While my “guest list” theory is probably dead-on, now I wonder if Peter and Harriet are being blocked from having a more “royal-style” wedding in Windsor. I’m sure he wants that, to marry at St. George’s Chapel and to throw the royal protocol bullsh-t out the window. But he and Harriet are both divorcées with children from their first marriages. It’s very likely that they’re being told that they need to marry in Scotland and have a quieter, less white-wedding affair. It would explain why they haven’t set the date. After all, royalists still INSIST that Queen Elizabeth II hated Meghan’s guts because Meghan had the nerve to wear white to her second wedding. These people are really clenched about wedding protocols specifically.
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Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images.
