Wills is 'drifting away' say friends after the Duke of Cambridge misses another of his close friend's weddings, writes SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE
The Duchess of Cambridge’s absence from a string of social events last year left some friends bemused.
Now they have reason to be even more bewildered, as I hear that Kate and William failed to attend the wedding last weekend of one of the Prince’s closest chums, Oliver Hicks.
Adventurer Olly, 34, tied the knot with Rose Kingscote — who works for Sir Richard Branson’s space programme, Virgin Galactic — at a ceremony in Somerset where the congregation read like a reunion of Royal Wedding guests because so many of William’s closest friends were present.
Princess Charlotte’s godfathers James Meade and Thomas Van Straubenzee helped create a ‘guard of honour’ using rowing oars as the couple left the church in Kingston St Mary.
Absent friends: Pals including Guy Pelly (right) hold up oars for Rose and Olly
I hear that Kate and William failed to attend the wedding last weekend of one of the Prince’s closest chums, Oliver Hicks
‘Court jester’ Guy Pelly and Charlie Morshead, who was once spotted taking Kate to Mahiki nightclub in London’s Mayfair, were among the other royal pals who held up oars.
‘It was a real surprise that William and Kate were not there,’ says one of those present at the ceremony on Saturday.
‘William does seem to be drifting away from his old friends.’
At the age of 23, Olly became the youngest person to row solo from America to Britain in 2005, when he was greeted by William on the quayside at Falmouth, Cornwall.
Solicitor’s son Olly, a former pupil at £37,350-a-year Harrow School, met the Old Etonian Prince through a mutual friend several years earlier.
‘One of my best friends was at Eton,’ Olly said at the time.
‘He is a great friend of Willy’s. We had holidays together, things like that.’ Kate hit the headlines last year when she and William missed the wedding of the Prince’s friends, estate agent Bear Maclean and socialite Daisy Dickson, in Devon.
The hosts on that occasion appeared to have been informed so late that Kate’s name was still on the seating plan at the reception, according to a wedding guest. But William turned up with his sister-in-law, Pippa Middleton. William and Kate attended dozens of weddings in the run-up to their own nuptials in 2011, but Kate went to none in the two years after the ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
Royal watchers noted that William had been to at least five weddings on his own.
A Kensington Palace spokesman declined to comment.
Ex-Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who presented the honour to Daltrey, recalled how the singer was temporarily kicked out of the group after a fracas
Luminaries including Sir Tom Jones paid tribute to Roger Daltrey, the recipient of the Music Industry Trust Award at the Grosvenor House Hotel — except one. Pete Townshend, Daltrey’s compadre in The Who for more than 50 years, was absent from proceedings and failed to supply even a video tribute.
Townshend was ‘unable to attend and his time never aligned with the crew for a message’, say the organisers, despite the award being confirmed five months ago.
Ex-Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, who presented the honour to Daltrey, recalled how the singer was temporarily kicked out of the group after a fracas with drummer Keith Moon. ‘He got fired from The Who for punching someone. For f***’s sake, what’s wrong with that?’
Sad news for Prince Charles as he returns from his tour of the Middle East: his close friend Mark Vestey has died
Sad news for Prince Charles as he returns from his tour of the Middle East: his close friend Mark Vestey has died at the age of 74. Polo-playing Mark, the younger brother of beef baron Lord ‘Spam’ Vestey, was confined to a wheelchair after he suffered a terrible hunting accident in 1984.
Tim Keyte, manager of Cirencester Polo Club, described former chairman Vestey as ‘an incredible man’, adding: ‘He will be sorely missed.’ Mark’s wife, Rosie, was previously a girlfriend of Charles in the Seventies.
Feisty Fiona Shackleton is one of the country’s most formidable divorce lawyers, with former clients including Prince Charles and Sir Paul McCartney. Fortunately, that hasn’t put off potential suitors for her youngest daughter, Lydia, who’s become engaged to bio-fuels broker Charles Woodhouse, 27. ‘Divorce is miserable — I don’t want that for me,’ Shackleton, known as the Steel Magnolia, once said. No doubt she’s preparing an iron-clad pre-nup for Lydia, 29, just in case.
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