{"id":350247,"date":"2025-08-16T23:08:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350247\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T23:08:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T23:08:20","slug":"can-prince-william-and-harry-both-be-godparents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350247\/","title":{"rendered":"can Prince William and Harry both be godparents?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many new parents, deciding who to choose as godparents is a minefield. For the Duke of Westminster, one of the closest friends of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex, it is a particularly delicate dilemma.<\/p>\n

After his wife Olivia gave birth to their first child, Cosima,<\/a> last month, Hugh Grosvenor is still considering whether to ask Prince Harry to be a godfather, amid ongoing tensions between the royal and his family. Friends of the couple say they have not yet made a final decision but it is understood Prince William will be a godfather.<\/p>\n

Grosvenor \u2014 known as Hughie by his friends \u2014 is the King\u2019s godson. He has an estimated fortune of more than \u00a39 billion<\/a>, having inherited 140,000 acres of land in Oxfordshire, Cheshire, Lancashire and Scotland, as well as 300 acres in Mayfair and Belgravia in central London, from his father.<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

The couple joined William for Aston Villa\u2019s Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain in April<\/p>\n

JEAN CATUFFE\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

He is so close to both princes that he is thought to be the only of their friends chosen as a godparent by both \u2014 to Prince George, 12, and Prince Archie, six.<\/p>\n

The Sussexes have not publicly named Archie\u2019s godparents but they also include Tiggy Pettifer (n\u00e9e Legge-Bourke), a former nanny to William and Harry; Mark Dyer, a former equerry to Charles and a close friend of Harry\u2019s; and Charlie van Straubenzee, a friend of the duke\u2019s since school. <\/p>\n

After choosing Grosvenor, Harry might hope the gesture would be returned. However, continuing friction with the royal family since the Sussexes\u2019 departure from royal life in 2020, added to the estrangement from William, has affected some of the brothers\u2019 mutual friendships.<\/p>\n

Grosvenor, 34, and his wife, 32, were married at Chester Cathedral in June 2024<\/a> in front of a congregation of more than 400. William served as an usher. A lavish reception followed at Eaton Hall, Grosvenor\u2019s 11,000-acre estate in Cheshire. Harry and Meghan were notably absent.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JAMES GLOSSOP<\/p>\n

Before the wedding, The Sunday Times revealed<\/a> that Grosvenor had wanted the Sussexes to attend and planned to invite them but decided against it, conscious that the drama surrounding the couple\u2019s rift with the royal family risked overshadowing the day and causing tension with William.<\/p>\n

At the time, a friend of the brothers said: \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly sad it has come to this. Hugh is one of very few close friends of William and Harry\u2019s who has maintained strong bonds and a line of communication with both. He wishes they could put their heads together and patch things up, but realises it\u2019s unlikely to happen before the wedding.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to avoid anything overshadowing the day, especially for Olivia, and doesn\u2019t want any awkwardness.\u201d <\/p>\n

Sources close to the Sussexes later suggested they had received a \u201csave the date\u201d card but decided against attending, as it would be \u201ctoo awkward\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Kate, William, Harry and Meghan at a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in 2019<\/p>\n

SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE<\/p>\n

The Westminsters\u2019 daughter was born in London on July 27. Both William and Harry have sent their congratulations to the couple, who have not yet set a date for Cosima\u2019s christening.<\/p>\n

Selecting both brothers as godfathers to his firstborn would be seen by many in royal circles as an attempt by Grosvenor to thaw the princes\u2019 frosty relationship. It is understood that William, 43, and Harry, 40, have not spoken since the period following Queen Elizabeth\u2019s death in September 2022.<\/p>\n

Harry has not seen the King, who is still receiving weekly cancer treatment, since February 2024, when he travelled to London from California for a brief meeting at Clarence House after Buckingham Palace announced his diagnosis. Harry is expected to travel to the UK next month to attend the WellChild awards \u2014 the prince is patron of the national charity, which supports seriously ill children.<\/p>\n

It is not known whether he will see his father, who is likely to still be on his annual summer holiday in Scotland.<\/p>\n

Harry has signalled that he is keen to build bridges with the royal family<\/a>. In an interview with the BBC in May, after losing his long-running legal battle with the government over his level of taxpayer-funded security<\/a> in the UK, he said: \u201cThere is no point continuing to fight any more \u2026 Of course, some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book. Of course, they will never forgive lots of things. But I would love a reconciliation \u2026 I don\u2019t know how much longer my father has. He won\u2019t speak to me.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Duke and Duchess of Westminster declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many new parents, deciding who to choose as godparents is a minefield. For the Duke of Westminster,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7721,7719,7718,7720,1281,447,7710,519,7711],"class_list":{"0":"post-350247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-duchess-of-sussex","10":"tag-duke-of-sussex","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-meghan","13":"tag-meghan-markle","14":"tag-prince-harry","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family","17":"tag-uk-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115040964597357009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}