According to an expert, the divide between the Spencers and the Windsors was underscored by the attendance, or lack thereof, at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games service.
Harry warmly embraced his uncle, Earl Spencer, and aunt, Lady Jane Fellowes, at St Paul’s Cathedral before the event commemorating the competition’s 10th anniversary.
Also, in attendance were Princess Diana’s siblings, along with former army officer Mark Dyer, who served as the Duke of Sussex’s mentor following his mother’s tragic death in Paris in 1997.
Among other notable guests were Harry’s cousin Louis Spencer, lawyer David Sherbourne, and the Prime Minister’s wife, Akshata Murty.
Notably absent were senior royals, as they opted to show solidarity for King Charles by attending a Buckingham Palace garden party two miles away instead.
Former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole remarked that it was striking that none of Harry’s immediate royal relatives, including his father and brother William—who had stood by Harry’s side at the inaugural Invictus event in London in 2014—were present at St Paul’s.
He further commented to MailOnline that there had never been much affinity between the Spencers and the Windsors, and this division was starkly evident in the absence of Harry’s “birth family” at the service, while “the entire Royal Family stayed away.”
