According to recent reports, just five senior members of the Royal family have been invited by Prince William and Kate Middleton to today’s christening of Prince George.
The Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex are among those who have been left off the guest list.
Prince William’s cousin Princesses Eugenie, who is in New York, will also miss out, together with the Princess Royal, who is in Canada, and the Countess of Wessex, who is carrying out official duties in Somerset. Zara Phillips, another of Prince William’s cousins, will be attending after she was chosen as a godparent.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s choice of the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace as the venue for the ceremony meant the guest list had to be kept down to fewer than 50 (only 22 guests, according to royal sources), meaning there would not have been room for close friends if the couple’s various aunts, uncles and cousins attended.
The only senior members of the Royal family who will be there, apart from Prince George and his parents, are Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry.
They will be joined by Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, and her siblings Pippa and James.But there will be no “plus ones”, meaning there is no place for Prince Harry’s girlfriend Cressida Bonas or Pippa Middleton’s boyfriend Nico Jackson.
Marcus Setchell, the obstetrician in charge of the delivery of Prince George, is expected to be at the service, together with midwives Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Arona Ahmed and Lisa Greene, who attended to Kate Middleton in the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.
A source close to the Earl of Wessex said he would be busy with “meetings all the way through the day”, while the Duke of York has “a day of official engagements in London”.
The ceremony will arguably be the most private christening of a future king or queen in living memory.
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