In a long-awaited announcement, Prince Harry and his fiancée, American actress Meghan Markle, have finally come to a decision regarding whether or not to invite Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, to their Royal Wedding.
The royal couple, who will be wed on the grounds of Windsor Castle on May 19th, has announced that they will not invite any elected officials, including Trump and Melania, to their ceremony at St. George’s Chapel.
“It has been decided that an official list of political leaders — both UK and international — is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle’s wedding,” a Kensington Palace spokesman said. “Her Majesty’s Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household.”
According to CNN, “Barack and Michelle Obama, who are close to the couple, will not be attending, although the royal source would not say whether they had been invited.”
It has already been reported that the couple was “strongly advised” to forego an invitation for the Obamas to avoid any diplomatic awkwardness.
“[Harry and Meghan] are real people and they do want to do their own thing, but I think they’ll also be very conscious of the fact that, from a [public relations] point of view, any major mistakes…you could regret that for a very long time,” Duncan Larcombe, a British journalist and biographer of Prince Harry: The Inside Story, said of the potential fallout from an Obama invite.
There will be no official UK or overseas guests at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding. No Theresa May, President Trump or Obamas.
— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) April 10, 2018
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Because world leaders may attend the wedding on their basis of their personal relationships with the royal couple, it is possible that Obama and his wife were indeed invited. It would not be surprising, however, if they turned down the invitation to mitigate any impending ill will– not that they could ever expect the same treatment from the man currently occupying the Oval Office.
Today’s news should not necessarily come as a surprise.
Trump appeared to always have tempered expectations about an invitation prior to this decision. In an interview with Piers Morgan several months ago, he was asked whether he has received an invitation to the wedding at Windsor Castle between Prince Harry and Markle, to which Trump replied simply, “Not that I know of.”
When further pressed, Trump’s only response was, “I want them to be happy. I really want them to be happy. They look like a lovely couple.”
The same sentiment, however, has not been shared by the royal couple.
Markle, for her part, has called the president “divisive” and a “misogynist,” labels that were brought up during the interview. When Morgan shared Markle’s remarks, Trump could only respond, “Well, I still hope they’re happy.”
It’s possible that Trump’s rare curbed language was a testament to his continued hopes of snatching an invitation, although his efforts in that case have proven futile.
In fact, Trump’s relationship with the UK has been especially fraught in recent months. After Trump took to Twitter to retweet a far-right extremist group, a London council passed an official motion to the UK government to revoke its state visit invitation to the “bigoted” U.S. President.
Per The Independent, “A motion passed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich vowed that Donald Trump ‘would not be welcome’ in the area if the engagement goes ahead.”
At least Harry and Markle will know that they won’t have to endure the glaring classlessness of Donald Trump in attendance as they tie the knot, even if the collateral damage was that certain friends will be forced to watch the historic affair from home like the rest of us.
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