Prince Harry and Prince William Weren’t Each Other’s First Pick for Best Man
Spare‘s filled with revelations from Prince Harry, and a brief chapter on Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal wedding is no exception. In his memoir, the Duke of Sussex claims he wasn’t actually his brother’s best man. Ahead, the now-Prince of Wales best man pick and how Harry reacted.
Prince Harry says the palace named him as Prince William’s best man because of public expectation
Harry claimed in Spare, he wasn’t William’s best man when the now-40-year-old married the Princess of Wales on April 29, 2011. Sure, he might’ve looked the part during the televised ceremony at Westminster Abbey, but in fact, Harry wasn’t the best man.
“The public had been told that I was to be best man, but that was a bare-faced lie,” he wrote in Spare (via Town & Country). “The public expected me to be best man, and thus the Palace saw no choice but to say that I was.”
So when he stood at the altar and whispered to William as Kate walked down the aisle, he wasn’t the best man. Harry explained the decision involved, at least in part, an element of fear.
“In truth, Willy didn’t want me giving a best-man speech,” Harry wrote. “He didn’t think it safe to hand me a live mic and put me in a position to go off script. I might say something wildly inappropriate,” he continued, admitting William “wasn’t wrong.”
Prince William picked 2 friends to be best men at his wedding to Kate Middleton, not Prince Harry
So who did William choose as best man at his wedding? According to Harry, James Meade and Thomas van Straubenzee, two of William’s close friends, were the best men. And, as Harry explained, the palace publicly naming him as best man gave the “innocents” some “cover.”
“The lie gave cover to James and Thomas, two civilians, two innocents,” he wrote. “Had they been outed as Willy’s best men, the rabid press would’ve chased them, tracked them, hacked them, investigated them, ruined their families’ lives.”
“Both chaps were shy, quiet,” he continued. “They couldn’t handle such an onslaught, and shouldn’t be expected to.” Harry went on to say William “explained all this” to him and that he completely “understood.”
“Willy explained all this to me and I didn’t blink,” he recalled. “I understood. We even had a laugh about it, speculating about the inappropriate things I might’ve said in my speech.”
Prince Harry gave a few remarks at William and Kate’s wedding when he introduced the best men
Harry wasn’t totally away from a mic at William and Kate’s wedding. He shared in Spare that he did say a few words when he introduced the best men. Harry, now a father of two, recalled talking about his and William’s childhood in addition to reading notes from letters sent by well-wishers.
Seven years later, when Harry married Meghan Markle in May 2018, he too didn’t pick his brother as best man. In Spare, the 38-year-old wrote he gave the job to his “old mate Charlie.”
